Activity Packs for Toddlers: What to Look For and How to Make One

Quick answer

Check the age warning first: most craft and activity packs contain small parts and are labelled for three and up. For a younger toddler, make your own from pipe cleaners and big beads, pegs, pom-poms with tongs, paper, a glue stick, chunky crayons and stickers, and bring out one item at a time.

Searching for a toddler activity pack turns up a lot of boxes with a small-parts warning on the back. It is worth knowing why before you spend anything: almost every craft kit on the market, ours included, is labelled for children of three and up, because beads, stickers, googly eyes and pom-poms are all choking hazards for anyone still putting things in their mouth.

That does not mean a two-year-old cannot do any of it. It means you choose the contents yourself and stay alongside them, which is exactly what a home-made pack lets you do, usually from things already in the house. Below is what we keep in ours, plus a smaller version that lives in a bag for days out.

1. Build your own activity pack

A shoebox of the six things that cover nine activities out of ten, so there is always something ready when you need twenty minutes.

Best forBeing ready without buying anything new
Age18 months to 4
Time15 minutes to set up, then months of use
Mess levelLow
DifficultyEasy
CostUnder £10, mostly from the cupboard

You will need

A shoebox or lidded tub
Pipe cleaners and large beads
Wooden pegs and a square of cardboard
Pom-poms and child-safe tweezers or tongs
Coloured paper, a glue stick and chunky crayons
Stickers, the currency of the under-fives

How to set it up

Put everything in the box and keep it somewhere you can reach with one hand.
Take out one thing at a time. A box tipped out at once gets ignored; a single pot of pom-poms and a pair of tongs holds attention for twenty minutes.
Rotate what is on top every couple of weeks so the same item feels new again.
Add whatever the season brings: conkers in autumn, shells after a beach trip.

Why it helps

The barrier to activities at home is almost never the child's willingness; it is the ten minutes of hunting for glue while they lose interest. A box that lives in one place removes that, and the six items above between them cover threading, sorting, the pincer grip, colour matching, sticking and mark making.

Safety notes

Beads, pom-poms and small stickers are choking hazards for under-threes and the box should be kept out of reach between sessions. Stay with your child while they play with any of it.

2. The ten-minute rescue pack

A pouch that lives in your bag for restaurants, waiting rooms and train journeys. Nothing in it needs a table, water or a bin.

Best forDays out and unexpected waits
Age18 months to 5
Time10 to 20 minutes at a time
Mess levelLow
DifficultyEasy
CostUnder £5

You will need

A zip pouch or pencil case
A pipe cleaner and a small pot of big beads
A sheet of stickers and a folded piece of paper
Six coloured pegs and a cardboard square with matching coloured lines
Two or three chunky crayons

How to set it up

Pack the pouch once and leave it in the bag rather than making it up each time.
Bring out one item, not the whole pouch, and save the others for when interest fades.
Stickers go on the folded paper rather than the table, the menu or the dog.
Restock it when you get home, while you remember.

Why it helps

These are the same fine motor skills as a craft table activity, just portable: threading, the pincer grip, colour matching and mark making. The difference is that they happen in the gaps in a day rather than needing one to be set aside, and none of them is a screen.

Safety notes

Beads are a choking hazard and pegs can pinch fingers. Keep the pouch with you rather than in the changing bag your child can reach, and stay alongside them while they play.

Monthly Activity Kit box for September's Forest theme: squirrel, mushroom and hedgehog crafts, sensory tray materials, glue and paint

Featured kit

When they turn three

Four themed crafts a month with every material included, planned by an early years professional and delivered free. Skip a month or cancel anytime.

Monthly Activity Kit For Kids · £21.95 ~~£25.95~~

View the kit Browse Activity Kits for 3 to 7 Year Olds

What to check before you buy an activity pack

The age on the box, and whether it carries a not-suitable-under-36-months warning. This is a legal safety marking, not a guess at ability.
Whether everything is included. A pack that assumes you own glue, scissors and card is a shopping list, not a kit.
How many separate activities it holds. One craft is an afternoon; four is a month.
Whether the result is fixed or open-ended. Toddlers rarely want to reproduce the picture on the box, and a pack that only works one way ends in tears.
Who planned it. Activities sequenced by someone who works with this age group tend to pitch the difficulty better than a themed bag of craft supplies.

When your child is ready for a kit

Around three, most children stop mouthing everything and start wanting to make something in particular, and that is the point a bought kit starts to earn its place. Our activity kits are made for three to seven year olds and arrive with four themed crafts and every material included, and our sensory kits start at three as well.

Free activity packs to print at home

If you would rather not buy anything yet, we send a free activity pack every two weeks, themed around the time of year and ready to print. Our activity ideas library is free to browse too, with step-by-step guides and a materials list on every one.

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Frequently asked questions

Are activity packs suitable for toddlers under three?

It depends entirely on what is inside. Most bought activity packs and craft kits, ours included, contain small pieces and carry a warning for children under 36 months, so they are not suitable for toddlers unless an adult stays with them the whole time. A home-made pack is easier to control, because you choose every item: large beads on a pipe cleaner, chunky crayons and big stickers all work well from around 18 months with close supervision.

What should be in a toddler activity pack?

Fewer things than you would expect. Pipe cleaners and big beads, wooden pegs, pom-poms with tongs, coloured paper and a glue stick, chunky crayons and a sheet of stickers cover threading, sorting, the pincer grip, sticking and mark making between them. One item at a time holds attention far longer than a box tipped out at once.

Are activity packs worth buying, or should I make my own?

Make your own if you have the bits and ten minutes to gather them; almost everything a young toddler needs is already in the house. A bought kit earns its money when you want the planning done for you: a theme, activities that build on each other and every material measured out, with no trip to the shop for glue. Our kits start at age three for that reason.