Indoor Activity Ideas for 18 m.o. Twins

This just came up on one of my home daycare bulletin boards. Here are a compilation of ideas (some are mine, some are other providers, so there may be repeats).
We dont really have rain days but HOT days that we cant go outside. Like today , 113 Cry so we are having an animal parade. They each get to pick an animal. I print a picture of their animal and they color it then we act like our animals while we are in a parade Laughing march around the house over and over again. I get sick of this activity way before they do. We also do Half Hour Chaos :) where we have the radio on and go nuts with dancing, screaming...anything they want for 30 minutes ( no hitting or hurting others though ) Tongue out They also like to bowl...we have huge bowling pins and balls that were like $15 dollars....best toy to take up time :)

For those quiet days we just build tents in the living room. They will sit under a sheet for hours LOL or movie day is always fun.

The old stand by...arts and crafts, coloring, story time. These really dont hold their attention very long...unless its under a tent made in the livingroom :)

set up an obstacle course

put on some large motor songs, make a CD or tape of them so that the only songs on that CD are action ones. I have one that is wild action and one that is action but not wild.

pull the car out of the garage and let them do ride ons or balls in the garage

if it's rainy but warm, put on rain ponchos and play in the rain

do a parachute activity, you can use a sheet if you don't have a parachute

build forts from blankets and sheets

get out a tunnel and let them go through it

create a ball pit using babyjail gates

have contests to see who can jump, hop, etc. the most/farthest

dance to music, get out the musical instruments and have a parade

I also have them make more messes...play doh, painting more, cooking in the kitchen, rice table, we've blown bubbles in the kitchen and they loved that too! Give them a few cardboard boxes and they're pretty happy!

The best thing for me has been to take a rainy day and rotate the toys. Suddenly everything is new and they're busy playing with everything again.

The Toddler's Activity Book by Trish Kuffner is excellent. I hope it is still in print. I bought mine when my 10 year old was little and am still using it with my 3 year old. I even like it better than the Preschool book that I also own. I found it at Michael's and used the1r 1/2 coupon on it. Most bookstores should also have it.

Additionally I sell Discovery Toys and would love to help you pick out some age appropriate toys that are designed for hours of independent play. You can visit my website at www.discoverytoyslink.com/gsnyder or I would love to come do a party for you and your friends and help you get a bunch of items for free. I am heading to convention later this week where they are releasing 40 new products!
G. ###-###-####

Pudding finger painting on waxed paper or flattened aluminum foil.....Cheerios are great to count or even make a necklace or bracelet out of using a thin shoestring to string them on and see who does the best job or finishes first...(Great for manual deterity...Some easy learning booklets for tracing letters and matching etc...PUZZLES are the best for building brain development! Go to a teacher store....
Cut out names of products from the cardboard boxes and use as flashcards for word recognition...Help the kids write letters to family members by having them dictate to you and you write their words BIG with colorful magic markers...Just use the same color for a whole word...
Have them make WISH BOOKS/Future Books by tearing or cutting out pictures from magazines and pasting in sets of stapled together pages...Later a word or sentence can be written under each picture to give the books continuity and a story line...
Cook together...These early years are a phenomenal learning experience. All you do together will pay off big time in later years and impact their whole lives!
Live well! MOM J

I was just recently looking online with the same question. My daughter is also 18 mos. The problem I've found is that when most people refer to "toddler" activities, they're really thinking 2-3 yrs. old. It's amazing what a difference there is between 18 and 24 mos. It's seems difficult for 18 mo. olds to conceptualize, so a lot of the activities won't make sense to them, nor will they "entertain" for more than 30 seconds.
I did find two cute ideas though. One is just getting stickers and paper and letting them put the stickers all over the paper. Not expensive either. She thought it was pretty funny when I stuck them on her hands and my face too. Another one is get some clear contact paper and confetti (or cut up construction paper). Lay the sticky side up of the contact paper and let them drop little bits of the confetti/const. paper on it. When they're done, take the other contact paper and put it on top. Voila! A piece of artwork for the fridge. Good luck!

I am a sahm to 4 year old twin girls. I would take my girls out. I couldn't stay home much. My girls climbed the walls. I would take them for walks. Long walks.

since you have a lot of space, you might want to consider getting a small climber or slide that they can use for some gross motor activities.
i just wanted to mention that the ideas about finger painting and crafting with food are really great for children who are a little bit older, but for 18 month olds, who are learning to discriminate between food and other things that shouldn't go in their mouths, it isn't a good idea. it's a big no-no in daycare situations.
however, you can make non-edible finger paint very easily. i did it with my 14 mos old. i measured everything, but let him dump the contents in and help stir. he stuck his hands in it and made a mess, but he was so excited to help cook. he stood on a stepstool at the counter, but you could do it on the floor. you do have to cook it, and he didn't help with that. it might be difficult to do with two, but if you can pull it off, it is definitely worth it. when we paint (he also paints with brushes) i tape a shower curtain down to cover the floor. i keep baby wipes next to me in case he decides it would be fun to crawl off or something with paint covered hands. i also put up a babygate at the kitchen so that if he does get away from me, he won't ruin anything upholstered.
you can also set up a simple obstacle course with pillows to walk on, a line to walk, table to crawl under or over, etc. just remember to give them the language to go with their actions. it is a good way to help them understand prepositions and is really fun.

H., I know that you will get many wonderful suggestions, so i will concentrate on the one you may not get. Today parents believe that they have to entertain their children. Everything in moderation and that means you should moderate your time playing with them with helping them learn to play by themselves, allowing them to use their inner resources Help them learn to play by themselves, and since they are twins, with each other. Set them up with several toys between them and monitor them, but don't physically engage with them. let them look at books by themselves, explore toys, explore the house. Think, what would your great grandmother have done with them with all her household chores to do? You may be spending time actually watching them, but at some point they and you will develop to where they can entertain themselves for big chunks of time.