Whether you have a busy 10-month-old who’s on the move, a one-year-old who’s just started walking or a two-year-old fully exploring every crevice of your house, toddler busy boards are a great way to help your child learn through play.
Toddler busy boards incorporate bits and bobs you have lying around the house into one place, ensuring your little one is playing safely and touching household items they think they aren’t allowed to touch. Saves them grabbing for that remote or shoe lying around again, right?
These children's boards are also known as sensory boards, fidget boards, activity boards or as Montessori educational toys, and range for children anywhere between the age of six months to three years old.
Video: How to create your own toddler busy board
To get you started, we’ve got 12 everyday items you can add to a board to create your own today:
Old toys
Whisk
Drawer handles
Bells and rope
Wooden letters of their name
Velcro
Zips
Ribbons
Locks
Light switches
Old clothes
Large beads
Benefits to getting your toddler engaging with a busy board
Toddler busy boards are motor skill activity centers which encourage babies and young toddlers to learn through play with items like zips, handles, wheels, string, latches and much more.
Developing your baby’s gross motor skills is really important and from the moment they hit six to seven months old you may be starting to think about how you can help encourage your child to sit up, crawl and even walk.
Baby busy boards are an extension of treasure baskets
If you’ve gone to antenatal classes, you’ll know that creating treasure baskets for your child is important to help encourage sensory play. Midwives and health visitors can give you lots of advice on where to start, but essentially they are baskets filled with wooden spoons, metal colanders, foil sensory blankets and much more so even when your baby isn’t on the move, they can reach out and start playing with different textures and items.
And if you simply don’t have time to make a busy board for your tot, here are some you can buy:
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1. Melissa & Doug Basic Skills Board
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We love the theme of this board - let your little one choose which sections of the board to play with and develop their fine motor skills.
Review: "A great little latch board. This one has kept my little one entertained non-stop. He is fascinated with locks, keys and doors at the moment and I thought this would be a great addition to his toys, I wasn’t wrong. We don’t leave this out all the time so he doesn’t become fed up with it but he actually requests it. So cute! He loves it! Very well built, nice weight to it. I would highly recommend it."
2. Legler Motor-Activity Board
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This is a great basic version of a busy board. Affordable and durable, it's a classic learning toy that'll endure.
Review: "Good for kids as a puzzle game - my boy loved it."
3. Toddler Busy Board
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This busy board is super lightweight and portable - perfect for long car journeys or taking out and about to fend off tantrums or boredom. Review: "OH MY GOD!! My kids LOVE this. It's amazing, such a great product for them to practice all kinds of skills on. Got it for my 2year old birthday as he loves doing clips and his older sister loves it too."
4. Melissa & Doug Lock and Latch Board Developmental Toy
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This classic wooden board will help your little one develop motor skills as well as recognise different colours, numbers, animals and more.
Review: "18 month old is really enjoying trying to work out the latches on this. It’s well made, works well and is worth the money. Highly recommend."
5. Melissa & Doug Latches Board
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This busy board is great for children aged three and up, and has great potential to help your child develop more complex motor skills and colour recognition.
Review: "Really nice quality and well made - this will last for a while. Because it is well made, I don't feel like I have to worry about buttons or laces coming off. They seem very secure."
6. CubeCoKids Busy Board
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We love the unique design of this busy board, or busy house. This toy has it all - ribbons, switches, texture and sound. It's an all-round great buy. Review: "I purchased this for my grandson’s 1st birthday, and it turned out AMAZING!!! It looked absolutely perfect and he LOVES it!!! Thank you so much!
7. Magic set (6pcs included) of busy cube to toddlers
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These busy cubes are a really cute alternative to the usual shape of a busy board. Reviews say they're great for out and about or for popping in a pram to keep babies occupied.
Review: "Really cool high quality cubes! My baby is 9 months old and we let him play with them while we keep an eye on him. Right now he mostly wants to chew on the pieces, but getting more interested in the smaller details as he gets older. This shipped faster than expected (I received it within just over 2 weeks)."
8. Newest Toddlers Busy Board
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This cute owl design of this board is totally unique and much smaller than most boards available, so it's great for the pram.
9. Montessori busy board
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This compact, stylish busy board would be great for small homes or people who don't like clutter.
Review: "This is such a cute little present. I can’t wait for my daughter to play with it on Christmas - it’s got all the things she loves to play with hoping it will keep her mind busy thank you!!"