55 father-daughter activities for toddlers that get you moving
They say that dads and their daughters have a special bond. But the reality is that when your daughter is young, it can be quite hard to plan activities to do together compared to when they’re a little bit older (and not quite a teenager!). Between nap schedules, snacktime, potential meltdowns, and specific preferences for some kids, planning ideas for spending time together can be tricky.
Below we’ve put together a long list of father-daughter activities for toddlers that you can do outside, inside, or as a special day out. Best of all, these activities are easy to plan and do, and they get both Dad and daughter moving!
Why father-daughter play matters
Playtime with Dad isn’t just fun but it’s also a critical part of your toddler’s development. Studies suggest that fathers’ play in the early years can positively contribute to children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Further, when dads and kids play with one another, oxytocin—the “bonding hormone”—is released. For toddlers, this creates a powerful sense of security. For dads, it deepens emotional connection and encourages more responsive parenting. (Whereas in moms and their kids, the boost comes from being the one they go to when they are hurt, scared, or need hugs and kisses).
Research also shows that when dads tend to engage in more dynamic, energetic play with their daughters, it helps to significantly improve the physical activity levels of both fathers and their daughters.
Of course, it’s also important for dads to remember that toddler girls love to do active play (with their dads) just as much as their brothers!
Tips to plan father-daughter activities for toddlers
When planning activities, it helps to know what toddlers are ready for. Between ages two and four, they’re learning to run, jump, climb, balance, and even try skipping. This stage is all about developing physical literacy—the foundation for confident movement and lifelong health.
According to the World Health Organization, children between the ages of one and four years need at least 180 minutes of a variety of types of physical activities [PDF]. That can look like dancing in the living room, chasing bubbles, or climbing a hill. And when that movement happens with a parent, it strengthens emotional bonds, builds trust, and supports healthy development.
You don’t need fancy toys or expensive gear. A cardboard box, a blanket fort, or a laundry basket can go a long way. What matters is planning a little when you can—and showing up with presence.
Outdoor father-daughter activities for toddlers
When it comes to playing outside with your toddler daughter, chances are you already have go-to ideas for activities: heading to their favourite playground, learning how to ride a bike, kicking a ball around, playing with sidewalk chalk, or finding a sandbox to build a sandcastle. Your daughter is probably perfectly happy doing these activities with you, but if you want to do something a little extra special, here are some outdoor father-daughter activities for toddlers:
1. Create a makeshift obstacle course: Draw hopscotch with chalk, practice balancing on the curb, or buy plastic rings from the dollar store to practice jumping in and out (or don’t step in the lava!)
2. Plan a nature scavenger hunt: Make a list of simple things to find—pinecones, dandelions, birds—and walk while searching together. If your toddler is up for the challenge, grab a magnifying glass and see if you can find little bugs! And for a fun sensory scavenger hunt, grab this free printable [PDF] before heading outside.
3. Outdoor “cooking”: Take the objects you find outside (like those mentioned above), and make a “cake,” bake “cookies,” or cook “spaghetti.” Here’s how to make your own mud kitchen to make it even more fun!
4. Invent a mission at the playground: Give her a “mission” to complete: slide down three slides, climb two ladders, swing for one minute.
5. Walking in the Jungle: If she’s not walking far yet, do a singing or marching parade while pushing the stroller.
6. Water balloon toss: If it’s a hot day, buy small balloons (she can help you fill them up!), take them outside on the grass, and try rolling them to each other—less mess and more giggles. You can also put out a hula hoop and take turns throwing them into the hoop. (Yes, they will pop!)
7. Chalk shapes: Draw big shapes on the sidewalk, then call out one to run or jump to. Or see if your toddler can draw the shapes themselves. If your child isn’t quite drawing shapes yet, you can ask her to help you draw a giant rainbow or picture, or see how far she can run from one side to the other while drawing with the chalk.
8. Fly a kite or catch the wind with scarves: The toddler years are a good time to introduce kite-flying, and what better way than for a father-daughter toddler activity? No kite? Get lightweight blankets (like the ones she had when she was a baby) or scarves from the house and dance with them in the breeze! For even more fun, bring along some bubbles for a game of bubble catch.
9. Jump over sticks or play limbo: Lay a stick on the ground and take turns jumping over it—backward, sideways, tiptoes. You could also practice playing limbo! If this game gets boring for her, collect sticks of different sizes and make pictures with them on the ground.
10. Splash in puddles: If it’s been raining, grab the umbrella and the rainboots and get messy together. She’ll love it!
11. Mini garden helper: If you have a garden at home, pick some new flowers or seeds to plant. Get a spray bottle and let her water the plants or dig with a shovel or even a plastic spoon. No garden? Go outside and water the trees and plants you see in the park instead.
12. Do a colour hunt: Walk around the neighbourhood and see how many specific objects you can find, like pink houses, black mailboxes, red cards, etc. See if you can find every colour of the rainbow. You could also do this with the neighbourhood dogs!
13. Do daddy-daughter yoga: Grab some yoga mats (or picnic blankets), find a shady spot outside, and do some stretching and yoga together. Print out different yoga positions and see what she can do! Let her make up her own yoga moves, too.
14. Red Light, Green Light: This one you’ll have to do in a closed area, but it’s a classic game. You can also try Red Rover, tag, or Hide and Seek.
15. Mini relay race: Place an object on one side of the playground and have your daughter run to go get it and come back. You can race each other, time her to see if she can beat her time, or if you have more than one toddler, see if they can do a “pass the baton.”
16. Pretend you’re both invisible: Hide and Seek may be a little risky to play in public parks, so instead, you can put on sunglasses and pretend you’re invisible and no one in the park can see you!
17. Ride the witch’s broom: Take brooms or large sticks and pretend you can fly!
18. Cloud-watching or star-gazing: Lay on the grass and find shapes within the clouds. You can also teach her about different types of clouds in the sky and create a cloud finder craft to take outside. If your toddler can stay up past dark, star-gazing is a treat, too! (And can you add s’mores to it?)
19. Pick out rocks to paint: Find some rocks that are paint-worthy. If it’s a nice day, you can paint them outside or bring them into the house to paint.
Indoor father-daughter activities for toddlers
Similar to having a go-to list of outdoor ideas, if you’ve ever been stuck at home on a rainy day, then you’ve probably found activities to fill the time with your daughter. From playing board games, role-playing, and building forts to baking a cake, drawing a picture, or building a tower with blocks, here are some outside-of-the-(cardboard)-box indoor father-daughter activities for toddlers.
20. Follow the Leader (animal style): Take turns leading each other around the house while pretending to be animals—crawl like a bear, hop like a bunny, waddle like a penguin.
21. Freeze dance: Play favorite songs, dance around the room, and pause the music randomly to “freeze.”
22. Nail salon: If you have a kid’s table or even some old, decorative pillows you don’t mind getting dirty, set up a nail salon. Paint her nails and let her paint yours!
23. Balloon keep-up: Use a blown-up balloon and try to keep it in the air as long as possible using hands, heads, elbows, or feet.
24. Pillow obstacle course: Lay out a crawling or climbing course using couch cushions, blankets, and safe furniture.
25. Toy toss into baskets: Place laundry baskets around the room and toss soft toys or beanbags in from different distances.
26. Pretend you’re on a boat in the ocean: A cardboard box works well for this, but if you don’t have one, no worries—the sofa or pillows on the floor will suffice! Can you find the hidden treasure around the house?
27. Pretend you’re going to the pool, airport, grocery store, or the mall: Or any place your child likes to take an outing to. Get ready as if you were going to the place, and narrate as you go through it. Pretend to pay for groceries with a bag and wallet, or line up chairs and pretend you’re boarding an airplane for takeoff.
28. Cheer squad: What toddler doesn’t like being thrown up into the air?! Do some (safe) cheerleader moves together, or show her some cheerleaders and see how you can copy what they’re doing. (This could work for a lot of things, like ballet dancing or other sports).
29. Teddy bear workout: Lead your toddler and their teddy bear through a simple “workout” routine: stretch, jump, wiggle, march.
30. Laundry basket ride: Pull your toddler around gently in a laundry basket for a fun ride. Even put it in front of the TV and put on a roller-coaster POV video to pretend you’re on a ride, while you make her go up and down! There’s also so many activities you can do with a laundry basket (pretend it’s a car, make it into a fort, or practice folding laundry!).
31. Do a fashion show: We’re always picking out our toddler’s clothing—how about they choose yours for a change? Find outfits, shoes, accessories, and pretend you’re in a fashion show. Take out the camera for fun!
32. Make friendship bracelets: This is ideal for toddlers who are perfecting their fine motor skills and pincer grasp. Practice looping string through beads (that are a toddler-appropriate size), making bracelets for each other. It’s a good opportunity to practice sorting colours, letters, numbers, and counting too! (Then you can add the bracelets to the fashion show.)
33. Painter’s tape maze: Use tape on the floor to create lines or a maze to walk, jump, or crawl through.
34. Couch cushion climber: Set up climbing routes using cushions either on the floor or as a tower.
35. Hide and Seek with toys: This is a spin on Hide and Seek where you hide her favourite stuffed animal in different places around the house. Or take toy dinosaurs, dolls, or cars—or even plastic food—and hide them in different places to see if you can find them all!
36. Hot and Cold: Similar to the above, you can play Hide and Seek with a toy while playing the game Hot and Cold. When she gets warmer to find the object, say ‘Hot, hot, hot!’, but if she’s too far away say, ‘Cold, cold, cold!’
37. Toy/book merge: Want to kill two birds with one stone? It’s tidy-up time! If you’ve been needing to get rid of some of your daughter’s toys or books, use this opportunity to work together to do it.
38. Trace a paper character of each other: Layout and tape long paper across the floor and trace each other’s body outlines. Then draw life-sized paper versions of each other! This is good to practice where different body parts go as well.
39. Spaghetti dump dinner: Put aluminum foil on the table, then serve spaghetti (and meatballs) right on top, eating off the table. Fun for everyone, but it’s especially a great father-daughter activity for toddlers! (Also, it’s fun for them to eat with their hands or do more fork practice!)
40. Find an easy science experiment to do: We get it: a lot of influencer parents make it look so easy to do fun science experiments or arts and crafts projects at home. If this isn’t your strong suit, find ONE easy idea (ideally, a day or two before), buy the materials (she can help you with this!), and work together on the experiment.
41. Make sock or paper-bag puppets: One easy craft idea is to buy yarn, googly eyes, markers, and glue, and make puppets. Then you can do a puppet show to one of her favorite bedtime stories! (This can be done with stuffed animals, too.)
42. Learn to cook something new together: Toddlers love cooking, so a great father-daughter activity for toddlers is to learn to cook something together. It could be something as simple as practicing cracking an egg over a bowl and making scrambled eggs, making a soup, or baking a new dessert.
43. Play pizza-delivery man: If you’ve ever gotten delivery to the house, your daughter is probably familiar with the ringing of the doorbell or the knock on the door, the arrival of the food, and paying the bill. Take turns pretending you’re the pizza-delivery man. (Bonus: Make a pizza together at home, buy the premade dough and ingredients, and design your own pizza box!)
44. Make popcorn in the pan: If your kid loves to eat popcorn from the microwave, then they’ll love watching it be made in the pan!
45. Karaoke: Whether you have a karaoke machine or not, get out a “mic”and put on a show singing along to her favourite songs!
Father-daughter date ideas for toddlers
Though any day could be an opportunity to go on a daddy-daughter date, these moments should be a little more extra special than spending time indoors or outdoors. Toddlers get a lot of excitement out of visiting new places, and as her father, you get to create some core memories even if she won’t remember them. Check out these father-daughter date ideas for toddlers:
46. Library storytime: Many libraries and bookstores hold interactive story sessions. If your toddler wants to just spend time with you, you can still visit these places and let her pick out the books for you to read.
47. Have a classy tea party at a cafe: Want to grab coffee at your favorite cafe? Use the opportunity to take your daughter out on a daddy daughter date for afternoon tea. (Or pick one that’s more up her alley.) Get your best outfits, order a pot of tea and some desserts, and dig in! Don’t forget to take lots of pictures!
48. Visit a photo booth: Some malls have those old-school photo booths where you can snap some selfies and print them out. Or, if you have a Polaroid camera, head to some of her favourite places in your neighbourhood and take some fun pictures! (Or you could get disposable cameras and see how the pictures turn out later.)
49. Do a staycation at a hotel: This is a father-daughter date idea that may be a bit on the pricey side, but if you have reward points or know a hotel in your area having a sale, book a room to use the pool and have brunch the next day. Mom will enjoy the break, too!
50. Visit a “princess castle”: Got any interesting, old buildings in your hometown? Pretend it’s a castle! Or, if you have any historical sites in your area, those can be fun field trips for a father-daughter date.
51. Go to a sports game or movie theatre: Toddlers experience a lot of firsts, and this could be a good opportunity to go to a sporting event or watch a matinee. Try something small and local to keep it less stimulating.
52. Watch planes, trains, or boats at the local airport, train station, or ferry dock: If you live near one of these, grab an ice-cream (or a hot chocolate) and spend the afternoon watching her transportation books come to life! Even visit a construction site in your area and look at all the different construction vehicles.
53. Go on a picnic at the park or in your front yard: Planning a picnic with a toddler isn’t always so easy; it may take a little extra effort on your part. Plan ahead of time and she can help you make some sandwiches, pack away fruit, or mix some iced tea. Pack it in a picnic basket, bring a blanket, and sit in the park to enjoy. Then you can do some cloud-watching!
54. Visit a ceramic-painting or handyman studio: If your daughter enjoys painting, head to a ceramic-painting studio (or a candle-making class!) and enjoy! Some home improvement stores have classes for families and toddlers.
55. Visit a pet-adoption shelter or pet store: Check the rules before you go, but some pet-adoption centres welcome families and even allow for doggy walks. Good idea (as long as she won’t beg you to adopt one!).
Always make time for father-daughter time!
These early years go by fast, but they leave a lasting imprint. Whether it’s a five-minute wiggle break, a backyard adventure, or an impromptu dance session at the library, the most meaningful activities are often the simplest ones. What matters isn’t how long they last or how perfectly they’re planned—it’s that you’re present.
When you move together, laugh together, explore together, you’re not just filling the day—you’re building trust, confidence, and joyful memories that shape how your child sees the world. You’re helping them grow physically, emotionally, and socially in ways that no screen or toy can replicate.
So take the time, whether it be on a special occasion like Father’s Day or even in the middle of a busy week. A little effort, a little imagination, and a whole lot of love go a long way.
Many thanks for sharing your experience. That’s what I’m doing and also adding to my list.🌷