Beach themed activities to do at home with kids and toddlers

Beach Themed Activities at Home

Our second family “vacation at home” this summer was how we brought the beach to our home. Keep reading to find out more about these beach themed activities to do at home with your kids and/or toddlers.

If you want to see my first post about how my family went camping at home then click here. As mentioned in the first post, I hope this will be a place that will encourage you and your family to spend more time together.

Check out these beach day schedules and print them if you want to follow along with our day!

*This post may contain affiliate links to products. Using these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. For more information, click here.

How did we bring the beach to home?

Swim in swimming pool and/or play in sprinkler: We have a small kiddie pool that we originally bought our dog, Daisy. Our daughter now uses it to swim in our backyard, but don’t worry, Daisy also gets to take turns swimming. Swimming was hands down the highlight of beach day according to my daughter! This also took the most time: roughly three hours including set up/tear down and a bath after (so plan accordingly).

OR play with a water table: We personally don’t own a water table because we don’t have the storage for it. My niece has one and loves it.

This is what she has: Step 2 Rain Showers Splash Pond Water Table and there are so many other options

Water ski: Say what!? A toddler can water ski? At home? How!? Well let me show you how with flyswatters from the Dollar Tree! Simply step on the flyswatters and scoot your feet. We had relay races where we timed how long it took each person to go up and down the hall transferring five blocks, one at a time. *In case you’re worried about scratching your floors, it did not affect ours.

Play in the sand: You can buy play sand that is pretty inexpensive (less than five dollars) from almost any grocery store or home improvement store. Dump it into a large plastic storage container, hide small manipulatives in the sand, and then ask your child to search for specific items. I hid animal and letter magnets. After finding the specified item, we then sorted them into categories: alphabet and animals. I also had small plastic cups and spoons so she could practice scooping and pouring skills. If you’re feeling adventurous and the sand container is large enough, let your child enjoy the sand with it between his/her toes.

Obviously you don’t have to use magnets for the manipulatives, you can use multiple items such as blocks or plastic toys. My only suggestion would be to pick something that can easily be washed off.

Color: Although there are multiple websites for free printable pages, here are a few:

Gross Motor play- yoga: Pinkoatmeal.com has a wonderful library of yoga poses that are beach themed.

Beach Volleyball: Use either an actual beach ball or balloon and hit it back and forth. Set up your net by placing a couple kitchen chairs together or by putting a towel over a large box. To adapt the game you can count how many times you are able to hit the ball or balloon in the air before letting it drop. Another option would be to play catch or roll the ball.

Make a paper plate crab:

Access a printable PDF with step-by-step instructions

Go fishing: Click here for the printable PDF to see how to go fishing at home

Developmental Skills Targeted:

Cognitive development (sustained attention, cognitive flexibility, visual processing, pretend play, working memory, pattern recognition)
Social and Emotional development (self-control: my daughter had a hard time controlling her strong dislike for getting out of the pool)
Sensory integration
Motor planning and coordination
Fine motor skills (construction skills)
Gross motor skills (object control skills, locomotor- swimming, jumping, running)

Beach Themed Food:

Shell macaroni and cheese

“Crab”wiches: I rolled sandwich ingredients in a crescent roll and angled the ends in toward each other trying to make a “U” shape before baking to give it more of a crab shape. For our sandwich ingredients we used turkey and cheese but you could use ham and cheese, pepperoni with pizza sauce, etc. The purchased googly eyes would have been handy for these too but as shown above, I improvised with what I already had at home.

Palm trees (kiwi, banana, or orange slices)

Here was my inspiration from Pinterest
Here is how mine turned out:

Teddy grams swimming in jello with inner tubes

Here was my inspiration from Pinterest
Here is how mine turned out:

Beach Themed Books:

Beach Themed Movies:

Watch the movie laying on a beach towel or sitting in a beach chair!

The Little Mermaid
Finding Nemo
Finding Dory

Beach Themed Attire:

Swimming suit
Sun dress
Beach hat
Sandals
Sunglasses

I hope you enjoy your family are able to bring the beach to your home and enjoy these activities as much as we did! I’d love to hear how your day went in the comment section below or any of my social media pages!