Our top 5 favourite activities for preschooler playdates

5. All Hail the Afternoon Snack

Your tiny fun monsters will get hungry eventually – but there’s no need to halt the hilarity when it’s time for a snack. Get the kids involved in the meal prep – not only will their bellies be full, their brains will be too. They’ll get a chance to build skills like creativity, resourcefulness and teamwork – delish!

A few ideas to get you going:

-Create a ‘DIY yogurt bowl’ cafe: Ask them to help choose the yogurt toppings from the fridge, and arrange them into little bowls. Create a restaurant role-play by asking them to help ’run’ the cafe – they’ll need to load up the ingredients, scoop out the yogurt for their guests and accept currency (paper money will do just fine).

-Have a tortilla pizza party: We love this easy, ingenious method for a fun, pizza-like snack. Serve up each child with their own personal “pizza” that they can decorate themselves. When they’re ready, pop ‘em in the oven for a few minutes and your simple snack is served.

-Blind taste test game: Place a few unique fruits and vegetables into paper bags, and ask them to reach in and guess what they’re touching. Then, with their eyes closed, have them describe the flavour once they bite into it. Not only will having fun with fruit and veg create positive associations with healthy eating, they’ll develop their vocab, descriptive words and palate while they’re at it!

4. Welcome to Floorsville

It’s fun to get out and explore the city on a playdate, but if it’s dreary outside why not recreate the same experience on your living room floor? Armed with some painter’s tape, cardboard boxes, old magazines, toilet paper rolls and tissue boxes, get to urban planning!

You can use the tape to create a road system on the floor, turn toilet paper rolls into cars like we did here and construct buildings and scenery with the boxes and cut-outs from magazines. Then, let your figurines roam about the town and your imagination take over!

Try incorporating a portable playset into your new town too – imagine stopping for a snack at Jack’s Diner before heading out to pick berries at Robin’s co-op farm on the outskirts of town.

3. Cannes for Kiddies

Stage a pint-sized film festival by selecting a few films or TV shows that share a common theme (head under the sea with Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid, or get movin’ with Thomas the Tank Engine and Cars). Serve popcorn (of course!) and after the showings, stage a “panel” where you all talk about what you thought of the films. Next, try putting on a puppet show or play inspired by the theme – you’ll help build their applied creativity skills, and get to enjoy some top-knotch theatre while you’re at it.

2. Bubble Bonanza

You don’t need to truck a bunch of kids to the public pool to enjoy a bit of splashy fun! Just fill up the tub with tons of bubbles, an assortment of pails and cups, and any other water-safe toys you have laying around. Kids can lean over into the water and play to their hearts content! Fair warning: this will be designated as a splash zone! Condo dwellers can create the same experience with a large bucket or kiddie pool on the porch.

1. Good Ol’ Fashioned Dance Party

This one requires no supplies, no money and no planning – a trifecta of perfect playdate fun, if you ask us. It’s simple: crank up your favourite dancey playlist, clear the furniture and bust a move. The benefits of cutting a rug with your pals are too numerous to count, and we’re sure you’ll be collapsed in a sweaty, danced-out heap in no time! (An excellent segway into naptime … ).