We have the best list of quiet games and quiet activities for kids of all ages! Quiet time can be playtime with these fun quiet games and activities. From fine motor skill practice, self soothing, and crafts, we have a ton of quiet time activities your kids will enjoy. These quiet games and activities are perfect for in the classroom or at home!
Quiet Time Activities for Kids
Quiet time activities are perfect for your kids that have stopped taking daily afternoon nap, but is still in need of a little down time. If you aren’t able to get them to lay down for a bit of rest, trying these activities may be a great solution.
All of these activities are quiet, simple, and don’t involve a lot of energy from the kids. They can sit down with them and quietly engage for a bit. We want to do our best for our kids, but we can’t keep them entertained 100% of the time.
Why is Quiet Time Important for Kids
Quiet time is essential to teach independence and promote pretend play in young children. Alone time and daily quiet time is important for everyone. One in particular may even help them fall asleep!
Quiet Time Benefits For Kids
- Helping then reflect on their day and what they’ve learned.
- Promotes alertness.
- Helps children relax.
- Promotes problem solving.
- Promotes pretend play and day dreaming.
- Helps with concentration.
- Teaches your child to plan ahead.
Also, kids who get daily alone time are 10% happier!
Related: Check out these other quiet games and activities for kids.
Best Quiet Time Activities for Kids
1. DIY Clipping Toy Quiet Time Activity
This DIY clipping toy can keep kids quietly entertained and also working on fine motor skills.
2. No Sew Quiet Book Activity
This no sew quiet book is perfect for toddlers! It is 11 pages of felt educational fun. I love different things that are not only fun, but work on other things such as fine motor skills.
3. Heuristic Play
Playing and touching with the items around us helps promote social and emotional development and can be promoted by simple treasure baskets or even our jewelry boxes.
4. Calming Yoga for Kids
Sometimes the best way to promote quiet time is through exercise and yoga is a perfect way to do just that. Wiggle, move, and stretch, to burn off all that extra energy and promote a serene mind.
5. DIY Quiet Montessori Inspired Activities
Fill your child’s day with choices and educational playtime. From sensory play, to colors, stories, counting, there are quite a few activities to choose from.
6. Silent Felt Flower Craft
Turn felt into flowers! Make them simple, make the complicated, stack the colors, but make them your own. It is such a fun and cute craft that will teach about colors and the different types of flowers.
7. Make a DIY Quiet Time Felt Activity Board
Learn about animals, make scenes, and tell stories by making a simple felt activity board for home or in the classroom. Use whatever felt pieces you can to create scenes. This is such a good idea and not only is a great time, but promotes pretend play. Who knew there were so many benefits of quiet time.
8. Quiet Box: Build A Snowman
This is a fun quiet box! You use foam balls, a felt hat, scarf, and buttons and gems to decorate a snowman.
9. Keeping Your Child Busy During Quiet Time
Quiet time is hard for some kids, but learning to slow down and be quiet is good for everyone to learn. Set up his own little pillow area complete with books, music, and a snack!
10. Simple Silent Magnet Puzzle Game
Turn paper and magnets into fun puzzles. Use the magnets as stencils, outline them, hang up your paper, and then let your child figure out which magnet goes where.
11. Teaching Your Kids To Create Your Own Quiet Fun
We aren’t meant to entertain our kids all the time. They need to learn to be independent and how to entertain themselves sometimes without the help of electronics. Provide the materials, set a timer, and let them go!
12. Quiet Ribbon Spaghetti Fine Motor Skills Game
Use a plastic colander and scrap ribbons to create a fun game for toddlers. Put the ribbons through the colander holes and tie knots at each end. Your child will have fun pulling the ribbons in and out of the colander.
13. Peaceful Love Bugs Sticky Game
Use sticky paper and felt to create these cute and colorful love bugs. You could even make other bugs if you wanted, but this is a great Valentine activity that promotes some quiet time.
14. Encourage Peaceful Pretend Play
Encourage pretend play using felt. Use felt to make various landscapes and let your child play with different animals and toys on them.
15. Quiet Dress Up Peg Doll Games
Use velcro and peg dolls to create these cute and fun dress up peg dolls. Add yarn for hair, happy faces, and cut out your own clothes for them. It’s such a cute and fun activity and makes me thing of the fun paper dolls we used to dress up as kids.
16. Building A Rainbow Quiet Time Activity and Game
Make a felt rainbow and then cut out each name for each color and laminate it. This makes a good quiet time game which not only teaches about Noah’s story in the Bible and learning the names of the colors.
17. Quiet Fairy Door Craft
Promote quiet time by letting your child make a super neat fairy door. It’s a great outdoor decoration, but promotes creativity and imagination as well.
18. Heads Up 7 Up Quiet Game
Do you remember this game? This was one of my favorite games in elementary school and requires you to be quiet. There are also variations on this game to keep it exciting for different sized groups.
19. DIY Silent Airplane & Train Craft
Promote pretend play with this craft. Make an airplane and a train, complete with “smoke” coming out of it’s stack and let your child play away the afternoon.
20. Quiet Portable Play Set
Make a playset using felt, pom poms, jumbo popsicle sticks and other items to create a portable playset your child can drive cars around on.
Easy and Quiet Busy Bags For Toddlers and Preschoolesr
21. Quiet Me Time Busy Boxes
Keep your little one busy and quiet every day of the week! These busy boxes have 5 days, each with a different activity that includes: letters, I-Spy, shapes puzzles, dough sets, and paint by sticker.
22. Easter Quiet Time Box
This quiet time box has so many activities! Coloring, threading pipe cleaners, felt counting game, reading, and even felt egg decorating!
23. Quiet Boxes For Kids
Make each day of the week exciting with these busy boxes. Each box has a 15 minute activities. There are fine motor skill activities, life skill activities, books, puzzles, etc.
24. Quiet Travel Busy Bags
Traveling doesn’t have to be stressful! Keep your children quiet with these awesome travel busy bag ideas. Learn to count, work on fine motor skills, problem solve with Legos, play games like road trip Bingo, and more!
25. Quiet Time Activity Bags
Keep nine quiet activities together and ready to go with this travel activity bag.
26. Easy and Quiet Busy Bags
These 5 easy busy bags with bottle caps are perfect for quiet time. Most of these bags can be easily put together in under 10 minutes.
27. Peaceful and Quiet Activity Boxes
Keep an activity box that has lots of simple activities like stickers, pipe cleaners and finger puppets.
28. Popsicle Stick Quiet Busy Bags
Popsicle sticks are the best. They’re cheap, they come in bulk, and you can use them to preoccupy kids when you need a few minutes. Turn them into busy bags that include: magnets, puzzles, and even puppets.
29. 7 Days Of Quiet Busy Bags
Have a busy bag for every day of the week! You can include stories, stuffed toys, puzzles, games, sensory activities, and more!
30. Independent Quiet Box
Promote quiet time and independent play with this “My Quiet Box“. Fill the box with paper, markers, tape, stencils, and stickers. You can also add other things like foam letters, felt and scissors, beads and pipe cleaners, and foam dolls, as well as other fun games and activities.
31. Silent Felt Color Sorting Busy Bag
Sort buttons into their respective color felt bag. This is a fun matching game that also teaches about colors! It’s a simple, but fun, busy bag.
32. Quiet Time Invention Box
Have a creative child? This invention box is a perfect way to keep them busy. Fill a box with popsicle sticks, glue, stickers, string, googly eyes, and more! Make sure you don’t add anything that requires supervision as this promotes independent play.
33. Peaceful Busy Bags
Here is a list of 10 busy bags with matching activities. Each one is filled with fun ideas, activities, crafts, and free printables.
34. Recycled Alphabet & Number Silent Busy Box
Learn how to count and ABC’s all at once. Well not at once, but this is such a fun matching game. Sort the numbers, capital letters, and lower case letters to its correct box.
35. Simple and Quiet Train Track Busy Bag
Use mini trains and DIY train track sheets to keep your child busy. They can count out the train tracks and then count out the correct amount of mini trains to add to each card.
36. Fun and Quiet Paint Chip Busy Bags
Use paint chips, or swatches, to create 7 different busy bags. Turn them into color matching games, puzzles, color swatch rings, patterns, and more.
37. Quiet Busy Bags With Pipe Cleaners
Here is 5 busy bag ideas using pipe cleaners. Use them to string beads, drop them into tubes, use magnets with them, make shapes, and use them to count and stack noodles.
38. Pretty and Quiet Butterfly Busy Bag
Make a busy bag using felt butterflies and pretty gems, buttons, and beads. Your child can then decorate different colored butterflies over and over again!
Quiet and Fun Fine Motor Skill Activities For Toddlers and Preschoolers
39. Quiet Time DIY Robot Helmet Activity
Using a strainer and piper cleaners you can not only help your child develop better fine motor skills, but inspire pretend play by turning this activity into a robot helmet.
40. Quiet Time Cutting Box Game
This does require adult supervision, but it is a great activity that not only promotes quiet time, but enhances your preschoolers fine motor skills. Fill your cutting box with: old mail, magazines, receipts, wrapping paper, and more!
41. Fun and Peaceful Clothespin Activities
Here is a list of 20 fine motor activities using clothespins. Each one is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, promotes quiet time, and is educational.
42. Simple and Silent Pom Pom Activities
Pom poms are cheap, soft, colorful, and perfect for quiet fine motor activities. Use tweezers to move them from plate to plate. Use your toes to move them from the ground to a bucket and back!
43. Fun Quiet Foam Lacing Shape Game
Teach your child to lace with foam shapes that have holes in them and colorful string. Not only will this keep them busy and is a fun connect the dots type activity, but this can also be translated into sewing later which is an important life skill.
44. Straw Drop Quiet Game For Kids
Work on fine motor skills while learning about matching and colors with this straw drop game. It’s simple, fun, and all you need is straws, paint, and an empty oatmeal container (or any other cylindrical container.)
45. Quiet Time Decorating Dinosaurs
Decorate your felt dinosaurs with other felt pieces to create colorful and unique dinosaurs. This could also be a great lesson in science too, to teach about herbivores and carnivores.
46. I know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly
We all remember the song of the Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, but you can turn it into quiet play with this fun game where you feed the “old lady” the fly and other animals. It also includes a free printable to help you set up the game.
47. Pretend Play and Quiet Time Block Games
These free printables will encourage your child to play with blocks, but to also accept these various black challenges that teaches then different shapes like triangles, hexagons, squares as well as familiar objects like houses, trees, and a truck.
48. Quiet Crazy Straw Activities
Practice fine motor skills with crazy straws and felt. Make rainbows, patterns, and color coordinate the straws to the let circles. There is even a video to show you how to set this game up.
49. Quiet Time Fine Motor Skill Activities
Here is a list of fun fine motor skill activities. There is something for all ages! For babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and even bigger kids around 6 and up.
50. Scissor Skills Practice Quiet Time Activities
These 10 fall activities are all scissor skills. Practicing cutting promotes better fine motor skills and is a lot of fun. However, with cutting activities children will need adult supervision.
51. Quiet Time Weaving Straws Activity
Weave straws on a light table. Weaving is a fun activity and a forgotten skill that can translate to other projects. But this project in general helps build better fine motor skills and is a fun and colorful activity.
52. Quiet Time Wrapping Letters Activity
Use string to wrap around letters! Not only will this be a great, and more difficult, way to practice fine motor skills, but it is a great way to learn colors and letters!
53. Fun and Educational Quiet 3D Shape Box Game
Use a box to make a shape sorter! Make it colorful and bright, cut holes for the letters, and then use these free printables to create the 3D shapes and let your little one go trying to get all the shapes in!
54. Feeding The Monster Quiet Game
Turn an old empty of tub of wipes and turn it into a monster! The gather pom poms, buttons, and other small trinkets to feed it! Once it is filled up, empty it out and let them start again.
55. P Is For Paper Clip Quiet Game
This fine motor skill busy bag is focused around paper clips! Add paper clips to laminated dots, connect the paper clips to make jewelry, and squish some playdough with them.
56. Tongs And Pom Poms Peaceful Activity
Use an old canister with a plastic lit to create a hole big enough for pom poms. Then let your little one use tongs to manipulate the pom poms through the hole. This takes a lot of coordination and is great practice for their fine motor skills.
57. Make A Racetrack For Quiet Play
Use a shower curtain to create a a racetrack and town. Inspire pretend play by letting your child race their cars around. For a bonus activity, let them color in the buildings.
58. Cup Twisting Quiet Games
Here are 3 cup twisting fine motor games each one is unique, different, and fun. Race the red car from start to finish, eat the numbers, and fly the butter fly to the flowers to it can eat!
59. Dot & Cut Silent Cutting Activity
Use paper and draw lines and let your child use bingo stampers to trace the lines, and then let the practice cutting, by cutting along the dotted lines.
60. Fun Fine Motor Skill Activities
We found a list of 10 fine motor activities using velcro rollers. Velcro rollers are generally used to curl hair, but they stick together and come in many different shapes and colors and can be used for so many activities.
61. Quiet Fall Pom Pom Tree Craft
This craft is absolutely beautiful and can be used as a Thanksgiving centerpiece. You’ll use pipe cleaners to make a tree with limbs and your child can then add orange, red, and yellow pom poms and acorns to make it look like a tree in the fall.
Sensory Activities
62. Sensory Balls For Quiet Games
Make these squishy sensory balls for your kids to play with during their quiet time.
63. Calming Time Glowing Sensory Bottle
Make this glowing sensory bottle for your kids and let them sit down in a quiet place to shake and count the stars.
64. Tactile Bag For Quiet Play
Promote different textures by using this comparing bag to compare different textures. Wood feels different than carpet, nuts feel different than bolts. It’s a very educational sensory activity.
65. Fun and Simple Peaceful Reflections Sensory Bin
This sensory bin focuses on visuals. Using color changing light cubes in a bin filled with tin foil. Sounds simple, but the result is visually beautiful as the lights reflect and dance around the bin.
66. Quiet Play Sensory Integration
Does your child have sensory processing disorder? Here are some ways to promote quiet time with sensory play that includes a “sensory diet” and “sensory interventions.”
67. Peaceful Calming Basket
This calming basket has everything your child needs to calm down and promote quiet time. There is a story book, a wheat bag you can heat up, Chinese meditation balls, a squishy bag with glitter, and a discovery bottle.
68. Calming Bubbly Sensory Bottles
These bubbly sensory bottles are not only cool because the harder you shake the more bubbles there are, but they actually turn colors too. Plus, they can also promote pretend play as well.
69. I-Spy Sensory Tub Quiet Game
Make a sensory tub based around the I-Spy game. Search through the tubs and items to find all the pictures on each card. It’s a fun texture and matching game.
70. Calm Down Sensory Bottle
This calm down sensory bottle is filled with a thick oil liquid with small transport beads. Let your child learn to calm and breathe while watching the beads slowly move to and fro.
71. No-Liquid Calm Down Sensory Bottle
Want a calm down sensory bottle that has no liquid? This straw and cotton calm down bottle is perfect. It’s silent and only requires a flashlight to explore the different colors that come through the sensory bottle.
72. DIY Soft and Snuggly Sensory Friends
Bedtime buddies are a great sensory friend. They’re soft, some are squishy, and some are filled with beans and rice, but they are all cuddly and calming with the scent of Lavender.
73. Rainbow Calm Down Bottles
These rainbow sensory bottles are perfect for calming down. Let your child shake up these colorful bottles and watch as the glitter and pom poms float up and down and settle.
74. Sensory Board Activities
We all talk about sensory bottles, but what about sensory boards? Stick different textures on boards like feathers, noodles, sequins, mesh, glitter, etc.
75. Quiet Sensory Bags
Want to help promote quiet time with sensory bags? Here is a guide teaching you how to start making them and a list of ideas to try out.
76. Monster Munch Quiet Game
Use chip clips to create different monsters to munch on pom poms and pieces of pipe cleaners. Your child can practice their fine motor skills, and if you use the same colors as the chip clips you can turn it into a matching game.
77. Circle Sensory Toddler Quiet Game
Use pipe cleaners and pom poms to inspire some quiet playtime. Let your child feel the rough and soft textures and even color coordinate the items.
78. Tissue Paper Sensory Art
Make beautiful art by using the crinkly tissue paper. Roll is, ball it, crush it, wrinkle it, and then poke it into a foam block. So not only will they get to feel the texture of foam and tissue paper, but it’ll be great fine motor skills practice.
79. Touch And Match Quiet Game
This is such a fun sensory game. It is a twist on the traditional matching game. Glue different textures onto cards and let your child touch and match each of them.
80. Sweet Citrus Sensory Activity
Make your sensory bin more exciting by adding smell to it. Using sugar and Jell-O you can write, blow, build, and taste it. Citrus was used in this activity, but you can use whatever flavor you like.
Quiet Art and Craft Activities For Kids
81. Relaxing Abstract Coloring Sheets
Print off some of our coloring pages and let them sit and color during their quiet time.
82. Simple and Quiet Sensory Bins
Make sensory bins simple using items like coffee beans, bubbles, pebbles, rocks, and other little items you have around the house.
83. Make A Truck From Shapes
Use blocks to trace and create big trucks, little trucks, and cars. Then take some time to color in each picture your little one traced.
84. Where Art Meets Math Educational Quiet Games
Use these videos to teach your child about geometry, differences, while turning it into beautiful drawings that they can color! Change it up, use colored paper and different colored utensils. I think a silver sharpie on a black piece of construction paper would make this look even cooler.
85. Seasons Of A Tree Quiet Craft
Spend some time creating trees and using Q-Tips to color the leaves. Make green leaves for spring and summer. Then make a tree with fall and winter colors. Learn about the seasons with this fun art project.
86. Quiet Time Chalk Art
Make chalk art a little more unique by using a prism to help make art. Trace the light the prism makes! Depending on the angle of the light, the prism cast halos, rays, and reflections.
87. Sticker Art Quiet Time Activity
Create symmetrical sticker art using round stickers, scissors, and paper. Create patterns, flowers, and more! It looks very similar to zentangle art.
88. Learning With Stickers
Use stickers to create art, to trace with, to match, sort, turn into puppets and more. Who knew stickers were so versatile.
89. Arts And Crafts Projects
Keep your child busy by letting them create refrigerator art, literally! Using crayons, magnets, stencils, and paper your child can spend time creating all sorts of lovely pictures.
90. Printable Shapes Craft
Use the printable shapes to help your child make awesome art with colored match sticks or toothpicks. Make rocket ships, castles, stars, hexagons, and more! This free printable has 3 different templates to keep the fun going.
91. Melting Crayons Craft
Use crayons, paper, card stock, and a hairdryer to create beautiful art. It’s a fun messy project, but does require some adult supervision.
92. DIY Crayon Rubbing Cards
Make rubbing cards by using a hot glue gun on cardboard. Once it is dried you will have hard glue. Use paper and crayons to color over it and create each of the shapes!
Fun Playdough Quiet Games For Kids
93. Matching Animals And Fossils Quiet Game
Create fossils by squishing toys into salt dough. Bake it so it is hard and then let your child match the toys to the “fossils.”
94. Chocolate Maker Busy Bag
Unfortunately this craft involves no chocolate, but that doesn’t stop it from being fun. Use chocolate molds to let your child turn playdough into fun shapes and characters.
95. Printable Playdough Mats
Make playdough exciting by adding these free printable playdough mats to your child’s playdough station. There are people playdough mats, nature ones, summer, garden, shapes, and more! Be sure to laminate them so they last longer.
96. Free Playdough Mats
Looking for more playdough mats for your playdough station? Here is a list of 100 free printable playdough mats you can laminate and use over and over again.
97. Easy Touch And Feel Quiet Game
The winter can be rough with people being sick, not going outside, missing school because of weather. This holiday sensory box is perfect fun! Touch candy, gems, magnets, buttons, ribbons, and anything else festive you may have.
98. 2 Ingredient Cloud Dough Recipe
Make some quick cloud dough and let kids have fun by squishing, smashing, and creating with it!
Quiet Time Educational Activities For Kids
99. Marshmallow Tower STEM Activity
Give your kids the building pieces and let them create a marshmallow tower. They can break it down and reconstruct a new one again and again. It is a great STEM activity.
100. Counting Caterpillar Busy Bag
Make a simple busy bag with a pencil pouch, pom poms, and some free printables. Your kids will be able to not only match the colors on the caterpillar, but learn to count as well! These printables are available in English, French, and Spanish.
101. Felt Shapes Quiet Game
Use this printable to cut felt into facial features for a quiet felt shapes game.
102. Learning Busy Bag
Make them a shapes and colors busy bag with these free printables.
103. Educational Apps
If you let your kids have screen time, letting them play some of these educational apps may be a great quiet time activity.
104. Puzzle Apps
Too much screen time isn’t good for anyone, but small amounts are okay especially when it is used to for education. These puzzle apps are great for smaller kids like toddlers and preschoolers and will help you get a little quiet time.
105. Alphabet Matching Quiet Game
Learn lower case and upper case letters with this alphabet heart matching game. Each side of the heart has 1 upper case and 1 lower case letter. Put it together to create a colorful heart.
106. Dot Alphabet Cards
Make quiet time educational by letting your child learn about letters, words, and colors! Use large dot markers to fill in the white dots on each letter.
107. Tracing Lines Quiet Game
Worksheets are great for older kids, but most toddlers and even some preschoolers are not going to be able to sit down and do them. Instead, use painters tape on the floor and let them trace the lines with blocks, cars, or any other small toy.
108. Fun and Simple Quiet Books
Quiet books are filled with different activities and is such a fun way to promote quiet time, fine motor skills, and even learning.
109. Shapes Busy Bag
This busy bag is based on the book Monster Knows Shapes and allows your child to make all sorts of shapes. They can make kites, houses, dogs, and more.
110. DIY Puzzles Made From Paint Samples
Use paint samples to make free and easy puzzles. Cut them in different shapes. You can make the easy or you can make the more difficult.
111. Quiet Time Felt Activity
Reading is such a great way for kids to grow their vocabulary! This Dr. Seuss book and craft is a fun activity to learn words, and recreate the story itself.
112. Mo Willems Books And Crafts
Read these Mo Willems books and try out these fun felt crafts based around each book. It’s a fun way to not only spend time together reading, but a great way for them be kept busy afterwards as they recreate the stories.
113. Super Letter Printable Matching Quiet Game
Use these free printables to create this upper and lower case matching game. Learn your ABC’s, lower, and capital letters, while working on problem solving skills.
114. Make A Dinosaur Activity
This activity requires a little screen time, but mainly to look at dinosaur bones so your child can copy and recreate it with toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls.
115. Ladybug And Counting Craft
Create a super cute felt lady bug and use these free printables to play a counting game. Each card has a number on it and then use the black dots to touch to each number.
116. Practice Sight Words Quiet Game
Practice simple sight words by creating these DIY word searches. This will keep your child busy and help build their reading and vocabulary skills.
117. Felt Flower And Counting Activity
Make flowers with felt, but turn it into a counting game. Use foam numbers and randomly pick one and then add that number of petals to each flower.
118. Tally Mark Busy Bag
Make math fun by turning it into a game. In this game your child will be able to learn to count, count with tally marks, and match the two up.
119. Learn To Count Printable Quiet Game
Use this free printable to teach your child to count. Use: stickers, dot markers, pebbles, crayons, pom poms, or even playdough to fill in each dot.
Some Of Our Favorite Quiet Games and Quiet Books
Looking for quiet play activities and ways to make circle time more fun? Then check out these great ideas! From flash cards, to games that work on hand-eye coordination, to stuffed animals, and books…younger children will love all of these fun activities. They will bring hours of fun!
All family members will love these super-fun games.
More Quiet Time Activities For Kids Activities Blog:
Which quiet time activity for kids is your favorite? Let us know in the comments we’d love to hear from you.