Free Online Classes, Activities & Play Ideas For Babies & Toddlers

I’ve been taking our son to baby sensory and music classes since he was little as they break up our week and get him active and engaged with little input from me. Now that current circumstances mean we can’t attend these classes in person, I’ve been looking for online baby classes and activities for toddlers to do at home with him.

For anyone else looking for ways to entertain and engage a young child, here is a list of interactive music classes, play sessions and virtual parties to do in your living room, so they can have lots of fun and you might be able to get some jobs done!

Working from home with a toddler? You might find these tips helpful.

From story time to children’s yoga, most of these classes and events are free of charge and run by professional children’s entertainers who would usually be holding classes in the community.

Best of all, they involve music and movement without any need to get additional props or toys in.

(Check out this list of best toys for 2 year olds if you’d like some ideas on that topic).

The timings I’ve mentioned are for UK viewers, but you’ll find most of these sessions saved in the video section of the company’s Facebook page, if you want to come back and do them at a time that works better for you.

(Updated January 2021 to reflect the schedule for lockdown 3.0)

Fun Online Baby Classes & Activities For Toddlers

My son engrossed in a Music With Mummy live stream with Clare from MWM Wokingham

Here are some of our favourite online baby classes and toddler music classes we’ve enjoyed throughout the last year that are currently running.

Music With Mummy – The lovely Clare who holds the Music With Mummy class we used to attend in Wokingham now holds her classes online. This is my son’s favourite activity we do all week. (And mine to be honest!) Clare is a wonderful host of engaging 30 minute music classes with unique songs and different themes every week. Get in touch with Clare on Facebook for details.

Claire at Play Hooray is an early years specialist with heaps of fun play ideas for babies and toddlers on her social media channels, some of which you can play along to live. I thoroughly recommend you check out the Play Hooray website for downloadable play prompts or order her brand new book – The Play Hooray Handbook – for 100 activities that can be done cheaply or easily with items found around the home. Her simple but effective ideas have saved us on many a rainy lockdown afternoon.

Ragdolly Annas – Offer free music and rhyme sessions for 0 to 5’s streamed live on Facebook every day at 10.30am during lockdown. This post has more details on how you can join in going forward. You can also find previous sessions saved on their YouTube channel.

Captain Fantastic host a free programme of online interactive entertainment for children, including live toddler groups for children aged 1 to 4 at 10am on Tuesday. The captain is pretty zany but he often has my 2-year-old in fits of giggles. Follow on Instagram and Facebook for details.

Cosmic Kids Yoga is aimed at children 3+ but my 1-year-old has been so keen to get involved with my Yoga With Adriene routines that I think we will try some Cosmic Kids Yoga together soon. This one set on a farm or this one under the sea look particularly fun for younger ones.

P.E With Joe – If you haven’t heard of Joe Wicks free P.E sessions by now, where have you been?! Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach holds daily P.E lessons live on his YouTube channel at 9am. It’s aimed at children home from school (and Joe plans to host the lessons until schools reopen) but they have been hugely popular with viewers of all ages, all across the world. This could be a fun way for both you and your toddler to get active together.

Tumble Tots at Home – The brand behind my son’s favourite active play classes are streaming live activity sessions every Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 10am on Facebook. If you can’t join in live you can watch the videos on YouTube.

Tiny Talk Baby Signing have launched Tiny Talk TV to livestream all their classes to past, present and new joiners. Get in touch with your local class teacher to find out more.

The Wiggles -An Aussie friend promises there are new Wiggles videos coming soon, which is just as well as Miles is exhausting their extensive YouTube collection already. (Their shows are on Netflix too.) For any Brits who are unfamiliar, The Wiggles are a colourful quartet who sing and dance about everything from nursery rhymes to big red cars. Miles is obsessed and (warning!) these songs are very hard to get out of your head.

Hartbeeps@Home – My local Hartbeeps class in Berkshire have switched to holding classes on zoom during lockdown. Hartbeeps@Home promises ‘mini discos, bedtime stories, puppet character appearance, and a wonderful place to share all the magic sprinkles from your favourite imaginators’. You can register your interest here or get in touch via the website.

NCT -Check your local NCT Facebook page for details of music, song, cooking and storytelling classes that will now be held online. Note: You don’t have to be an NCT member to join your local NCT facebook group.

CBeebies Baby Club – If you’re missing your weekly baby sensory class with littler ones this is a good one to stream on iPlayer. There are enough episodes (54 in fact) based around household items and popular songs to keep you going for a number of weeks.

Pin for later:

This is a work in progress and I’ll add more to the list as and when I come across them. If you run a class or page that you would like featured please get in touch or leave a comment.

Images thanks to Shirota Yuri, Sandy MillarKelli McClintock, Caleb Woods and Carly Kewley on Unsplash

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Updated Jan 2021

About the author

I’m Jayne, a travel blogger, content creator and mum to a 4-year-old son. I’ve been blogging since 2010, travelled to 65 countries and share travel guides and tips to help you plan stylish, stress-free trips.

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