I notice more and more that my 3.5yo is hungry for information and vocabulary. He is constantly asking questions about hypothetical situations and asking me to repeat and elaborate on anecdotes I recall. I do my best to answer as much as I can but I feel he would love more. I am going to get some age appropriate chapter books but would love some ideas on what else I could do-play and games based. He loves the outdoors and both fiction and nonfiction topics. He is not brilliant at independent play so maybe some board games would help but to me, it's learning and information he's after. He does go 3x3 hours to montessori each week and loves it. Would really appreciate some pointers. I don't want to miss this window when he's at his most curious.
AIBU?
I got my 3.3yo DD a 'my first encyclopedia'. It has loads about different space and science topics so we open it to random pages and read the page then she asks questions. We are reading Enid blyton secret seven and famous five books, roald Dahl and children's classics versions of stories such as Moby dick. We go to museums or aquariums or places like that. We watch things like blue planet when I need her to sit still and relax for an hour. She plays outside and collects leaves and acorns, conkers, sticks etc to make collages with. She watches the birds on the bird feeder and we look up the species in the book. We do baking where she watches the scales for the weights then does the stirring, separating into portions etc. This is all led by her questions. Just have fun with him and see where he takes you 
Independent play - dd likes going jigsaws with pictures or patterns on she recognises. She has numbers 1-10, alphabet, mermaids, fairytales etc. She'll sit and do them independently. Or I set her playing in the sink with some clean empty yoghurt pots and a plastic jug with some food colouring in the water and she makes 'drinks' and 'potions' and a mess! but she enjoys seeing how much more water fits in one pot than an other, what sinks and what floats etc and is quite happy playing like that while I potter about and get jobs done. She likes crafts so we pick up little craft kits from places like pound land and she does them. Play to their interests and they'll suddenly get all involved! even if that is grubbing in the mud catching worms, thanks dd 
Thanks for those tips. Got three fab books today to open up more conversation and answer questions and will keep doing what I have been doing so far
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