Mums of 3 year old boys please!!!

[Pinions]

What I would like to know is what are you doing to entertain/educate/stimulate your sons?

Mine gets sooo bored and I just find it so hard to occupy him? I mean kind of "brain" things, iyswim.

He loves pre-school, part of the main school, which he goes to 5 days a week most weeks, and now that it has stopped for the summer I am finding it so hard to keep up with him, as he is just not stimulated enough.

We do all the normal things, last week we went somewhere different every single day, ie the farm, the park, swimming, etc etc, but I just feel as if he does not have enough mental/thinking type activites. Would love to hear other peoples ideas,and what you do to keep their minds occupied please??????

[EscapeFrom]

Playdoh
Drawing
Mudpieing in the garden
Pouring

[SixKindsOfCrisis]

Making up stories together, a sentence each.

[cameroonmama]

We do LOADS of reading and orchard toys' games are brilliant, fun but educational. And we go to the park alot

[BettySpaghetti]

Going to the library to choose and read books.
Baking (my DS's current favourite)

[Mercy]

I just let him play tbh (but does have an older sister to keep him occupied too)

Mine does any of hte following

Jigsaws
Reading
Drawing/painting/colouring
Playdough
Computer games - Poissonrouge, Cbeebies
Camping/picnic/tea party
Ball games
TV!
Cooking - biscuits etc
Trike


Will your ds play alone? Mine likes to play cars and trains by himself and will do this for quite a while.

[Tommy]

meet up with other children so they can play together

[Oblomov]

Ds plays on his own quite alot.
Parks and swimming and riding bike, scooter and jeep are essential.
Ds is at nursery. They do a theme. Like 'under the sea', painting a lobster, a crab, finding a sea related book /story. Then making a jellyfish style cookie as part of cooking.
They re-arrange things, according to which is the biggest, smallest.
Numbers.
I am sure that if you particularly want to stimulate his mind, you could come up with all of those type of things, without too much effort.You could practically re-create the type of stuff that your ds does at his term time nursery.
Does that help, in any way.

[Lazycow]

Oh someone else with this problem. I have really tried not to put the tv on too much as I know it isn't good for ds to have too much but the other day he woke up at 4.30am and although I left him until 5.45am he didn't go back to sleep so we got up. there then followed a really difficult 3.5 hours until we had to go out to meet some friends. I refused to put the tv on and we did:

cleaning (Where he 'helped') and where the flat looked worse after we had finished (40 mins)

Ate breakfast and cleared up (20 mins)

Made dried bean filled toys (10 mins)

did drawing (15 mins)

did sticking and gluing (15 mins)

did painting (15 mins)

Had a tea party (10 mins)

Played tickle and hiding/carrying games to music (15 mins)

I then left him to play with cars on his own which he did for precisely 10 mins before asking me to play with him again

Played with dried/beans/lentils and pasta and various containers (this time without me for about 10 mins)

Played with water in the sink (15 mins while I cleared up the dried beans/lentils)

As you can see 10-15 ins is his maximum befoe he starts to look for something else to do. It is absolutely exhausting.

I then cracked and put the TV on and had 30 mins to shower & dress and sort out things in the kitchen and to tidy away all the stuff from the craft play which he doesn't really like doing but which I do in desperation for something to do.

Then I took him out to visit a friend and he played happily with his friend in the garden with no hassling me at all for 2.5 hrs!! and didn't want to come home.

He really needs a brother or sister but is unlikely to get one because of fertility problems so Ij ust have to keep playing with him. I do find it VERY difficult though.


Ds just won't play on his own and gets really bored. I do all of the things listed but usuually they are all done by 9/10am and then we have to go out somewhere. Hence why I cannot spend the whole day in with ds.

[Lorayn]

My son is nearly three, and loves the tv, so I too have to find other things to occupy him, his favourite is singing and dressing up (as a fairy). Luckily I have a 6.9yo DD to play along with him, but she is rarely interested!!
Mainly books,cars,trains,and MUD are his pastimes.
Maybe try getting him some sort of pet that he can watch? not a cat/dog etc but how about some fish???
You'll find something constantly moving around can really catch their attention.

[Pinions]

Right after re-reading the thread, I have come to my own conclusion that its definitely educational type books that he needs,things that stretch his brain, as in numbers/vocab etc as he seems to love learning, so off to scour the internet for good books for a 3 year old. I think someone mentioned the Usbourne books are good, any other ideas for books to suit a 3 year old please?

He does get a good balance TBH has been with his BF playing nextdoor for the last 3 hours, poor nextdoor neighbour lol!

[handlemecarefully]

Blimey a G&T 3 year old ....

[handlemecarefully]

(Mine can be quite happily diverted just making stupid noises and chasing his older sister around the garden)

[Mercy]

tbh any old book will do for a 3 year old. Take him to the library or bookshop and let him chose one for himself (with a little guidance if buying)

[Pinions]

Handlemecarefully - I would quite gladly do a swap.

[handlemecarefully]

Yes I can see that - it must be wearing

[Mercy]

We've all had an only child to deal with though.

[Pinions]

Its just frustrating, because I know that I should be doing more but can't really work out what iyswim, I feel like I'm letting him down in a way, hey ho.

[Pinions]

(and have a 16 week old baby aaaargh!)

[handlemecarefully]

Perhaps you are doing too much already?

My dd - for some time until her brother came along, was an only child - and I really spent too much time stimulating her. Consequently she would quickly appear bored and restless if she wasn't getting my undivided attention.

Ds has always had to share me and so consequently has lower expectations and is better at occupying himself

Or am I talking twaddle?

[samanthar]

another vote for orchard games also try elc alphabet bingo
also to combine running off energy and brain activation get an elc pull out alpahbet puzzle put all the letters at one end of room /garden and shout out one or two he has to collect, if this goes too quickly give him diferent instructions to get them flylike abutterfly, crawl, gallop, walk backwards etc to the collection point
ditto with numbers
scissors mine love cutting stuff up argos catalogue in themes
if you want him to do sthing more 'useful'get him to type numbers with you on computer andpractice highlighting to print them out in differnt colours or sthing and then get him to cut them out and stick them on sthing
try dorling kindersley cd roms for age 3-4 they come with speed levels so last a while and are 4.99 from tkmaxx
paint ..this said mine are soon going to school and today we have done this for the first time in ages
letter and number stencils
this said all these things i have done with my twins.ddtwin was very happy and able to do it all ..dstwin only recently at over 4 is preapred to sit down and do the things that require concentrating. will look up my list of pre school sites and post back in a min

[Pinions]

No you're not, tbh I've tried this approach too, I decided a while ago that I was definitely "over-stimulatiting" him and if anything this was just as bad if not worse than under-stimulating him cos then he just wanted to be doing something new every minute of the day and tbh I just couldn't keep up with it. So I went in the opposite direction and kind of just let him have a bit of his own time, ie playing in the garden with his toys/scooter/tractor, or playing with a friend etc, but now I think I might have gone too far in the opposite direction.

God its a minefield being a parent. Help!

[samanthar]

here you go

TEACHING STARTING POINT INCLUDING EARLY YEARS
tre.ngfl.gov.uk/



SITES FOR IDEAS
www.first-school.ws/

www.abcteach.com/

www.underfives.co.uk/

ht tp://www.activityvillage.co.uk/

www.craftown.com/kids.htm

www.tlsbooks.com/presc hoolworksheets.htm

www.enchantedlearning.com/


www.make-stuff.com/kids/index.ht ml


EARLY READING
www.starfall.com/

www.scholastic.com/





TIED AND TESTED HANDS ON SITES AND GAMES

www.poissonrouge.com a good starter for mouse control and basic numbers etc

www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=gamesByAge&mcat=game_toddler&site=us
lots of games that are quite easy great on line colouring

members.learningplanet.com/directory/index.asp?lev=1 great train game, matching games

http www.primarygames.com/

have tried a few of these puzzles


www.excite.co.uk/directory/KidsandTeens/Pre-School loads of sites to try out please let me know any that are good for 3-4 age

so far from the 123 and ABC section have found this
www.abc.net.au/countusin/
good counting activities abit hard for 3 year olds though

www.dotolearn.com/games/learningames.htm lots here

www.uptoten.com/kids/uptoten-home.html


GRAPHICS
www.computeractive.co.uk /vnunet/downloads/2128563/tux-paint

TRACING/ HANDWRITING PRACTICE
www.mymoondrops.com/spelling.html#

www.penmanship.donnayoung.org/

[morningglory]

Activity books are great (someone mentioned Usborne, who do quite a few).

Computer games, particularly cbeebies website

Lego and trainset

"helping out" - I think kids like to feel useful, so I try and give him little tasks to do (opten ends up being more work for me, but he gets a kick out of it).

Board games (snakes and ladders, candyland)

Second the cooking bit

Shopping. Yes, a bit of a headache and requires patience, but it goes with the trying to be useful thing. I have him pick 5 apples, find particular items, and help me pick things to buy.

I'm lucky to belong to a very child friendly gym with lots of outdoor space, but it has what most parks have. We go there and he plays in the sandpit, bouncy castle, and playground. He tends to spend hours here because he gets the change to play with other children.

[samanthar]

actually his best thing at three was the toy kitchen and playdough ..he loved making peas and carrots pizza cake and cooking it and serving all the teddies etc

[Pinions]

Samanthar - fab list, just what I need!


Morningglory - thanks, helping out, but that means I have to use my imagination. LOL at cooking {{{{shudder}}}}, in the nicest possible way. I think the activity books are the way forward!