Toys and activities for 3-4 year olds

[graysor]

What do your 3-4 year olds like to play with most at home? What keeps them occupied?

Dd is 3.3 and doesn’t really play with anything. She mostly jumps on the sofa or rides her bike. I think the toys we have don’t spark her interest, so am wondering about investing in a few new bits. But I don’t want to spend money on stuff she’ll just ignore!

So, inspire me with what your 3-4 year olds love to do.

Thanks

Did likes her sylvanian families. She does need encouraging with lots of toys but this and her leap frog ice cream cart, she gets out without prompting.

my twin dds (age 3) love the mud kitchen we have in the garden. we give them some bowls of water, some herbs (they like the smell), whisks and other kitchen equipment, and they make some 'food'. they often add a handful of wet mud too!
they also like their walk along dog, which has a remote control and so walks along beside them. we also got them a little dog bowl (i think it was the one i linked), which they use to serve the food they make in the mud kitchen to their 'dog.' its also a great toy because they enjoy talking it on walks to the park.

all the best x

My three year old love playing with her kitchen, dolls and her brothers cars.

My 4 year old loves his play food - he doesn't "cook" as much anymore, he either plays shop with it or "goes camping". Also the wooden castle, Lego, Playmobil and board games get played with most days.

Big tub (or the bathroom sink if she has a step stool) half-filled with water, maybe a bit of bubbles, and various little containers/funnels and washcloth. My son would busy himself for 30-40’ just messing about like that.

DS’s most loved toys at 3 included mega blocs (now he has Lego) and play dough. He always mixed up the stuff or it got dry so I started buying cheaper playdo, the Poundland set of 4 is great.

DD (3 next month) loves small world play (and has since she was about 18 months). So Happyland, Sylvanian Family, Peppa Pig, wooden peg dolls - though to be honest she will pretend anything are people - breadsticks, cutlery..

She's also starting to go through a dinosaur phase.. loves acting things out with them too. Dolls, cuddly toys.. Likes playing shops with her till and play food. Cooking in her kitchen. She won't spend as long on more 'arty' things but does like her play doh.

Do you go to any toddler/play groups? What things does she like doing there? Ours has those bendy tube things (with feet and faces) I remember playing with in the 80s (they're called popoids apparently!) and she loves playing with those when they have them out. Thinking of possibly getting her some for her bday but they're pretty pricy! Or does she go to nursery? Do they tell you what she likes playing with there?

My DD would spend ages in the bath at that age! She just loved water play and we had a lot of bath toys. She’d come out like a shrivelled prune!

She also loved playdough. Just rolling it out flat and cutting out shapes, making snakes, rolling it into balls etc....

She used to copy me do the housework! She had a little pretend hover and a dust pan and brush. She loved using the dust pan so much that I used to lay trails for her to sweep up! Those were the days, if only she had stayed liked that! She watched me hang out the washing so I made a little washing line for her and gave her some pegs so she could hang up her own clothes.

Small world. Happyland, Sylvanian and playmobil.
Play doh.
Kitchen.
Tea set.
Sand pit.
Farm.

My 3.6 dd likes her mud kitchen, trampoline, bouncy hopper thing in garden outside. Inside she likes play doh, kinetic sand, playing with dry beans in a massive plastic box, her doll and pran and putting stuff in a backpack and carrying it around. Elefun is a hit and hungry hippos. She also likes puzzles. We don’t have a massive amount of toys as my dc have never been that interested but those are the popular ones. We also go to the park and the forest a lot.

She also loves getting a little mop and a bucket of water and ‘cleaning’ the decking outside. Keeps her entertained for ages!

Oh gosh, so many of these things dd just isn’t in to at all.

She always used to gravitate towards dolls houses at playgroups so we got her one a few months ago. But she’s not interested in it at all any more.

We don’t have space for a play kitchen, but do have play food, tea set etc. She won’t play with this. She won’t entertain play food at all, she just wants to do real baking or cooking. Or have real food items if she (rarely) plays shop.

She won’t do small world play with people or animals or dinosaurs. Has no interest in building with duplo. Just takes apart train tracks. She won’t concentrate on a jigsaw puzzle, she gives up or wanders off after doing 2 or 3 pieces. Same with games.

She hates baths (although loves swimming ).

I just feel like she doesn’t know how to play

I think it goes in phases! Mine currently live tour play, doctors, shop keepers, mummies and daddies, dogs (weird). But she needs her older brother for that really (he's 5).

On hey own she likes to dress up, do jigsaws, and draw/glue/cut. She also likes duplo a lot. And helping me in the kitchen.

I think it's quite normal for them not to know how to play b themselves. It's good you are trying to encourage it though.

Mine loves playdoh and colouring in/drawing. I have them on shelves so she can access it herself.

She lurves her doctor set and cash register.

Otherwise same as pp, small world play (specifically peppa pig), jigsaws, dolls and kitchen.

My DD was never massively into toys, still isn't at 6. She always preferred jigsaw puzzles and from 3ish The Orchard Games.

Now she can read and write she's more into that- writing stories and writing lists of stuff in her lockable diary!

Both my DC enjoy imaginative games like schools, doctors, holidays. They do it together these days which is nice, but when DD was 3 I just had to play those types of games a lot!

Your DD sounds a lot like mine. May I recommend the cupcake game and the shopping game by Orchard Toys- we have spent many an hour on these! Also Hungry Hippos and Pop up Pirate she also enjoyed a lot at that age.

DD1 is nearly 6 and used to love small world play but around 3.5 lost all interest in it. Since that age she's wanted to be the centre of the playing so lots of dressing up, acting out stories etc. Now she's older she does a lot of colouring and writing. But actual playing with toys, very little for the past couple of years.

Have a look at Montessori type actvitivies like transferring dry pasta (it’ll be inedible so keep some for this specifically!) between different containers. Also using tongs to transfer Pom poms in to different coloured cups. There’s loads of variations on this. And there are some Montessori specific toys you can buy on amazon.

My youngest is nearly 4, but has enjoyed for a while;
Duplo
Peppa Pig figures/houses
Playmobil
Toy kitchen and food
Messing in the bathroom sink and squirting copious amounts of soap
Playhouse in the garden
Craft stuff - cutting and sticking
Aquabeads
Reading
Jumping on the sofa and beds
Dressing dolls and teddies
Pushing the doll pram

Perhaps she is more social than imaginative? DS1 was very much like that. We went out to lots of groups (the children's centre was a lifesaver) and had a sort of core of friends we'd rotate around each others' houses, the local park etc. Not only did he do better with friends the adult contact was priceless for me. He would have done better with a close in age sibling, TBH, but it wasn't meant to be.

I will warn you as he got older screen time has become more and more of an issue for him and he ended up almost reliant on it, as have I, because it tends to be the only thing that calms him down or keeps him occupied without needing extensive input from me. Not saying don't ever use screen time as it did keep me sane, but just to try and keep an eye on the level you're using it and not to let it go overboard.

Maybe get some cheap plant pots and some seeds / plants so she can plant them out then water them etc ?