Is there ^anything^ at all a 2.5 and 4yo can do

[Coldhandscoldheart]

That will occupy them for a bit without making a metric fuckton of mess, or screaming and that isn’t a screen?
They paint sometimes, actually 4yo can do it for a while, but then will start painting each other or the furniture.
Or am I just expecting too much?

Lego used to occupy my child for hours at four.

I have a 3yo and it's just him (for now) so no sibling to play with but no sibling to fight with either!

Do you have a garden?
The weather has taken a turn for the worse now (where I am anyway) but we've managed to get half an hour of peace while DS played happily in the sandpit (bought since lockdown!)
Occasionally he will happily play with his teddies, duplo or trains by himself for a while, but it's impossible to prompt or predict those moments.
The easiest win is the bath but you obviously can't leave them unsupervised in there!

YY to video chat with grandparent on a tablet (thank you Mum!!)

I'm potty training my 2yo at the moment, we're on day 4 and its actually giving us something to do, but he also broke the tv in the sitting room and it'll be a few days until our new one arrives, lots of dancing, playing at the sink and playing in the garden at the moment.

Freeze a toy in ice and let them chip it out

Set up a washing line and let them peg stuff to it

😂 @KatyN - your post shortly after one about pooing in the bath did startle me a bit.

Do you know, half the thing is, I think they sense when I’m craving peace and somehow it sets us up for a bad day, all the things that would normally busy them don’t work for some reason.
There’s a limit to how much mess we can ignore in quite a small house and they will just keep getting stuff out until no one can move & then throw glitter and paint over the top.

We are extremely fortunate to have a safe tho small garden & we do fo quite a bit out there. Like I say, one of those days.

It’s ok to have one of those days atm. I think people would be lying if they said they didn’t!! Dd has been in her pjs all day, and we both got into bed this afternoon so I could nap while she watched the kindle. I just couldn’t cope with laundry/playing/cooking/cleaning/being happy all day for one more minute!

She’s asleep and I’m drinking wine in the wet garden, trying not to think about doing it all again tomorrow!!

Cut yourself some slack, none of us planned for a pandemic when we had our babies

I invented a brilliant game the other day for my four-year-old. You get a limited amount of lego and take turns making something to surprise the other. The one that doesn't have the lego has to close their eyes until the 'thing' the other person is making is ready. If you play it on the couch, you get to lie down for five minutes with your eyes closed every time it's the other's turn. Dd loves this game a lot more than just normal lego-play. As do I, obviously.

I have 4yo twin DSs and a 16 month old DD and it is exhausting. Every night the boys ask what we’ll do tomorrow and if there will be surprises and I am just about out of ideas. I just tell them that we’ll have to see where the day takes us.

Things that have worked for us have been paint sticks. Actually, these are sort of revolutionary because they create the effect of painting with very little mess and they dry so quickly. Even the baby loves using them. You can also use them to draw on windows, which we’re going to do this week if the weather stays bad. They clean up very easily.

I let them request colouring pages and then google them and print them out. They spend more time colouring because they can choose whatever they want. They also like to cut out something they’ve coloured in and then tape it to a craft stick so they can use it like a puppet.

Magnatiles are expensive but absolutely one of the best purchases we’ve ever made, and I’ve not met a single child who hasn’t enjoyed them. They’re also much easier to tidy than Lego or Duplo.

Hang in there.

Oh, but also, I think "reasonable amounts of screen time" has gone out the window at the moment. Fuckit, whatever gets you through this without killing anyone/yourself is acceptable, I've decided.

Ping pong balls, balloons, chalk outside, cosmic yoga

It’s so hard when they have such short attention spans! So hard to think of enough stuff to fill a day. My four year old today has done a bit of drawing, played in a ball pool, played a fishing game, mopped the floor (I was doing it and she asked to!), found a feather duster and gone around the house dusting everything, played sylvanians (by herself thank goodness), asked to play a board game with me and got bored after 5 minutes, we went for an hours puddle jumping walk and she’s had meals and snacks and a bath. Other than that she has mostly watched tv and played on a tablet. I feel like a shit parent but I have two secondary children trying to do home learning and a baby to factor in as well.

The 14 month old learnt to scream today. So that’s been fun.

I had 3 under 5 in a small upstairs flat with cold, cold winters, so couldn't play outside.
I remember being shut in with toddlers and it was HARD. Top tips.

1. Go out every single morning for a walk, no buggy, make them walk. Use any and every distraction to make sure they are actually walking/running for a good 30 minutes, longer if they will. If raining welly walk, jump in puddles.

If sunny keep get them to keep going by looking for stuff - can we see the blakc cat in the next house? Let's see what colour the frnot doors are!! Look a red one! What colour is the next one? etc etc

1. Mostly they don't need you to play, they just need you there, so make a cup of tea, put a comfy cushion on the floor, and down, and just make happy agreeing noises eg dolls tea party, building wooden railway, duplo, whatever the game - Oh that (car/doll etc) is lovely, I like the dress you've put on her. Hmm, that's clever. Gosh O wonder if you can make that tower taller.

1. At the table mess. Playdough, bowl of water with washing up liquid, etc, you get to sit at the table, they get tp make a mess, you are with them so they are happy, you are sitting down, (with a cup of tea) so you are less stressed. if you have a bit of laydough to fiddle with, they ar ehappy.

I used to use home made playdough, so you have a huge lump of it. Then I let them use all the cooking stuff, cookie cutters, rolling pins and baking trays. They made all sorts of 'biscuits' and 'cooked' them in the over, they felt veyr grown up, at the end I just scooped it all up into a bag or the bin

1. Put them in the bath. This is so calming, and they are contained,a nd they have loads to paly with. I love the car cleaning one upthread. My mum told me that we always had dinner in our pjs, because by 5 pm she was on her knees, and stuck us in the bath. (she was a casserole cook always) so when dad got home, we put on pjs and she served dinner.

1. After lunch is quiet time. They have sofa and dvd. You have armchair and snooze read. if they want to play/be noisy, you need a teddy who is sleepign and everyone needs to shush so we don't wake the teddy up.

1. Don't stress the dirty clothes. Unless it is wet or smelly, they don't change their T-shirt just because it has some paint or playdough etc on it. They aren't allowed to randomly change clothes, apart from dressing up. No need to make washing, (especially when short on space to dry it.)

1. warm days, water and paintbrushes, watering cans to water plants, patch of mud and water (this is veyr messy though). picking daisies, that can last hours.

Cosmic yoga! I have DC aggressively yelling ‘NAMASTE’ at me to press play on the next one

I also have a 2.5 and 4 year old, I don't have a garden either so it is a little difficult.

We walk when we can, otherwise it's a mix of screen time, playing with each other, playing separately and those dreaded messy activities :( they are good at playing with eachother which is a relief as I also have a small baby.

Painting outside with water always entertains my 3 year old

Water beads have kept my 5yr, 3yr and 2yr olds occupied for hours over the last few weeks.

Mouldable soap or shaving foam in a tub with some cars/dinosaurs/toy people

Mine like cleaning, i hand them a cloth and send them off to dust

Brogley could 2 DC fit in the Hobbycraft house? They are pretty small for their respective ages.

@Foldinthecheese do the paint sticks really wipe/wash off windows ok? We got some from The Works and used them for first time today and they were brilliant for all the reasons you said! If we can draw on the windows with them that’ll buy me even more time (but also highly risky as my 20 month old is very keen on grabbing crayons or pens and scribbling on walls)

@Coldhandscoldheart I am in exactly the same boat, 4 year old and 20 month old and going quietly insane. I hate messy play or crafts, neither of the boys particularly like them either but 90% of stay at home activities seem to be that. Other activities I’ve seen only occupy him for about 5 mins (he did enjoy using kitchen tongs to rescue small toys from a big bowl of water but the timetable I saw it on had it down as a 30 minute activity ) was actually glad of the rain today as I eventually managed to get them to put wellies and waterproofs on and go puddle jumping which they both loved, used loads of energy and stayed out for about 45?mins!

Things I’m planning to buy if I can find in stock /cheap delivery are pavement chalks, Hamabeads and more of the paint sticks (got some of these from The Works)

Mine are almost two and four and my answer would be no. Or TV. Many much lots +++++ TV.

Set up stations at the beginning of each day. Nothing fancy just Lego in one place, colouring in another, random shit from the kitchen in another (DD had a thing about trainers and pouring water through them), water play or chalks outside and intersperse that with yoga/dancing/calling grandparents etc then just tidy a bit when they're doing the screen/ tech thing. Cut some holes in a bit of card and get them to throw coins or ping pong balls in. The Imagination Tree on FB is good but you might have to dial down some of their ideas for time. I've even been known to tape a loo roll to a door and give her pipe cleaners to post through them for a bit of peace!

@SadBee these are them

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/kids/kids-playhouses

My two youngest (just turned 3yo and a small for age 6yo) manage to both wedge themselves in there, it's close quarters though. Usually they play with one inside and one colouring. They have the castle and have been working on it for around three days.

Thanks Brogley. My two stand a good chance of squishing in then. Small 4 and nearly 2 year old! Cheers for the link too.

@ThePug I’ve not tried it yet, but we have the Little Brian one and their Instagram says it works well. I’ve had no problem cleaning them off anything else. I find them weirdly soothing to use. The texture is so nice and the pigmentation is really rich. Shame I have to share them with small children.