Bored 2 year old-need ideas for activities

[appleandbananaa]

My 2.5 y o is so bored
He has a v short attention span and is a little behind with speech so it’s hard.

We’ve done painting, baking, play dough, sand, water, all his toys, books, garden, stickers, foam, etc etc etc
Once he’s done something once or twice he then has zero interest in it.

What other activities are there that I could do? As I don’t know how I’m going to cope till he starts school he’s bored so easily

I think there was an @MNHQ thread about entertaining toddlers in lockdown, might be worth a look?

I have two toddlers OP, I know how long the days can be!!

Thankyou ! I’ll have a look for it

I just feel bad he’s so bored but I can’t think of any new activities to do.

You could try a bowling alley by setting up cups to knock down, have a treasure hunt and make a map together so the whole activity takes a bit longer, or making an obstacle course that you have to do - then challenge him to do it with a ball on a spoon

Try looking on Instagram at hashtags like toddleractivity or toddlerplay Loads of stuff on there and great accounts to follow.

Thankyou I will have a look. Hopefully also when the parks are open that will help he liked that

Things we have done
Make a giant piece of paper and decorate it together, make your own play dough, freeze toys in a block of ice and give them tools to free them, set up a bunch of carnival games in the garden like bean bag toss and knock cans down. We bought glow sticks and taped them to the kids and turned off the lights so they looked like dancing skeletons, did a Harry Potter day. That's all I can think off. I'm out of ideas now.

I got my ds a massive Peppa pig sticker book. He will sit for a while sticking the pigs on to bits of paper/ me. And anything to do with pouring water or cleaning passes a few minutes... It's a slow day...

What does he do if taken into garden or room with toys? What does he go for?
Does he sit with any particular toy or just wander around?
What does he like?
How do you know he is "bored" ... some kids jVe short attention span but may still engage in preferred activity...ds would sit with books for example pull them all out..and watch videos
Are you going out for walks?

Oh God the ice thing. I did that with my 2 DDs. Thought 'great, a wee bit of STEM'. Took bloody ages to get the (plastic) insects out, to the point where I had to do a lot of it myself, everyone was soaked, the floor was soaked, DDs had wandered away to do something more fun...

Invest in a tuff tray OP and do lots of sensory play with him. Slime, water beads,rice, pasta, lentils, spaghetti, jelly etc etc hide animals, dinosaurs cars etc in it.

You can draw roads (with chalk pen) on the tray and use the cars and other vehicles.

Little world play

Or just make it into a simple water play (mine love hook a duck!) or sand play area

Play doh on the tuff tray with shapes

Split it and sort toys by colour

The ideas are endless...

My nearly 2 year old loves chalk on the patio, colouring books with her fav characters, messy play in the shower (bath paints m, shower gel, shaving foam etc), going out on her trike to check out all the neighbours pets, puddle hunting (thanks peppa), tea parties (thanks again peppa) and anything animal related like feeding the ducks or fish. These last around 10 mins so I find we have to get out even if it's just on her trike, to the beach or some green space.

I find it much easier if I have some sort of structure to my day/week. I think I would divide each day into 6 ‘sessions’ and think of a theme for each session. Monday might be 1. Walk 2. T.v. 3. Dough 4. Balls 5. Playground 6. Books.
Then you could have different types of activity for each week - dough: play dough, moon dough, Salt dough etc. balls: marble run, golf, football etc.
Included in this would be time when you get stuff done and he wanders off. Meal and snack times etc.
Other ‘session’ ideas: paint/colour, cooking, boxes, water, sand, building, animals, wheels, sticking, music, jumping, throwing, bubbles etc.

Why not just put a few bits and pieces out and leave him to it?
Do you have to organise or be so involved with it all?
My 2.5 year old just merrily shambles about the place doing whatever takes her fancy. She occasionally pops up on Dh conference calls or elder brother and fort nite gaming, but other than that she just gets on.
Today she walked doll's in the buggy and went in the garden to her playhouse to make them tea, abandoned them to play duplo, played trains with train teach she built and just mooched around the house.

He seems to get frustrated/throws things/cries and then won’t play if he’s done that activity a few times before
He doesn’t have much speech so that is hard as he can’t tell me!
If he has a new activity or toy he will be totally engrossed and love it Then the next day disinterested and if I try to play again he will throw it and scream.

If I can think of a different thing every day or so he seems happier but I can’t think of any more things

Walks are hell on Earth, he won’t hold hands he will throw himself down which isn’t ideal. Got reins but he still won’t walk with us just seems to go in circles. Most places we go to we end up when it’s time to go carrying him out screaming as although he understands ‘all done now/time to go’ he screams even with some warning a few mins before then just before that it’s nearly time to go but we keep going as how else will he learn. It’s exhausting though !
In the garden he seems happy largely ignores toys eg slide he likes to play with the gravel he will put that down the slide but not himself !

We had a good routine a few months ago some nice groups and the park to play but I think the last few weeks he’s just got quite bored it’s a shame

What did he like in the park? The play ground? The main park is still open right?
It s all about communication.

Maybe he isn't "bored" but missing those things..from before? .he doesn't have language to say. or was he difficult on walks before?
Can you use some visuals pictures of things places show him does he connect image to item.?
Has he learned any signs himself? How does he communicate other than behaviour?
What does his speech therapist suggest?
Have you done the MCHAT assessment?

Can you go back to things you tried a week ago?
If he rolls gravel down slide fine join in roll his teddies down too. Does he like the sound?

Yes the playground
Speech therapist could only do a phone assessment so no appts yet but have followed her advice to elaborate on things so if he says ‘car’ we say ‘yes,a red car driving !’ Etc

Very likely he is missing things he did before. He doesn’t tend to ask for much at all just gets upset ? We can’t go to the park as normal as he can’t understand it’s not the play area so gets v v upset and we have lots of crying so waiting to go back when he can !

4 July right for play areas?

Try some photos you can use Google maps to show places

You can show you are sad too about it being closed.

I need to go out and about with my DS otherwise I go mental after a while, there is only so much play you can do with a little one, especially with their limited attention spans at that age.

Play areas aren't open yet but for us just going to the shops (greengrocers, bakery) has been a life saver. Near to us some farm parks have opened too, I took him to one last week and he absolutely LOVED it. You can feed the animals at the one we went to.

Yes might be worth looking at new different ones spaces. Try using visuals to show where you be going . Get a photo from Google maps or open space website for example.
Any child with delay in speech using visuals to support might help.