Things to do with a nearly 4yo without moving much

[TheWayTheLightFalls]

DD is on holiday from nursery. I’m heavily pregnant with bad PGP and breathing issues, so walking any distance is painful and as much as I want to wear a mask for the common good I need to pull it up every 20 paces to gulp air. I want to do a few fun/special things with her before her siblings turn up, ideally without catching covid into the bargain.

She is:
Pretty smart
Into food
Not very physical (ie doesn’t tend to run wild/kick footballs around etc)
Good concentration

So far for activities I’ve got:
Swimming
Going to Yo-Sushi for conveyor belt sushi
Cinema
New playgrounds
Playdates
Ice cream parlour visit
Jewellery making
Bus tour
Maybe Rainforest Cafe?

We’re in London. Don’t want anything too gimmicky but would like to do a few special things with her that we won’t really have the chance to do for a while again. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Are toddler groups still running? Mine has a 3.5 years age gap so probably similar to yours. I took mine to ballet, gymnastics classes. Play dates. Basically things that don’t involve me moving. Honestly though, DC1 didn’t remember anything before DC2. I think your little one will just love spending time with you and won’t remember exactly what you have done.

By the way, cinemas didn’t work with mine, but I know others love it. She wanted to leave as soon as she finished the sweets.

Ceramics cafe for painting. Or there are other ones where you can paint wooden boxes/name plates etc. She could maybe make something for the baby?

Do a treasure hunt for her. Write the clues. Maybe get DP to hide them round the house. She follows the clues. Treasure at the end.

Build-a-bear.

Local funfair.

Go to the theatre.

Board games. Simple but something that requires you giving her your whole attention which is what all 4 year olds want and what will be difficult to give her often going forward.

Baking
Afternoon tea somewhere really posh.
My nephew is seriously into Alphablocks at that age.
Less fun but you could turn it into a game, things that will be useful to be able to do herself once you have a newborn (is it newborns?) like getting dressed and undressed, putting her shoes and coat on herself.
Could you plant something from seed? (I’ve no idea about gardening and what’s good for this time of year!)
Learn to ride a bike without stabilisers (might be hard for you to do but there’s usually people who offer tuition)
Boat ride on the Thames
London Eye
Check if places like the zoo offer mobility scooter rental for you.

Riverbus

Get her a kids knife and a chopping board and make some food together - fruit kebabs, overnight oats with fruit, no bake cheesecakes, trifle.

Another vote for a Ceramic cafe session - she could do a mug for you/Dad?
Some Hobbycraft kits to make/paint at home?

Thanks all. @ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast I imagine the popcorn will be of more interest than the film but she now notices the film adverts on the sides of buses and seems keen to try.

Build-a-bear is a great idea, I think she’d love it and I’ll quietly grit my teeth about the price .

@emmathedilemma yep, two of them! She’s being lovely and excited and talking about how she’ll share her toys etc but I can see that even she is starting to notice the attention they get and I want her to feel special too. She quite likes gardening (well, picking berries) and ideally I’d like to take her to a blackberry patch or something but it’s again what’s do-able without totally flooring me.

Thames boat ride is a lot of walking - we can drive to Greenwich for example but then there’s a fair amount of walking from one place to another.

I’m getting very emotional about her all of a sudden.

@BigGreen she’d love that actually. We get Gousto boxes sometimes and she actually does a fair bit of helping. You’ve reminded me that we’ve got a pizza kit in the cupboard.

@Chocolateteabag there was one near me but it shut. I’ll have a look, there must be others. She’s not hugely into painting but they probably have things that 4yo can just splodge on a bit.

There are some lovely PYO farms around, but I think a lot of them involve at least a moderate amount of walking. There are blackberry bushes in our local park so maybe something like that near you? Maybe Google your nearest edible garden/forest school?

Make salt doh at home. Do hand/ foot tiles, make little animals and paint them.

Build a den out of a duvet cover and have a Teddy bears picnic in there

Do some flower pressing

Find old/outgrown wellies, and plant them up for the garden

Have a pyjama party

Play animal hospital and bandage up the teddies.

Get some jeli baf and let her have a long play on the bath while you sit with a coffe and chat to her

Oh bless, she’ll be fine. Lots of time and attention at home will be perfect. Not many people can remember the details of being 4!

Reading
Lego
Jigsaws
Colouring in
Arts and crafts
Baking
Make pizzas from scratch

Painting nails whilst in bed. Plasticine on a tray in bed. Tracing paper on children's magazines in bed. Sticker books in bed. I had SPD too and had to spend a lot of time lying down. Huge roll of plain wall paper and crayons (to exhausting to clean up paint). Mine liked helping, like sorting all the tins into rows etc. Knitting doll or finger knitting. Good luck.

@bluedomino she has already done my toes in a fetching shade of metallic blue - then refused to let me paint hers!

The play doh from the Imagination Tree site is really good. I make it and put it out with nature stuff, or sometimes bun cases and birthday candles. The kids spend ages cooking with it.