What to do with toddler

[ruthonfire]

I'm struggling to fill my days off with dd 18 months. She is quite a whirlwind and I find it easier to be out of the house with her as when we're home she doesn't do much except wander from room to room causing havoc! The only thing that keeps her quiet for a while is cartoons and I don't like to let her do that for too long.

We go for a walk everyday in the buggy. Also spend lots of time at the park where she can walk and run about. I would love to do some classes but she doesn't sit still like she used to she just wants to run about. So unless it's an informal play group setting (of which there aren't many on my days off) I don't feel comfortable. We go swimming, go to the library, go to cafes for lunch. But it all feels very repetitive.

Any ideas...?

We do lots of woodland walks, outdoor play and music time in addition to the list above. We're screen free so also rely on toy rotation. We do classes and just pushed through that phase of running about by choosing the most engaging and shortest.

Farms. Playdates. Meet people at the library and go for playdate/lunch.

Grandparents homes
Zoos
Read lots of books
Play trains

Play football or tennis in the park. you can start now

Start making Christmas Cards now (!) be creative

I would love to just have an 18 month old to play with and talk to again

It's a great age but difficult as she is fully mobile now but doesn't have the attention span to actually play or engage in anything for long. She can't even get to the end of me reading a story without running off. We spend lots of time outside but on rainy days I struggle.

It doesn't help that I don't know any other mums with kids her age so we don't have play dates.

We get out to a lot of classes. There are always a few of the toddlers running around, and nobody minds - they generally learn from their peers to sit and watch.
Classes like dance, football and rugby will help them burn off energy. We have a baby gym session where they can roam freely on gymnastics apparatus. We do trampolining too.

It's worth getting out of your local area for a change of scenery, we go to about 5 different libraries and 6 soft plays, my dd would get bored of the same one every time. And lots of different playgrounds and larger parks.

We are in London and go to museums and art galleries - they are mostly child-friendly and have lots of space to roam and look at interesting things. We have membership for the zoo and the royal palaces which is good value as we can just pop in for an hour or two. We have lots of childrens centres too, and travel to other boroughs to use the ones there so DD gets a lot of variety. In dry weather we walk along open spaces like the Thames path and traffic-free open spaces like Trafalgar Sq and Covent Garden.