How to stimulate nearly 3 years old boy?

[BaldHedgehog]

DS will be 3 in a couple of months and I have no clue what to do with him.I don't want him to be glued to tv or dvd player for longer than it's necessary (essential tidy up and meal preparation).He's got quite short attention span-nothing unusual at this age I suppose.

He came off the books,not interested in new ones,not interested in making anything(crafts) or paints.Currently he likes his alphabet blocks,trying first scribbles with pencils and simple jigsaw puzzles.

We live in a small village so not many places to go here-farmland is a no no and plenty of local forest tracks closed due to tree cutting.

I also have 8 mo baby.

What can I do with him in these rare moments that wee teething monster is sleeping?I'd love to try something that could attract his attention for a bit longer and stops him climbing the walls when the weather's rubbish and we can't go out?

Any not too messy suggestions are most welcome.

Thank you :)

Cooking eg jelly mess free interesting, textures etc
Looking at photos pictures etc all about me- my 3yo is fascinated by photos if a young me!!
Den making ie laundry rack with sheet on top teddies inside
Picnic tea- normal tea on floor weirdly exciting for small child...!

Google toddler activities or take a look on Pinterest - there's loads on inspiration. Recently ds had chicken pox & we had a number of housebound days and it helped me survive! Our favourite was balloon rockets!

One I didn't get to try was sticky spiderweb - use masking tape to make a spiderweb across the door frame, make newspaper balls & throw them, seeing if you can get them to stick.

You can have a tray of cous cous for him to make marks & shapes in. Also great for toy diggers!

As the weather gets warmer you could chalk hopscotch or he could draw on the path outside the house.

Thank you :) Spider web from masking tape sounds fantastic!

If you have 'toddler-safe' scissors, give him junk mail or catalogues to cut up, and stick interesting pictures onto light card (cereal box). Then he (or you, if it is difficult for him) cut that up into pieces, to make your own jigsaw puzzles. Depending on his skill, increase the number of pieces in the puzzle. To make it harder, have a different picture on the back. Then he has to first sort out which side he is working on.

If there are large captions, logos or text, so much the better, and he can start to match letters with his alphabet blocks (lower case, I hope!) Have envelopes or small boxes to store the pieces in, so they don't get TOO mixed up.

When he gets to school, he will have a head start!

I am in similar position as have an 8 month old baby and a 3.4 year old. It's hard to do activities the baby doesn't sabotage!

I filled an under bed storage box with some rice and lentils and stones, then added his diggers and some old food box buildings. He loved that for ages.

Baking, try simple things like flapjacks and fairy cakes.

My little boy lost interest in creative things too. But he loves cutting. So we make paper dolls and snow flakes.

Rhyme time at local library.

We drew a system of roads and buildings on the back of a roll of wallpaper, then he played cars on it.

Lots of imaginary play too. Tonight we ran a cafe, so he was making tea and cakes and serving his toys, we also do doctors an vets.

It is hard though. My ds generally just wants to watch TV, and I really don't want him watching it as much as he does.

Thank you for all the replies.I think he's still too young for a pretend play,will try to make a tent from chairs/blankets/towels if there's another crap weather day.DH takes him out tomorrow,fantastic!He's got some new jigsaws today and was very pleased with them!

You might be surprised by the pretend play, he might just need some props and a poke in the right direction. Play something he is familiar with, like supermarkets and just get some packets out of your cupboards as props.