Encouraging 4 year old to play independently

[Wherethereshope]

DS has not long turned 4. He's not great at playing by himself and wants us to play with him a lot. I have no issue with this but would like to help him develop the skills to play on his own a little. I'm not expecting this to be for long periods.

I think its partly him not being able to decide what to play with - and not always concentrating for long on one thing.

Do you have any ideas we can try?

Set out different 'stations' around a room or house. For example have a car garage and assortment of cars on one corner - puzzle laid out ready in another - small world toys and kitchen/cooking equipment elsewhere. This way he will be naturally drawn to the different activities and may explore himself. It may only give you 15-20 mins but when he realises he can develop his own play you can elaborate on these stations and adapt to his interests x

My daughter is a couple of months younger but something that works well with her is playing with her initially, letting her get engrossed and then peeling off to make myself a cup of tea. Then she knows I'm just in the next room and will help her if she needs. Some toys seem to lend themselves more to playing alone than others - my daughter can play independently with Magformers for ages, for example, but wants me to come in much more often if she's playing with her kitchen, for example.

Brilliant, thankyou I tried the stations idea and that was good yesterday. Today it's like they're the most boring toys in the world and didn't go near them!!