Any minimal screen time routine suggestions for 2yo Duggee addict?

[Tvscreen]

Ok there are probably worse things to be addicted to but I swear we spend at least 2hrs (if not more) watching Hey Duggee. It’s the only thing he requests.

He’s at home two days a week and I try to keep screen time to a minimum and not before 7am but I feel like it’s always on. We have it on from 7am until we get ready to go out.

I set up activities for him like messy play, arts and crafts etc and he shows very little interest. He will play with play dough, we will read, he will play with his cars and trains and will stand at the sink splashing water and that’s essentially it. These activities don’t tend to last very long. Maybe 15 mins each? He chucks about his puzzles, not interested in threading, not interested in learning how to use things like kids tongs, kids scissors etc. Sometimes he likes music but other times he screams at me to turn it off. He’s dances very occasionally (I would love to have lots of dance time with him). I’ve tried toy rotation but he gets upset if one of his previous vehicles is out of rotation!

I can’t do baking on our days off with him as my DH works in the kitchen.

We go out in the morning but because he wakes so early (5am) he gets tired and grumpy by about 10/10:30am so we come home and watch Duggee before nap time. Then he wakes up in a grump from his nap so we watch a bit of Duggee to calm him down.

Does anyone have any good toddler routine suggestions that I can try to follow? Any activity suggestions?

Any tips much appreciated!

My LO can be really demanding with a screen too. A walk to the park helps but not always doable with work, so things I use to distract are:

Selection of different sized/coloured balls and a cardboard box, get them to throw them in the box.. sounds simple but my LO thinks it’s amazing and it keeps her busy for ages in the garden

Mixing/baking/get them to see the playdough get made themselves (we just use flour and water).. then i give her a bunch of stuff like dried spaghetti, cookie cutters, rolling pin and it keeps her busy. Roll the playdough into balls and chuck it round.

Masking tape a huge bit of paper (bought a big cheap roll) to the floor and give them washable crayons.

Make instruments out of empty coffee tins/anything you can find and fill with rice and sellotape down or hit with a little drumstick

And a wobbelboard was a good investment for us .. i put all the sofa cushions down and let her loose climbing on it/balancing or using it as a slide (supervised cos it’s a bit of a hazard with a boisterous 2 year old)
She likes to run her toy truck over it and make it crash/pretend its a bridge for a train

Hope some of these help!

Also.. if he’s a Duggee fan you could try do some activities based on the show? Mine cleans her teeth whilst we sing the toothbrush song or dancing to the Stick song? Tell him he’ll get a squirrel club badge at the end of whatever activity

Thank you for this! I’m going to try telling him he’ll get a badge for various things tomorrow 🤣🤣🤣 first badge - the giving mummy a lie in badge!!