How to amuse 22 month old all day!

[teaandkittehs]

Hi All,

I've got a lovely little 22 month old girl. She is in childcare about 10 hours a week, but the rest of the time my husband and I raised her at home while passing her back and forth and doing our respective jobs. It works quite well, but I'm wondering whether I am missing something as it can be difficult to keep her amused. We do outings such a walks in the woods, the park, soft play, museum, swimming etc. She has a lot of time outdoors as well love going for walks etc and we have a dog. But there is a lot of day to fill and you can't go on constant outings, so obviously it's necessary to have stuff to do indoors, especially as we head into winter and the rain precludes going outside entirely at times. We've got books, an easel for pens, chalk and paint, a train set, a farm set, a little blow up paddling pool which we use as a ball pit, etc, and various toys around the house. We do all the usual things such a singing, dancing, emptying out the tupperware and utensil drawers etc. She also watches some tv, much as I hate letting her do so, but it just seems impossible to constantly be doing things, especially since her concentration span and capability means things like painting or play dough only last 10 mins or so at present. I just wonder what everyone else does all day - I feel at times she is frustrated with her environment and playing with the same toys. It's seems she's a bit stuck between phases at present as I expect things like painting will last longer as she gets older, but for now it's a bit of a train of short activities one after another! We do housework with her there and involve her where possible, or let her do her thing while we do the chores. I'm just at a bit of a loss as regards what to do all the time! Please tell me it's normal to feel like this!

Sounds very normal to me - I have a 20 month old and we jump from activity to activity.
I have found that swapping out his toys gives him better concentration on them. So he has a train set and duplo but we only have one of them downstairs for him to play with at a time. Then after a few days we’ll swap them over. Then it’s kind of like having a new toy every few days.
I do think it’ll be harder over winter with having a bit less opportunity to be outside. Though my plan is to get out for walks and puddle jumping most days unless it’s absolutely chucking it down.
I also feel like this is an inbetween stage - they can play on their own for a bit but quickly get distracted / bored.
We’ve enjoyed baking together recently. And I always take him to the supermarket with me as that entertains him.

Ah thanks so much for responding. I'm glad it sounds normal, I can just see her getting a bit frustrated over the past few days or weeks, but she's also showing more emotion over the past two weeks so i think there is developmental stuff at work. It's tough when they are a bit in-between stages! We still do the supermarket too, i expect she will tire of it at some point but it's okay once or twice a week for now. I did the puddle walk yesterday and my husband is doing it today, and she will walk for anything up to 1.5 hours in the woods and mountains near us when we take the dog out, which is great. I was considering trying baking next but I need to do a bit of research as I've not given her anything with added sugar in it yet so want to try to make something healthy ish that she can both cook and eat! Or i could ease up a bit and let her help make and eat cookies. I'm a bit strict with her diet I guess, I think quite a lot of kids have had chocolate or biscuits by her age. I also used to do the toy rotation but we realised at 18 months that she had outgrown her toys and I got rid of a load and got some new things in and gave them all to her at once, maybe I'll get one more new thing and start the rotation again as she is using it all at present (except her toy kitchen, she mostly just dumps all the food out, we cook every day so she sees us both doing it, but she's not got much into role playing with it yet, she probably will do more with age, don't think she quite knows what to do with it yet, and it's too big to put away so it's just sitting there!)
I expect the next few months will see more skills and language coming our way which will help, but I can also see more serious tantrums on the horizon, she's quite easy to distract at present. We've been a bit crap recently and let her have too much tv (we had multiple bouts of serious and lasting illness in the house which also coincided with my stepson returning to school and my job ramping up for the busy season) so I'm trying to dial that back as she starts asking for the tv to be on as soon as she gets home over the past 3 days, i really regret allowing that to creep in so much! All my friends are more restrictive with tv but all of them have their kids in nursery 4 days a week whereas we can't afford that so we have a lot more amusing to do and sometimes letting her watch in the night garden or whatever has been a blessing, but it's becoming a curse now!

If you want to go diving in the archives, there will be lots of ideas in some of the lockdown threads. From my own memories of that time – does she like a bath? If so, a long daytime bath with plenty of toys can kill an hour. Anything safe in the water is a bath toy in this house – duplo, schleich-type animals, random kitchen utensils, etc. Top up the water a bit if it starts getting cold. Or do some simple messy play in the bath and then wash it and her down.

For baking, there are lots of recipes about for fruit-sweetened muffins. Scones are another go-to for me (a touch of sugar, but not too much, or do cheese ones). Mine also liked making bread rolls or dough for homemade pizzas.

Do you have duplo? My DDs both liked it by that age, and it was good for pretty independent play whilst I got on with something in the same room. You can pick a job lot pretty cheaply secondhand if you aren't picking about having a specific set.

Great I'll get some duplo and look up some recipes. I thought duplo was just blocks, which she has got, but looking at the pictures it's not, i think she will like it!