What games and activities does your 2+ most enjoy?

[mummylonglegs]

No worries here just curious after browsing through various threads here on similar subjects.

My dd is a very chatty 2.5 year old and always wants to play little 'role playing' games with her toys - Noddy, Big Ears, some tiny bears etc. which involve fairly simple little scenarious about sharing, accidents, illnesses, cuddles. And of course she loves having stories. I can't really get her interested in anything like doing puzzles, building, drawing and painting. I'd really like to do some of those latter things with her as the role playing stuff can get a bit wearying sometimes especially when Noddy has 'broken his leg' for the 40th time in an hour! As she's an only child she relies on me to act out these games. I don't mind as I love playing with her but I would also enjoy doing some slightly more low-key play.

So what kinds of things do your kids do?

My dd is 2 and she too is into the roleplaying lark with whatever dolly/teddy is around at the time.
Other faves are happy street, cars, colouring, painting, playdoh, books. And the latest is putting dvd's on - she has recently worked out how to do this and so puts one on watches it for five seconds and then goes and does something else. She does ensure that she puts whatever dvd she took out the player back into its box though! bless.
I know what you mean about role play becoming a little tiring!! Do you have a painting easel? My dd will spend quite a while at the easel which is great cos i put it in the entrance to the kitchen (easy to clean floor) and i get on with cooking/cleaning/ironing/tea making! Just have to remember to replace her paper every now and then.

My dd started to play simple games at that age. The ones made by Orchard are very good.

ds2 is 23 mo, fave things are jigsaws (esp with bob/noddy), plamobil (hmm) marble run (double hmmm - can you tell he is the youngest?!), play food eg pizza and toaster and dressing up esp in pink frilly skirts. He also loves videos esp shrek and also things like the train track and the garage, also the farm, so not a bad range really.

oh yes forgot that he LOVES the game Picnic, it's a way to get him to do anything at the moment and it's fab caouse the dice is really big and he can't swallow it!

my ds loves anthing to do with diggers and tractors,also loves stories.can't get him into playdough or drawing at all!
Must try the role play ,I remember my dd doing it when she was his age (11 yrs ago!)

Sallystrawberry, yes, I forgot that one, dd also loves standing on her box at the kitchen sink playing with water. It also turns into role play in her case though - usually with a little toy drowning and being saved or being made into a soup! I sense a morbidity in her play sometimes ...

So, do many toddlers NOT like jigsaws and building etc.?

teeny bump ...

My DD is 26 months and like puzzles. She stumbbles in puzzles with more than 8 pieces and likes always new ones. The "old ones" (i.e. she has done more than 5 times) usually get taken out of the box and put back.... She does likes other games too, like matching animal cards, etc. But again, they do seem to have a shorter life-span than her books wich she would read over and over, and over....

Ds2 (25mths) loves puzzles, shape-sorters, drawing, painting, and basically anything that spins. He doesn't do any pretend play though unless I show him what to do.

Hi coppertop .

Ok, so they all seem to like puzzles. How do I get my little darling interested in them? I got out a very small simple one yesterday with only 4 pieces and she rapidly started making the pieces into a rainhat for Big Ears and wouldn't let me put it where it was supposed to go!

mumylonglegs lol at yr dd and the rainhat for Big Ears! we are puzzle fiends in this house but then (apparently) I was always very keen too. DS2 seems to have bypassed the very easy ones and is totally keen to do eg a 15-piece one (with a lot of help from me of course). But if your dd doesn?t want to do them then it doesn?t matter. It?s hardly a major criterion for learning. How about finding something else that helps with her fine motor or problem solving - marble run (if she?s good at not putting things in her mouth), cutting and sticking, or toys she can put together and pretend play with like baby lego cars and people?

It sounds like your DD has a fantastic imagination! My DD isn't that bothered about building things, but likes puzzles now that she finds them easier (2yrs 10mo). Make believe, dressing up, hopscotch, drawing, papier mache, painting, glueing, sticking, general 'making' of anything, with any media - the messier the better, are her favourite things to do. She likes to 'write' and 'read' very much.
But, her all time favourite, top of the list, number one passtime is.........

Cbeebies, of course!

Ah, that's it. My DD prefers the unstructured to the structured I think. She likes to be good at things immediately, so gets frustrated if she can't do a puzzle or build something 'accurately'.
That's really interesting for me to realise! Thanks mummylonglegs .

Levanna, that's my dd exactly! She HATES failing at anything so won't generally tend to give it a try unless she feels relatively certain she'll succeed.

What's 'marble run'? And what other 'problem-solving' type games might I try?

Yes, I think things to do with problem-solving are not her forte - unless it's deciding whether to make a jacket for Noddy out of a sanitary towel wrapper or a piece of tissue ... Unfortunately she went for the sanitary towel wrapper and everyone on the bus recognised what it was ...

LOL at Noddy's jacket!!

Hi, Mummylonglegs!

Yes, it's amazing how those little wrappers can be adapted ...

This is interesting. DD is 2.10 and has only jsut started to do roleplaying - limited atm to copying things I have done to her brother with her dolls, or pretending to be a variety of animals. But she can do one of her 30 piece jigsaws by herself and loves all puzzles (I've started visiting the local charity shop to keep her in puzzles). Her latest ove is "old Macdonalds Farm" - where you have to spin a spinner to get the animals to fit them into your puzzle - little madam even tries to cheat of she is losing!

She also loves buildng things with her blocks, and has a set of magnetic blocks which came with pictures of suggested things you could build - she loves trying to make the models. And putting CD's on and dancing with me, and stickers - oh does she luuuuuurrrrrvvvvveeeee stickers.

DD (2.5) loves to roleplay too although her fav game is to get all the little scatter cushions off of the sofas and one teddy goes on each with a blanket over, they then get told to shh and go to sleep. She has been playing with dolls since about 7months, (if i hadn't seen it myself i wouldn't ahve believed it - she crawled over to her doll and put a bottle in its mouth, my mum was there and was gobsmacked).

She also loves to do jigsaws but has to be encouraged to do the ones with more than 10 pieces, she says 'to hard mummy do' but it left alone she can do them.

She also loves to sing and will spend hours singing to her animals and dolls.

She's a really girlie girl give her a car and she'll turn her nose up! same with train tracks and roads.

We are quite fourtuneate that she is a very indepenent little soul and will take herself off and play

mummylonglegs, marble run is a fab toy where you build a series of towers and then drop marbles down it and they roll around, go through spinny things and do a loop the loop... you don?t see it at mums and tots groups because of course it?s no good for tinies, but if yr dd is 2.5 then she?ll probably be fine (the risk is that they put marble in mouth and choke, but my ds2 is fine as logn as you supervise and he?s not 2 yet).
It?s just fab, mine stand and watch amazed, also have fun putting it together (you might liek it too). recommend the ELC one as friends have bought others and found them less good but ELC has lots of interestign bits...
here it is

Ok, Prufrock, then at 2.10 my dd might get into puzzles then?

She does play on her own quite often doing the voices of the various characters in her role play game. But she really prefers it if I'm involved!

Thanks for the link, choc, I'll maybe get her one of those. Come to think of it I don't really have many things around that she can 'construct' something out of. When I do try she seems to get bored with it very quickly. We had some picture blocks dp bought her and she will make them into a kind of 'train' and sit some tiny toys on it for a ride. But it's more that it's their ride than that it's a built train that interests her if you see what I mean?

My 2.5 dd enjoys role-playing/imagination games but does so without interaction from me. She will happily play for an hour or two by herself now with her dollies etc.

The dolls pram is a favourite as is doll's bed with blankets etc. She has about 45000 dolls...

I have recently bought some small Polly Pockets from ebay which she likes playing with. She also liked Sylvanian family stuff and houses (ebay again!).

Puzzles she likes but I have to help because she's rubbish at them, so I try to put her off.

DD (2y 11m) loves playing her own imaginative games - with her dolls, kitchen, happy land stuff, etc. She will do this on her own for ages and ages, or will play with me or another adult, or another child if have anyone round.

She loves doing arty stuff too, but not for as long as her imaginative games. She likes drawing and apinting, and she likes school work -a s she calls it - tracing over letters and numbers, trying to write her name, etc.

She will read for ages - either me reading, or her reading to herself and/or dolls.

She does like to play games - snakes and ladders, jigsaws, puzles, etc. but again they don't hold her attenstion for very long. And she isn't into jigsaws at all really. Bricks are fine for a while, but not a huge favourite.

She also loves to sing and dance, with or without a DVD/programme playing along side. And she enjoys watching (and singing along, talking about) her films - Beauty and the Beast, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Little Mermaid are firm favourites.

And anything that involves helping me (or someone else) - cooking, cleaning, etc.