What does your dc aged 2.5 (ish) like playing!

[Racingsnake]

I am at a bit of a loss with dd.

With dh she climbs on the windowsill, rolls about, jumps off tables and climbs over stairgates. She is completely wild and enjoys herself a lot. Oh, and she watches dvd's with him. And paints the walls, her toys, etc.

I would love her to be able to play more constructively and her behaviour is beginning to get a bit wearing.

She has a dolls' house, a farm, a firestation, lots of dinosaurs, a box of cars, etc. Generally she just throws these or climbs on them.

She loves animals and spends lots of time with her guinea pig, rabbit, etc, carrying them about and force feeding them carrots. She has now started to try to do this with the fish, which has led to arguments.

What do/did your dc like to do at that age? Am I expecting too much?

DD loved jigsaw puzzles and climbing when she was 2.

Can you get her a baby buggy or a ride on? It allows her to be physical but in a more contained way.

My ds 2.4 also loves to jump on the sofa or the bed, if you can stomach that.

If you concentrate on letting her burn off her energy during the morning, perhaps you get her to nap better and hopefully opt for more gentle activities in the afternoon?

Wooden train set, 'flying' (me lying on floor on my back, her on my knees or the soles of my feet and I make her 'fly'), running up to me and when she gets there I give her a swing up into the air, then she runs away to repeat ad nauseam, hiding, pretending to be animals, books, building and knocking down towers, singing. So a mixture of constructive and wild things.

Oh, and ds's old tea set: she works in a cafe, I am her customer, endless cups of invisible tea and cakes. Also 'cooking' in real suacepans with invisble ingredients or small toys, stirring with wooden spoons. She runs a shop on a similar basis.

IKea tunnel and play tent
Tumbletots
Trike/scooter
She has an array of cloth toy shopping bags and enjoys putting her smaller toys in them and transporting them around the house.

One of our best toys hasd been those big foam squares with letters in them- they get made into all sorts of things and she has also learnt most of the alphabet.

JIgsaws. WE have the small wooden ones, but also a large wooden one that the children always dance on once they have completed it.

DS (2.7) likes to do lots of roleplaying - mostly ATM being Fireman Sam rescuing people (or being rescued) or playing at horses (set up show jumping course round sitting room). He also likes doing Playdoh, cutting things out, and sticking. However he needs to go outside and have a good run around at least once a day else it all goes wrong - so scootering, throwing a ball around, runnning madly all good. Outside. If its raining, we go to the feed merchants or DIY store so that he can get exercise, or use the little ELC bouncy castle

Yes, pop up tent and tunnel v popular here too. Too cold for garden and only tent fits indoors at the moment.

Big cardboard boxes. Ds will decorate them with his felt tips, climb inside, watch TV from inside etc. He gets more fun out of them playing with her older sister though.

DD is 2.7 and loves puzzles, she likes helping me make dinner or cakes, playdoh is a big hit, toy kitchen and role playing, dressing up and generally running around causing chaos. Swimming, soft play, playground, forest and local farms help to get some her energy out too!

It sounds as if wild running and jumping is pretty much the norm if I could add quieter activities too. She also spends a lot of time jumping on the bed, and in her cot (which is good because at least it gets some use).

I think a lot of the climbing is to provoke; she shouts 'DD up here!' and 'Get down' when she has made it to the back of the couch by climbing up the curtains again.

Must make more of an effort with playdough and strap her forcibly to a jigsaw puzzle encourage her to look at jigsaw puzzles. All her 2-year-old friends love jigsaws. I try not to compare, but they all seem so good at constructive playing.

CMOT, when you say 'the feed merchants', does that mean that you live in rural parts?

ds (2.5) loves to play with his wooden train track best of all. Also playdough, and doing the dishes (makes a lot of mess though...)

A walk a day is needed, and I also throw him out in the garden as much as possible.

We live in a small rural town in a very agricultural area. The feed merchants was one of my favourite places as a small child (in a different place, but I'm still very fond of it when I go with my Dad), and DS loves it at our local ones. Plenty of room to move around, and lots to look at. Also, no one minds a significant amount of noise.

DS not interested in jigsaws at all really - I think one of the attractions of Playdoh is that it is whatever you want. Sometimes his play with it is destructive rather than constructive, but I'm fine with that

Ds would like to climb on the windowsill/back of sofa/dining room table, but isn't allowed. Like your DD, some of this is to provoke, so now we remove silently like we do with the cats, and that seems to have (largely) knocked that on the head

trains, trains and trains!

DS2 likes playing bricks/cars/dolly/trains.

He also would love to have his tummy tickled for hours on end and loved to play rowrow boat over and over again.

He plays camps (with his bedding) and tunnels (with his pop up tunnel)

Other than that he likes to break stuff and throw stuff.

Interested in concept of 'not allowed'. My dh doesn't do not allowed, which is probably why she hasn't developed much in the way of quiet play as she has never had to. I am trying the 'quietly remove' bit.

Lacking a feed merchants (although we live in a very rural area), we have found the abbey in a nearby town good for wet days. Lots of space to move, pews to climb on, tombs to admire and (added hastily in case you all think she is running and screaming and upsetting old ladies at prayer) she doesn't disturb anyone because she is actually just quietly busy exploring.

Can't wait for outside to be more accessible due to the weather.

DD does lots and lots of 'pretend' play - cooking for/feeding/playing with her dolls and animals, and making me endless meals and cups of coffee, and talking to people on her 'phone.

A certain amount of chasing her brother round and round the kitchen.

If push comes to shove I put them in waterproof overalls and wellies and turf the pair of them outside for a while.

Could you not present the more um, challenging climbing as not safe to DH ? Very hard if you aren't coming from the same place. Certainly that is actually my opposition to the back of sofa, glass table etc, rather than anything else

DS likes the cathedral in our nearest city, which has the added bonus of possible singing (they have a lot of concerts there, and rehearse in the day). I like the tea room . The Abbey in our town isn't so interesting as not many tombs

I also have a fall back of a farm place that has a lot indoors/undercover, and a huuuuge barn with ride on tractors that is great on weekends, even if tipping down. I just zip him into the all in one waterproof and try and stand in the dry.

That's the thing - waterproofs and outside. The trouble is, if you onlt have one, they want you to come too ...

CMOT, dh (or HealthAndSafetyMan as we know him) doesn't like saying no, he would rather remove dangerous opportunities. I am just waiting for him to have the stairs removed.

Thats the thing - chucking in the garden doesn't quite work the same way.

Tricky one re DH. Mine likes balanced risk so we've never had stairgates, and let DS use knives and scissors under supervision

I can sympathise - I remember all too well DS wanting me to "come and play" all the time - but TBH I am fairly sure he was beyond that by 4 (in fact I know he was because we moved when he was 3.7 and he has always played outside on his own here - DD just joined him as she got sufficiently mobile).

If you have a garden (big if) you could try sending her on 5-15 minute missions (run round the garden x times, build a den, dribble a football from one end to the other) with you watching from a handy window - hopefully she will get engrossed and not notice whether you are watching or not.

We have gates top and bottom. During the day the gates are open and DD trots happily up and down fetching, carrying and visiting. At 5.30, we ceremoniously close the gate ready for dh's homecoming. We started doing this when I decided that doing a forward roll over the stairgate to get up the stairs was more dangerous than using the stairs.

Stealth - I hope that when DD is 4 (or even 3), she'll be able to go out and undertake missions in the garden. It sounds like us talking to our classes at school! "Yes, of course I'd love to see you skip backwards while singing songs from Mama Mia. I'll be looking out of the staffroom window."