I need some fresh play ideas pleeeease CMers!

[TheBreastmilksOnMe]

I have two 2yr olds three days a week and with the weather not being great around here I feel like my ideas are getting a bit stale. Please can you give me some interesting play ideas that don't cost a fortune for the two little monkeys I've got at home!

Have you done play dough? If have a great receipe that does not require cooking. I find that this keep all age groups busy.

we've had fun doing string painting

I havn't actually made playdough with them but they do love to play with it, I'd love the recipe if you wouldn't mind?

Den building. Mine can do that for hours :)

Paintbrushes and a bucket of water, let them paint the outside of the house, can do in the wet weather with waterproofs and wellies

I have 4 aged 3 and under each day, one day it's 4 x 2 year olds and this is what they like to do

Role play (all sorts of things)
Dressing Up
Playing with babies
Train Sets
Musical Instruments
Singing Songs
Dancing to music
Playing in dens
Pop up tent/tunnel
Playdoh
Painting (recently learnt how to do butterfly prints)
Threading pasta
Drawing
Sticking
Looking at books
Playing with farm set/animals
Shape sorter
Junk modeling (or if younger end, playing with things like shakers that have been made with lots of help)
Ride on toys
Catching little soft balls/bean bags

Hopefully that helps a litte, obviously these are just indoor ideas

Here goes

Half cup of salt
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cream of tartar (natural raising agent)
1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of boiling water (kettle) mixed with food colouring

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add boiling water. MIX VIGOUROUSLY

You may need to add some more flour if a little sticky.

Store in airtight container or plastic bag in fridge (keep for months)
[GRIN]

Great thanks for the recipe (looking forward to using the no cook method as I didn't like the other method) and the ideas, I've done some or all of them at one time or other but they just don't have much attention span at this age, especially one of the toddlers, and no activity seems to last longer than 5mins before their attention starts to wander, I'll just have to keep on trying to invent activities in different ways to keep it fresh.

making cheese straws - my 2 yr old loves grating cheese and it takes ages, also learning how to crack eggs.

playing shops first

doing the washing up is also a favoutite past time. obviously remove all dangerous objects and don't expect anything to be clean but its quite good fun.

playing 'stop' 'go'

washing dolls clothes in a bowl on the floor

You can add glitter and food colouring to the playdough. I get their plates out and we make "lunch". They can make sausages, peas etc.

Cheap shaving foam has a wonderful texture. Squirt it onto a plastic tablecloth and let them handle it.

Give them saucepans, big plastic bowls and ladles etc from your kitchen. I usually give them my clothes pegs and they love moving them from one space to another.

String painting sounds great fun,
Can you tell me how you do this please.
I look after boys mainly, 3 and 4 yr olds and they love rumaging in huge box of lego, also sit and play with kid k'nex, and are currently into bionicles!

a new website i found childminding forum ,once on go into free resources go under 1 off the 6 heading ie cd,kuow,psed.ect and there are lists of things to do under each heading also recipies for play doh ,glup,and lots of other things hope this helps .

Hi missymoo, can you tell me the name of the website please?

I have 2x nearly 2y/o's and a 10m/o, we had excellent fun doing a 'packing/transporting' activity, I had one box full of different types of bag (wheely overnight case was the favourite!), another box full of bits of material (different textures/colours/shapes), and another box full of packable things - containers, bracelets, DVD cases and things like that, anything sensory went in too.

I encouraged the kids to pack a bag of their choice and to carry their cases into another room and unpack them into an empty box - kids did it for about an hour and 10m/o got involved in sorting/unpacking/sensory bits.

It's good as it can fit into 'holiday' themes, sorting/transporting schemas & is great for babies as they get to play with sensory items whilst feeling all grown up cos they're playing with the older kids.

hi brestmilk its ( childminding forum)not sure if its .co.uk or .com just google it good look

jaze string painting 1x large piece of paper 2 to 4 lengths of string that hang out of the bottom off paper .dip string into paint cover fully but leave ends uncovered, lay sring onto paper all different directions with ends hanging out, fold paper over in half keeping ends of string out ,push paper down then slowly pull each string out from the paper .once done opene paper and you shoul have a patteren ,have a mess around to see what works for you very messt but good fun

Or you can tie pieces of string around a lolly stick then holding the stick you dangle the string in paint, then dangle string onto paper, this means the string hits the paper in lots of different patterns

sorry to gatecrash slightly but i have a 9 month old, 15 month old and 22 month old and am struggling other than musical toys/little people peoples things/ball games/ cars and trucks etc...the younger ones are still at the "lets eat the crayons/playdoh stsgre so cant do that..any suggestion for this age? thankyou

Pinkchick, When my mindees were those ages we used to use gloop, jelly, cold cooked pasta etc for messy/exploration play. I used to use angel delight mixed with water for them to finger paint with,adding oats for texture. Treasure baskets are great for lo's along with a fruit and veg basket. Mine used to love feeling the fruits, smelling them, rolling them, eating them! Also containers of different sizes with lids, wooden utensils, play food, saucepans for banging, mirrors ( safety), ball pit with soft toys hidden for them to find. Any kind of construction aswell ie, mega blocks, wooden blocks, stacking cups etc.....