advice on activities to do with a 4 &half boy

[preciousmum]

Hi there.

I am finding it hard to keep my 4 and half boy occupied during this holiday,i mean indoors.We do play some role-play game which he loves,also we do some reading,and he plays with his toys.He's not interested at painting or drawing...Any advice will be aprecciated.
Thanks.

my 5yo nephew loves making dens and forts - out of sheets, clothes airers, sofa cushions and the like. He then stays in them quietly and happily for ages with his toys

My 4 yo DS likes junk modelling out of old cardboard boxes (I have to do most of it though!). Also putting all the sofa cushions on the floor and jumping on them. What about jigsaws? Does he like those? Or cooking - one of those really easy cake kits? Again you'll probably need to do most of it but he can "help".

My ds loves playing dogs in their kennels!!! he has loads of sheets,cushions and clothes pegs and generally takes over my front room.
He also loves playmobil with the emergency services and loves music and breakdancing!!
But to be honest if he can be outside all the better, give him some chalk to colour all the patio and then a pot of water and a paintbrush to wash it all off again generally keeps him entertained for hours.
But he's out on his bike at the moment so all is well.

Playmobil's a favourite here too for my 4 and a half year old dd. I'm lucky in that her younger brother has recently got to the right age to be fun for her to play with so I don't have to get too involved (until violence breaks out!) and they play elaborate dressing up games which spread throughout the house and make a huge mess, but when he's asleep or not around she will play happily with Playmobil for ages (and her Barbies but your ds perhaps wouldn't be so keen on those - although my boy LOVES them and carried a naked Cinderella everywhere with us the other day!) She also loves it if I let her go on my laptop for a little while - there is a brilliant website called Poisson Rouge here which she can go on with minimal help from me.

Playdough is also a big hit for whiling away some time (I've been meaning to find the time to make some of our own), and plasticine. And threading beads on to string to make necklaces. I want to get her some Hama beads as I think she'd enjoy those. And she loves playing board games - we have a couple of the Orchard Toys games and a few like snakes and ladders, kerplunk etc.

And of course when all else fails we have the perennial fall back of endless dvds and CBeebies!

Thanks to all mumsnet members for their advice.And thank you Tokkabilla for the website link " poisson rouge".My son is madly obsesed with all the things that involve some mecanique,or any tecnical side.We spend hours pretending that we are calling engineer to come and fix our boiler ,or and angineer to fix our electricity suply,or the phone line...And he's very i mean very good at that,the vocabulery he uses is just amasing.Also he like to be a rabbit in the cage,he spend some time on the computer,He likes to make playhouse out of the cusions,and i do take him out to see the stables,or to cycle,he play in the garden,we do a lot of reading ,and i start to involve a bit of wrinting as well,eventhough he hasn't started school yet.But the thing is i am feeling i am not doing enaugh.Sorry for all the spelling mistake and my phrases are not well linked toghether.English is not my first language.
Once again thanks to all of you.).

If you are near London, my 4 year old highly (and I mean HIGHLY) recommends the "Dinosaur Museum", which everybody else calls the "Natural History Museum".

If your biy is really mechanically inclined, I would also reccoment meccano.

preciousmum it sounds like you do LOADS with him! Far more than I do with my dd - but then I also firmly believe that it's important for children to have time when they have to make their own entertainment!

also science museum great for hands on exploration of machines

farmyard places/zoo?

baking - my DS used to spend ages playing with leftover pastry. also love icing and decorating fairy cakes, give little bowls with different colour icings in and lots of teaspoons, plus silver balls/dolly mixtures etc

plant some seeds - great time of year for it. sunflowers, beans and radish all germinte quickly for early results

cutting/sticking/gluing

jigsaws