Ideas needed for activities for a 4 yr old that are safe for crawling baby

[Magscat]

DD is 7 months and since she has mastered crawling has become a complete pest to her brother.

He can no longer play with his train set/lego/building kits etc... while dd is about and it's getting hard to find things we can do in the house with both of them that are entertaining for ds & safe for dd.

Any ideas would be welcome.

Could you get some sort of playpen-type barrier so that you can fence off an area where ds can play in peace?

Possibly but the living room is pretty small so any space I could fence off would not be big enough for a decent train set - he's got it set up in his room at the moment but that's only good if both me & dp are home & we can be with one of them each iyswim.

can you set up activities for ds on a table? like a kitchen or dining table? and leave the baby crawling beneath you.

or, try cooking with baby pinned into high chair as "raisin monitor" - give them a small pot of raisins to keep them quiet.

Playdough if you watch your DD and stop her eating it.
Ditto painting - will she watch from her highchair?
I had to limit the train tracks to when my DD was having aq lunchtime nap - fortunately it was a long one, or keep her separately entertained while DS played with the trains.
things like the magnetic sketch pads - one each,so your DD doesn't interfere.
Large trucks and cars that are safe for the baby but that maybe can be used for more imaginateive play by your DS
Toy food and basket/till, you can play shopping while DD "eats" it if you get plastic fruit and veg rather than tins with labels.

Magscat - I am afraid that you are going to have this problem for months from now I'm afraid. DD is 15 months (so twice as old as your DD) and still regularly trashes trainsets and lego. And sometimes our of mischief more than curiousity now IYSWIM. I'm afraid that most of these things are set up in his bedroom and he either plays on his own or with one of us when DH is home or with me while DD naps so not as much of the time.

Other things which we do (and these might be for future reference since your DD is still quite young) are sit at the table with DD in booster chair without tray:
colouring (or DS does sticker book type thing while DD colours)
cooking (eg crispy buns but DD has not yet got the concept of cooking and just eats the ingredients)
playdoh

Sometimes we play shops with the play till and food and when DD just grabs a bunch of grapes (for example). I say "ooh look DD wants some grapes, how much are they, here's the money".

Or I take them out for a wander round the cul-de-sac with DD on her trike with parent handle (used to be pushalong car with parent handle and bars round) and DS on his scooter.

Snap with alison for a lot of the ideas. How long before your DS goes to school. Then you can concentrate on the baby during the day and when he comes home shouldn't feel guilty about containing her while you spend time with ds.

Thanks for these ideas. Play food might work well.

Ds will start school in a few weeks so maybe we can concentrate on him when he comes home and dd can amuse herself a bit.

Dd doesn't sleep much which is part of the problem - really limits time we can spend with ds on his own. Also she just wants to get whatever he's got - just cos everything he does is fascinating to her.

Will try her in the high chair but she's really enjoying exploring because crawling competently is new to her so she might get frustrated quickly in the chair. She likes the swing when we're outside so can use that some of the time.

Its hard isn't it? We just had to play with "big " things that were safe enoght for the baby and then try to distract or give them a bit of whatever it was to explore while DS played with the remainder and try to stop DD being too destructive, plus lots of explaining and trying to get DS to play with DD and her things to an extent to amuse her by being such a "big helpful boy"

why can't a 4 year old play on his own upstairs?

not minimising the problem but he doesn't really need supervision at that age does he?

we call DD 'DD the destroyer' and make it a huge big joke that DS is part of

like 'oh no here comes DD the destroyer' help her destroy that lego building .. or build DD a special lego monster so she can do her 'DD the destroyer act' as long as you laugh and make a game of it it becomes a game

DS is 4.5 and DD 15 months btw

My 4 year old plays on her own in her bedroom and has done since she was 3 - I think I'd get told where to go if I tried to supervise her there! He should be OK to play without supervision - and at least he gets to play with the toys he enjoys that way. And it means that his little sister can't get at his toys, either.

I'd be happy for him to play on his own if he showed the slightest sign of wanting to. He always wants either me or dp to play with him (unless next door's little girl is round in which case they're fine together).

I'd be worried about trying to make sure he doesn't feel shut out or start to resent his sister if we suggested he played on his own quite a bit. I'd really like to do things where we can all be together.

Perhaps though he'll start enjoying his own space now we've got to the point where his stuff will get regularly wrecked by dd !

Bump for the evening crowd.
Any more ideas out there ?

Lots of sympathy - DD is 10mths and crawls over everything, eats the playdough, tries to chew the books we are reading, knocks over the Lego and generally gets in the way. I can't remember when I last did a puzzle or game with DS! For a lot of activities like painting or playdough I tend to put DS up at the dining table (either outside in good weather or inside) or wait till DD is asleep. Also just going outside in the garden and letting both of them rampage around is good - not sure how we will cope when winter comes!