What "at home" things do you do with an 18 month old?

[Ozziegirly]

Inspired by the "What to do with a 2.5 year old" thread. DS has just gone onto one sleep and so we normally do something out of the house in the morning (swimming, park, see friends, he does a music thing once a week) and then he naps until about 3ish. Dinner/bath/bed routine starts at about 5.30, so I have about 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon to do things in.

We sometimes pop to the shops or go for a walk around where we live but what things do you do in the house? I don't want him to feel like I drag him out the whole time.

He likes books, "colouring", playing ball but what other nice things do you do with your child of this age? He's very active but if I find something he likes he will stay at it for ages (thank you ELC Water and Sand table).

Any suggestions?

DD is 19 months and loves:

• playing with megabloks (you can get big boxes really cheap on ebay)
• singing songs with actions
• 'helping' with chores i.e. sweeping, dusting, unloading dishwasher
• pushing her toy buggy around
• playing with playdoh
• playing chase (but our house layout allows this more easily than some)
• water play

and if worse comes to worse she watches a bit of cbeebies :)

Dancing
Baking ... She likes to mix and taste
Recently we got a bag of compost , some pots and some seeds, she loved playing in the compost and now watches her veg grow every day
Stickers...she has discovered magazines
Tea parties with a toy tea set and teddies.

Thank you, great suggestions. We were at a friend's house today and my DS was very happily playing with a tea set, which I hadn't expected him to at all.

Thanks very much!

DD is 18mo and loves being in the garden. If you have a garden I'd get him a slide and some bits and chuck him out there and play in the garden

Yes, DS would love to be in the garden, but I kind of need to be out there with him because of the possibility of snakes, spiders, leeches etc

On a nice day though we do spend a lot of time playing with the water table out there, and trying to avoid the giant bull ants. (Well I try to avoid, DS tries to befriend).

Ooh didn't think about that are you in Australia? Crikey I have enough trouble dealing with the slugs and worms DD likes to play with - I'd have a dippy fit if I had those creapy crawlies to deal with .

Although I did have a close encounter with a baby brown snake when I was backpacking in Oz and I was very brave untill after then I cried.

Little popup tents/crawl tubes are great for that age to play actively in the front room and they fold away flat for storage.

DD is 15 months and loves her tea set, it often goes in the bath. I made some rainbow rice the other day for pouring and mixing together, quite easy and she loved playing.

She also has an ikea soft doll which she loves dragging about and showing 'Baba' different things, she's taken to play feeding him.

DNeice used to like collecting things out and about to make a collage when we got home. a simple piece of paper pre stuck with double sided sticky tape works well.

She likes paint, I chopped up a bath sponge into handy pieces instead of a brush, and she can dip and daub to her hearts content.

She loves listening to music, I got out some cheesy music [Kylie Minogue] and danced about the lounge with her laughing at mummy's cheesy moves.

Mega Bloks, Wooden Blocks or Stickle Bricks are great building fun.

I must admit to abusing pinterest for ideas and kept them on a board ready for a dull day. Lots of inspiration and using lots of things around home.