What to do with a nearly 4 year old - ideas please!

[Canigotosleepyet]

Just that - I have a near 4 year old and we seem to spend days doing the same sort of things - play doh, drawing, playing with dolls and toys, a couple of playdates each week, walking to the supermarket and shops. She seems to get bored easily - as do I!! Would love some new ideas. (I also have a 20 month old but she is easier to cope with...)

And how does your weekday work if you have a child in nursery?

Thanks all

I have a three year old so who knows what she will be like in a year but our week is quite regimented and looks like this:

Mon - am we either hang at home or see a friend or go to singing at library. Pm we go to a paid for music class thing.

Tues - nursery all day and I work

Wed - nursery all day and I work

Thurs - am we have a paid for dance class. (Once my younger one is old enough to be paid for for these things my dd will have to choose which of the two paid for classes we go to). Pm we go to a park or the woods usually or sometimes a friend's house or my mum comes over.

Fri - local playgroup am usually and then usually see a friend at my house or theirs pm.

Activities at home either playing with dolls or train set or toy food or more usually some kind of painting or drawing or sticking. Or standing at the sink playing with water. Or watching tv. Or cooking.

Other things we do outside the house:

Hang out in ikea. We make a day of it and include meatballs for lunch. Do this at least once a month. Dd spends hours playing in the bedrooms. I know it is a shop and this is taking the micky but hey ho I often buy lots there.

Local museum good for a runaround in bad weather.

Supermarket trip. Not a big shop and tries both our patience but going for a few things always good.

Swimming but only if someone can come with me to help with baby.

But time and again when asked what she wants to do she wants to go to the park ("the one with the duckpond and cafe mummy")

DD is 4 and a week. she is in nursery in the mornings, and I work 4 days a week, so less time with her than you. Apart from the things you have already mentioned, she enjoys ballet lessons, trips to parks and our local museums / castles (many of which are free, or we can get free entry by being local) - the mueseum is quite natural history orientated, so fun for children because it has dinasour bones, stuffed animals etc. Farms. Locak garden centre to look at the fish and 'play in the sheds' -( like isle of Right I know that is a bit cheeky, but sometimes buy stuff or go to cafe!)

In the house - lego is starting to be popular, plus baking cakes, jigsaws, and she loves drawing - jsut got her some new crafty things to try = spirograph, tap a shape, bead jewellery kit etc.

I don't drive and so we tend not to get far from home during the week (have a just turned 4 year old and a 7 month old) so when I pick him up from nursery (he's at state nursery so is there for 2.5 hours every morning) we have lunch and then basically I ask him what he wants to do. He goes through phases of toys, lego is always popular and he'll happily spend a couple of hours with me playing with it.

He also loves pretend games where we pretend we're pirates/cowboys/police and naughty men/ninja turtles....

He loves craft stuff, so if he's getting a bit restless/can't think what to do I often suggest making stuff out of boxes or doing pictures with glitter or things where he gets to cut stuff out and glue things or his big paints for doing pictures.

I always suggest the park or his bike to get him outside, but often he likes to stay in and play with toys (but he's happy and its what he wants to do)

Two words: Soft play

Thanks so much for the ideas, everyone. That helps lots - a few ideas of things I haven't done for a while (we like crafty stuff but I tend to avoid the messiest stuff like model making and painting). And yes, perhaps a few more day trips would be good. As I have a 20 month dd too, we're in the house early afternoon for nap time, so that leaves less time in the afternoon for stuff. Plus means that trips to museums etc can be more tricky, but I should get braver about days out together.

settling, I tried soft play last week and it was lovely for a little while and they had a great time, but then dd1 got stuck in a tunnel at the same time as dd2 decided to explore the 90-degrees-drop slide. We left shortly after...

What's everyone's best toy recommendation please? I'm wondering whether a play shop/theatre would be a good birthday present, or to start collecting Playmobil-type stuff.