Best cheap and cheerful ways to entertain a toddler

[Ilovenannyplum]

Just that really?

Yesterday we spent ages threading pipe cleaners into a colander and my just turned 2 yr old loved it (and it cost nothing, win!)

Anybody have any suggestions to keep little hands busy?

We are attempting papier-mâché (thank goodness that auto corrected!) today to make a witch piñata :)

I spent hours and hours standing outside fire stations with DS in case anything happened. This had about a 1% success rate, but he loved it. I was never tempted to call 999 at all

Bikeski

Love that 1% success rate is better than 0!

Bike that made me laugh. I have seriously considered that too. Lots of great ideas. I used to love making pictures with coloured bubbles. We would add food colouring and Fairy to water in a bowl then blow and blow bubbles. Put a bit of paper on the top and you have a bubble picture. Although they were partial to sucking up the mixture at times

Some great ideas... what's the point of the cornflour though?

if I gave ds a bowl of water he'd pick it up and pour it over the floor!

littletike The cornflour goes all weird with the water - kind of half solid half liquid. Lots of sensory fun!
We made a conker run from cardboard tubes taped to a bit of card which has provided hours of fun.
Coloured rice is also popular. Put rice in a sandwich bag with a squirt of paint or food colouring, squish around then spread out on a tray to dry. DS will spend ages pouring it into containers, tipping it onto the floor and sweeping it up again with the dustpan and brush.
Painting with different items instead of brushes e.g. washing up brush, whisk, cotton reel, pine cone.
Jelly paints - make up jelly with twice as much water so it doesn't set properly then use it as paint. It's especially good on a mirror or foil.

We were in Newcastle u Tyne earlier in the week and went to a "Slime workshop" at the Life Centre there - the slime was cornflour and water. Just s tiny bit of water, like making custard. Add food dye too, or iron fillings to make it magnetic.

DS is 19 months, and he loves stones. He spent half an hour last weekend putting stones from a gravel driveway onto a paper plate, tipping them off and doing it again! We went to the beach a few weeks ago and he filled and emptied his bucket countless times

He's not into crafty things - biscuit icing just goes in his mouth, he loses interest in painting very quickly. Thank goodness for stones!

blowing eggs at easter and then painting them like little egg people.

Tupperware and wooden spoons are popular in my house, especially with dried pasta. They also like colouring boxes as houses. Lovely ideas on here!

Bubbles. The hours I've spent in the garden waving a bubble wand while DC chase and pop the bubbles. If you do it in the park you'll attract a crowd.

A blatant placemark as this is such a lovely thread!

I can add a 'flour tray' - a little flour, glitter, dried rice in a tray, add a few cars / happylands / animals etc. My 2 year old loved it, making tracks with the cars, burying the toys etc etc. Messy but fun!

Soil and diggers. Pasta shapes and diggers. Lentils and diggers (you may spot a theme here)...

Also for older ones (3+); in an attempt to get out and about a bit more we borrow someone's dog and take it for a walk. It eats up hours and hours and gets us doing much more exercise.

We used Borrowmydoggy.com but I guess you could sweet talk a neighbour if they and your toddler get on.

Get all your pans out of the kitchen cupboard onto the floor, some wooden spoons, and instant drum kit!

Go for a walk to the local building site and watch diggers, cranes, construction equipment

Invite friends round to play, they entertain each other and I get to have a peaceful cuppa although the payoff is a messy house at the end

Playdough.

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If you have any outdoor fences or anything wooden just use a bowl of water and a paintbrush and let them paint away! mine used to love that

Water and paintbrush works on brick, stone, tendrrrf or pretty much any not-painted walls.

Correction: tendrrrrf = rendered

This has lots of lovely tuffspot ideas that could be adapted. Lots of sorting, small world, different textures etc.
www.facebook.com/100DayTuffSpotChallenge/

go and look at someone's pet (help care for it) - when I was away on holiday and neighbours were helping care for my cat they also came in during the day to see him - for a cat that's normally nervous around children he was great (the cat that is) - kids spent ages playing with him and their mum videoed it for me!

also pavement chalks worked well

I need to get DD out every day or else she gets really boisterous. Sometimes however I can't face another park, so yesterday I took her to a nearby out-of-town shopping centre (filled with large industrial warehouse type buildings). We went into Pets at Home and looked at all the animals and fish, which she loved, and then into Homebase. Homebase might seem random on the face of it but they currently have all of their Christmas trees and lights on display and DD was captivated!

My DC spent hours every day with their old baby bath filled with hot bubbly water, raised on bricks on the patio, with loads of jugs, scoops, sieves and buckets and access to the outside tap. I could get on with cooking or laundry for at least an hour while they pottered, and although they brought soapy wet trails into the house, they were easy to clean up.

Playpark daily - usually twice a day.

Junk modelling

Sausage rolls: pretend you're tidying up a duvet or blanket and haven't seen your child is in it. Roll them up and start wondering why the duvet is giggling. They could do this for hours too. Make sure they can breathe though. You have to discover them quickly

Giant cardboard box. Bit of a cliche but if you ever get white goods delivered, keep the box. Ours were castles, rockets, boats, etc.

Or use chairs with blankets over for dens.

Oooh, marking my place!