Entertaining toddler on maternity leave

[Jpiggle]

I'm due DS2 in 6 weeks and will soon be finishing up work for maternity leave. I'm looking for some ideas on how to entertain DS1 (2) bearing in mind I am sore and knackered! The weather has been rubbish here and I'm struggling to come up with fun things to do in the house that are cheap/free! TIA for any ideas!

Hello,
I was recently in exactly your position! Here are a few ideas that worked for us:

Use a clothes horse or chairs/table and drape blankets over it to create a little house to play in.

We put her toys to bed and even got into her bed together. We just played at going to sleep and sang songs etc.

Give him some pots and pans (with lids) and wooden spoons to pretend to cook with.
Also my LO loves tupperware pots. In the end i made one kitchen drawer 'hers' and it had old camping things in like pans etc, a (unbreakable) teapot/kettle thing (sorry! Sleep deprived so can't think of the word!!), oven gloves, tupperware pots, colander etc and she would spend ages playing there.

Colourful clothes pegs - sorting/tipping them into tupperware pots.

Playdough

Mine LOVES drawing. She's got crayons and colouting pencils but thought it a real treat if she was allowed to use mummy's biros!

Good luck!

I was in this situation about 6 months ago - started my maternity leave as early as I could in order to spend some quality time with the toddler before the baby arrived.

I tried to get out of the house 2-3 times per week, i.e. playgroups, park, soft play. It was quite hard work pushing her around while I was heavily pregnant.

Activities at home included:

• Pottering about the house putting interesting things in her bag and pretending we were going to go on a journey.
• Taking care of her dolls, putting nappies on them, putting them to bed.
• Sitting at the dining table with playdough, colouring books, and other arts/crafts (I really enjoyed this as I could read a magazine while she was happily occupied and still interact with her when she required).
• Messy play in the garden, digging and watering.
• And of course, reading and singing.