4.5 year old-How much do you entertain them?

[Givemetea87]

How much time do you actively spend entertaining your 4.5 year old? Either through play or doing educational activities ? Crafts etc? Just curious as I've recently found myself with a lot less time due to a new job so trying to balance everything.

Lots. Role play type games if indoors, or ball games, water play outdoors. He doesn't have much patience for craft activities!

He will play by himself, but prefers to play with me.

My best bet to get him to play by himself is Lego or the iPad 😖

I find ignoring them as much as possible builds their imagination seriously kids are over entertained these days, they do some of their best playing just left to their own devices.

Less than 5 and I do about 20 mins 'educational' and 20 mins play.
She is at school though and is happy to play with soft toys or mainly be in the garden.

I'mworried that I don't do enough "learning" activities with him and how much is the normal amount of time to spend doing this . He does afternoon sessions in nursery

Not very much! I read to DS and will set up activities for him if he needs help (eg putting play doh kits together). Otherwise only occasional hands on playing. I am more of a take them out (park, library, national trust etc) kind of parent I think.

He is pretty good at entertaining himself and has preschool most days as well. Plus DS2 has just turned 1 so they can play together a bit.

I don't ignore him - we chat together a lot and he will help me with housework etc. So we do interact a lot when we're at home, but just not often playing with his toys together.

Mine is 3 and when we are at home I will set up stuff for him to play with but otherwise let him get on with it. We don't do a huge amount of craft stuff but he does all that at nursery 3 days a week so I don't feel too guilty about it.
We do go out a lot though, to play groups, farms, library, park, etc and I chat to him all day long so I think it's a great balance.

It depends. My 4 year old can have really long periods playing by himself mainly with his transformers or lego but other times he constantly wants me to play with him. A lot of these times, he gets frustrated with me because I'm not doing whatever he wants me to correctly, so he then tells me to watch him play! It's difficult as I have a 19 month old who also wants to play with me. The 4 year old often wants to exclude his sister unfortunately, mainly because she doesn't follow his instructions.

He also won't do anything educational, he shuts down all attempts to get him to do letters, drawing etc ☹️

As little as possible. Mine are a yeAr and more older now, but I suspect 'go and play' are my most used words. I don't do education; that's my day job.

Children at this age are learning all the time.

Involve him in your everyday life, talk to him a lot and ask him questions/his opinion. This is just as important as structured play.

Also read to him every day and talk to him about the stories.

Enjoy your time with him.

Not that much, my 6 & 4 year old play together almost constantly, about 90% f the time when we're are home but I don't play with them that much, we do chat a lot and I am also more of a 'taking out doing activities' type of parent, walks, parks, libraries, local events etc

I talk and read to mine a lot and will help her with various activities (eg setting up play doh, showing her how to draw something). Occasional physical play like wheelbarrows or dancing together. Otherwise not much. However she and DD2 (2.3) play together a lot - I spend a lot of time intervening when it gets destructive/squabbly, not sure if that counts!

dc1 had and at 21 still has the attention span of a gnat.
dc2 could entertain herself happily for ages, so it depends a lot on the child.

However, totally agree with SuperRainbows - you don't have to be 'playing a game with them / setting an activity up for them' to be keeping them occupied and keeping them learning, the best thing is to involve them in whatever you are doing, and give them a task to do, around what you are doing. Keep talking to and listening to them, and pointing out everything around them when you walk / drive anywhere or watch anything on TV with them, and point out connections between something you see on TV and what you did yesterday, or whatever.

Mine is 4.5 exactly and he last couple of months has started playing a lot more by himself.

We do read with him and some educational activity etc but at home that's it really. He has some tv but usually gets bored and started playing anyway.

That said, we do go out a lot - if it's dry we are always outdoors, park, walk, NT or we go swimming.

When I say educational I mean number games and counting and on the abacus. Not proper stuff!

My twins girls are 4.10 and I dont have to entertain them at all, they spend ages in each other's company. I do have to referee though.