The days are so long now daylight hours are so short!

[Summerdays2014]

Just that really. I have an almost 2 year old son and I’m finding it sooo much harder now it’s dark so early. I miss playing in the garden until evening and we are both getting bored in the run up to bedtime! We go out everyday (despite the cold he loves being out and about) but at home it’s just dull. He only ever wants to play with cars and trains (despite the mound of other things we have) I feel like I’m wishing away the months until spring.

Also, Sunday’s are doubly tough when everything closes early!

Is there a reason you can’t keep being outside? We only have one or two hours of twilighty light a day in the winter here and everyone is still out quite a bit.

If you want to be indoors then embrace the cars and trains :) I personally love a good train set, and our two year old loves building up duplo and cars etc.

Anatidae, I guess there is no reason we can’t play outside in the dark... it just seems strange I guess (no idea why!)

When my older one was a bit older than that we used to go for a walk to see Christmas lights (good from now till early Jan).

Torch lit walks are always fun, other than that coulkd you look at indoor activities like baking, burying cars in a bucket oif rice crispoies, making shakers using pasta and rice in bottles or glueing pasta to card to make pictures.

I also struggle with this. Things I've found helpful on non-work days include always getting to a toddler group in the morning and always getting out to the park/playground/walk etc in the last hour of daylight. Then when it's dark we do any shopping/chores/etc before going home.

As far as playing outside after dark, I wish they would light the playgrounds here but they don't. Our usual walks would also be too dark, as would the parks.

I've also found a "community playroom" near me, in a community run former library. There's normally a few toddlers in there from 4-5:30 if all else fails.

True - we are more set up for it here and the snow reflects what light there is.

Playdoh, crafts, baking, duplo, building train tracks,...?

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha, we do the same as you on my non working days. Group in the morning, Home for lunch and nap then park/playground/woods etc. It’s just from 3.30/4 ish until bedtime I find hard! Some good suggestions for things to do at home. Thanks!

We found an old head lamp the other day that my DH bought for some Halloween costume or something years ago. My LG loves it. She straps it round her head and goes marching round the garden looking for bugs and what not. Even wore it to wander down to the co-op the other evening.