What does your day look like with a preschooler?

[graysor]

Dd is 2.11. I also have ds 10 weeks. Dd has the attention span of a gnat, and I really struggle to fill the day with her.

Yesterday looked like this:
Up at 6, tv on so I can feed ds.
Tv and general pottering around getting breakfast and dressed etc. Dd does a bit of pretend play with her dolls and teddies, which I am required to actively participate in.
9 go to a gym session. Dd runs, climbs, bounces etc for 2 hours.
11.30 home. Tv on again so I can feed ds and prep lunch.
After lunch we do painting, drawing, game of dominoes, more pretend play, reading, scooting outside and more tv as I’m all out of ideas and energy.

Other than scooting all those activities lasted 5 mins max before dd wanders off.

Mornings are ok as we tend to go out for an activity but the afternoons are soooo long. Especially when any suggestion is met with a resounding no or lasts only 5 mins.

How do you fill your days?

I have a 2yo DD who hasn't napped since around 18m so I feel your pain!

I don't really have an average day, but on an average week she has one day with my DM (so I can work), and we have one day spent at the zoo.

The other days, we tend to do one big activity a day (e.g. gymnastics class, ballet class, play date with friends, baking cakes/biscuits/flapjacks etc). I've got all of her toys into groupings and try and do different sets of activities each day. E.g. Monday activities might be (1) playing with our instruments, singing songs and playing along, (2) building things with duplo and then playing with them, (3) playing with dolls house. Tuesday activities might be (1) jigsaws, (2) reading session, (3) painting. Wednesday activities might be (1) tea party, (2) learning puzzles, (3) playdoh. I find it easier separating them into groupings like this as it helps me play with her as I'm not a natural player!

Bear in mind, these types of activity only go on for about 30 mins each as she won't pay attention for much longer than that. Interspersed with all these, I'll tend to potter doing housework and she'll sometimes help but largely entertain herself. She did used to protest but she doesn't have much of a choice as other things need doing.

We have lots of imaginative play during the day as well that I am around 50% involved in but have no idea how to properly describe; current favourites are her pretending to be a dog and i have to throw things or her to go and get(!), using one of her golf clubs as a fishing rod and we go fishing, sitting on her brush pretending to be room on the broom, us putting her dolls and teddies to bed for example.

We do reading pretty much every day and CBeebies/music is on often in the background. Friday nights tend to be "disco night" where we have a little party in the lounge with the music on and she has a good old boogie haha.

Honestly at that age I counted down the days to nursery. And then signed her up for as much as possible. She loves it thankfully.

My only tip is to get out of the house as much as you can when the weather is halfway decent. Playgrounds are great, baby in sling if you can so you can follow your toddler. But appreciate it’s not the best season for that right now. Playgroups are the next best thing —but I hated them—.

Do you know other parents with 2 or 3 year olds? Invite the parent and child round for a playdate? Can be hard work dealing with any spats between the toddlers but on the other hand it does provide entertainment, and a bit of company for you.

Happygirly - I totally get that weird imaginative play stuff. We spend a lot of time with dd pretending to be a dog. She loves to play fetch, and asked me to put her on a lead!

I like your idea of grouping activities to help structure making suggestions. I might make myself a mental timetable.

We do go out every day, sometimes more than once as it’s definitely easier to be out and about. I tend not to go to playgroups though, as even there dd doesn’t have any interest in playing with the toys. She just wanders about aimlessly and asks to go to the playground instead

We’ve tried a few play dates, but dd is very possessive of her stuff ( we’re working on this) so it is hard work and not that much fun constantly refereeing.

Jessie - thanks for those tv suggestions, I’ll try those as a welcome change from endless paw patrol and peppa.

My routine used to be:
Up and play
Breakfast
Get ready to go out
Morning activity every morning eg baby gym, soft play, baby music, story time in library, playgroup, NCT coffee morning, toddlers' praise etc.

Home for lunch
Afternoon outing to park or shops or to visit a friend or have friends over.
Once that's done, play while I cook tea (with lots of demands for attention)
Have tea
Bath, storytime, cuddles, bed

I found it so hard to get on top of the house work because they wante dmy attetion all the time, so we stayed out as much as possible, so that at least we weren't making any extra mess at home.
For sanity's sake the rule was - organised activity every morning, free activity out of the house every afternoon, very routine lunchtimes and bedtimes.

Scavenger hunt? Give a little bag/ shopping basket.
Ask them to find 3 blue things/ 3 things to wear/ 3 soft things etc. As they get it, extend to a list- something bigger than hand, something orange and something that floats.
My 2.5 dd loves ‘bathing’ toys. Washing up bowl, play mat with towel on top. Washing up liquid in pump dispenser, flannel. Keeps her quiet longer than most stuff. Addition of bath crayons- she draws/ washed off/ repeat.
She also likes ‘folding’ washing. I keep it in furthest room from hers, then she takes socks (1 pair at a time) back to her bedroom.
I fill bath for her to play in.
Go out- prob not as easy with10 week old
Just discovered just dance videos on you tube.
Oh and peppa.

my dcs sound just like your dd. The TV is not your friend. We found this out very hard way. We have four kids and when we have allowed them to watch tv regularly they 'forget'how to self entertain. Personally I would do a complete TV ban for a couple of weeks. We have done this on regular occasions and it kind of resets them.
Things that have entertained mine with minimal intervention from me:
1.water painting. As long as not raining and you have a back yard. Paint brush/brushes can of water and let them paint the fence, the house, etc (outside only!)

1. Digging a hole in any soil.
2. 'washing' their plastic animals or making animal boats out of plastic bowls in the sink. all of mine loved this
3. sticker books (remove the outside of the sheet makes it easier for them to pick up)
4. make a ramp for cars to go down
5. Play dough cafe (you may have to be a customer)
6. sorting toys into biggest and smallest in rows.

I’m going against the grain here but you have a 10week old baby. As long as she is happy, TV is totally acceptable. My 19month old dropped his nap totally once baby was born and I foolishly decided TV was the devil (guilt played a huge part). I think I just made life super hard for myself. While you have two little ones at home, give lots of love and care and keep yourself sane. Have a doze on the sofa whilst older one is watching TV and younger one naps.

I’m With worriedmummybekind when you have a 10 week old in the house you’re still in survival mode. Unless you’ve got a miracle baby you’re probably getting next to no sleep. Don’t try too hard to avoid tv if it’s giving you a break. I agree, in the long run they play better without it but ditching it at this point... you would be very brave, that’s all I’m saying.

My DD sounds the same as yours, she's 2 next week though, DD2 is due in April and I'm having a tough pregnancy.

I have no issue at all with a bit of TV!
If anything I think letting her watch it gives me the headspace to just do other basic tasks around the house so we don't live in a dump and/or cook a nice dinner!
She usually plays at the same time as she just likes to have the sound.

A 10 week old and a toddler sounds incredibly tough and you sound like your doing absolutely amazing! I hope I can cope as well when DD2 is born!

Like cantchooseaname I found that water play kept my youngest busy for ages.
Maybe more for warmer weather, I put a big bowl of water on a chair outside the back door, with all sorts of toys and plastic dolls, measuring cups and jugs etc. Wrapped her in a plastic pinny.
She sometimes ended up drinking some, or watering the garden.
Kept her busy for ages.

Hi op, I'm in the same boat with dd nearly 2 and ds 17wk. In addition to the good suggestions above, can I recommend toy rotation? We have five boxes which I switch out each day (well in theory it's each day) and I find that less things on the shelves means she plays better with everything and is happy to see what's new each morning. I plan out our schedule for the week the way I would do if this was my job including where we're going (park / library / toddler gym / play groups etc etc) and what we're going to do at home the rest of the time. I also find she just wants to 'help'. I encourage this as it's keeping her busy and one day it might actually become helpful! Despite all this, we still watch a lot of tv!

I've got a 2y age gap. When DD2 was tiny days went like this:

Get up, cbeebies on, breakfast in front of tv
Half heartedly attempt to get dd1 dressed
Realise we'd got to the lunchtime song on cbeebies and insist she got dressed
Realise the 9am show was now repeating at 1pm and TV needed to be turned off
Walk into town for trivial non errands
Walk home, tea etc.

I went out a lot. Garden centres to look at the animals, play cafés, supermarkets to choose tea, they're all easy afternoon activities. And encouraging games with minimal input like making me a cup of tea in her toy kitchen. DD1 has always been pretty happy pottering on her own.

DD2 is 3.5 now and cannot entertain herself at all. So depends on the child.

Brighten - I’ve always planned to do toy rotation, since we moved a year ago, but have just never quite got round to organising it. Partly hampered by a lack of storage space to keep the out of rotation stuff. How do you manage this? And what stuff do you have out at one time?

We have four boxes - not very large, maybe double shoe box size or slightly bigger. Each one houses 1/5 of the toys. One set is always out so only four boxes. The other four stack on top of each other in a wardrobe with the coats / out of season clothes. The boxes have lids which facilitates this, I did buy them specifically for this but only from Asda. When I set it up I gathered together all the toys and sort of divided them into categories so box 1 might have one type of blocks and box 2 some slightly different type or other construction type thing. Box 1 might have the animal puzzles and box 2 the puzzles with the cars and trucks etc. Basically a good variety in each box. One boxes worth fits inside 3 cubes of an IKEA kallax once nicely arranged, as that's the space available in our living room. The setting things out nicely rather than throwing it all in or hiding it in boxes adds to her engagement with the toys as well. Obviously there are some things that stay out always / others too big for the boxes etc etc but the basic system for toys on the shelves works well. To be honest my initial motivation was to avoid feeling like our house was being overtaken by her stuff but it has actually benefitted us all.

Oh, I forgot the most important part! I am not a fan of whirring, squeaking plastic contraptions but obviously dd is and despite knowing of my feelings, people will persist in buying them for her. So there is a special bonus box of noisy toys which I keep upstairs to be pulled out when I reallly need her to amuse herself for a while. I do this very rarely - maybe once a month - and it's very effective. Again at first this storage solution was simply so as to prevent my having to look at these things but the side benefit has become my secret weapon!

another treasure hunt idea - if you have a printer with ink - take a few photos of places in the house (e.g. close up of a chair cushion, pipes under a washbasin etc) as 'clues'. so start off with a picture of her toy draweror something, then in there will be the picture of the next place... my DH used to do loads of these until they got too easy!

Also, I got some pieces of card and drew around household objects/toys/slippers etc and DC had to find what they were from the outline. Good if you have unusual shaped, flat toys. Kept DC quiet for a bit.

Water play on kitchen floor was great.
Not really one to do by themselves but putting a bit of food colouring in some white vinegar (in droppers/pipette type things if you have them) and dropping into/mixing with some bicarbonate of soda - fun 'experiment'!
Sorting coloured clothes pegs into coloured bowls, or get different coloured stickers on a piece of paper and put something of that colour on each sticker.

Pipe cleaners in a colander - make a pattern/spiderweb etc.

If building a duplo tower, you could draw a picture of what you want it to look like e.g. white block at bottom, then red etc, then she can try and copy it when she builds it. There are some online you can print out!