What do you do with your toddlers all day?

[Limpshade]

DD 2.5 is dropping her day sleep, and up until now I've been lucky that with an 8mo in tow who also needs a nap, I've had a lovely little break in the middle of the day.

Now I'm wondering what on earth to do with the toddler for those extra couple of hours!

For context, we live in a hot country where being out and about at midday is not a good idea, and we have only a small balcony for outdoor play. So I'm wondering what I can occupy her with inside while the baby sleeps? Painting and baking only occupies her attention for 5-10 minutes. Does anyone have any other ideas? We're very busy out and about in the morning and late afternoon so she has lots of time to let off steam. I'm just in need of some inspiration and time to mourn the death of mummy's Netflix hour

-reading books
-iPad educational games
-putting away the shopping/laundry
-puzzles
-toy tea parties
-water or craft activity
-find nearby toddler activities (library story time, swimming lessons, gymbaroo)

Frankly my dd is 8yo and I still enforce ‘quiet time’ at her old nap time (when she’s not at school). She’s expected to do quiet activities, mostly on her own, near me. She’s learned not to expect entertainment for an hour at that time. It’s worked beautifully for us, and actually I think it’s been good for her to practice her ‘inner voice’ rather than the 24/7 chatty ‘outer voice’! It changes what you get to watch (no CSI ), but Netflix can still be an option sometimes. It’s important to get a break from everything for you when you have a toddler (and beyond).

Mine are similar ages plus I've got an older one at school so a portion of our day revolves around school run (and then they all play together after school). I only have 9am - 3pm to think about.

We'll go out most mornings to various groups which include baby and toddler (gym tots tots, rhyme time, toddlers) or a quick whizz around town for errands and shopping and a cafe stop. Home for lunch.

House activities with toddler in the afternoon whilst baby sleeps:

Painting/colouring/scribbling/very easy crafty stuff that's really just glueing stuff to other stuff. We keep a big plastic box in the dining room so it just gets deposited on to the table.

We've got a big box of shape/colour/fine motor toys

Leap pad or a tablet game

Various Orchard type kiddy games that toddler is just getting into eg Shopping List, pairs, snap.

Toddler jigsaws

Sticker books (mainly just sticker scenes at this age and not activity ones yet)

Bit of easy baking (usually do this after school with older DC though and it's always a cake mix or premade biscuit dough as they just want to do the fun bits)

NETFLIX. Middle DC loves cuddling and watching cartoons and I'm fine with that.

We go to the library after rhyme time so we have about 20 new books to read every week.

Toddler DC's favourite thing of all is housework and helping. 30mins of housework can easily take an hour.

She's also pretty good at playing on her own with blocks, Happyland, her big sister's toys etc for a while and I can have a cup of tea.

Generally my rotation whilst at home is:

1. Do a bit of helping with mummy
2. A structured activity together
3. Cuddly cartoons
4. Away with you and give mummy time for a cuppa Repeat

Quiet time replaced nap time in our house (and with big gaps between my kids I didn't have the additional concern of a sleeping younger child). Mummy had a rest and read her book, kids could look at picture books, listen to a story tape (yes, I am that old!) or play quietly for an hour. Worked well with three of them!

listen to a story tape (yes, I am that old!)

I used to LOVE my storytapes! My DM collected them from magazines for us. Mine have story CDs and my eldest loves them.

Thank you so much; there are some great ideas here. I've just invested in some kinetic sand so I'm hoping that might prove of interest also!

I've recently discovered a website that has changed my afternoons (the ratty, bored time in our house). www.busytoddler.com have a look at the "sensory bins"- my 1.5 and especially 3yo are obsessed with these and there are so many fast ideas that aren't TOO messy if you put down a big drop cloth or towels.

I don’t know if you have groups and classes near you but they’re great for filling time. I am off two weekdays a week and before my three yr old started nursery 9-2.45 we did the following...
Messy play followed by soft play (same venue) then would have lunch in the same place. Back home for nap.
Next day we would go to toddlers which was 9.30-11 then we would go to my mams house for lunch then soccer tots 2-2.45.

Whole days filled especially when you meet people you get on with too.

Quiet time, a film or reading by themselves.

Films were things like Annie etc so although not netflix they weren't peppapig. You get used to the end of netflix hour great as it was

I agree with continuing ‘quiet time’ for all after lunch while the baby naps. I read my book on the sofa, while DS looked at his books, played with animals/cars and sometimes dropped off for 10 or 20 mins on the floor cushions.
Any questions were answered with ‘Mmmmmmm. Everyone’s having a quiet time now.’

My 3.5 year old DS does quiet time in his room while the little one naps. It took a while to get him used to it, but I use a clock so he knows how long he has to stay in. He can play with toys, look at books etc. when he was dropping his nap he often ended up falling asleep anyway. I recommend persevering with it as I still get that break and he spends an hour a day entertaining himself

My 2.5 yr old is stopping her nap most days now. I tend to tell her it's quiet time and that mummy needs a rest so I don't play with her for that hour while my one year old naps. She can have shows on the TV, read her books in her bed or play quietly with her toys. I tend to have a sit down with my iPad for an hour and repeat it's quiet time. Sounds mean but you need a break!

Oh and playdoh is a good one. I used to supervise it more as I didn't like her mixing in the colours lol but now I let her go for it and she easily spends an hour focussed on that. She doesn't care if they are mixed up so I just realised I needed to relax about it haha.

Thank you for all your advice! She still will go down for a nap most days but is becoming really difficult to settle at night and is waking two or three times which she never used to do. So really I think we need to drop the nap completely and I kind of don't want her to fall asleep if that makes sense?! I just need her to be doing something quiet that doesn't wake the baby, unlike her favourite activities, which involve jumping onto a mountain of scatter cushions and yelling HOOPLA! or singing The Bing Bong Song from Peppa Pig at TOP volume

I used to have 2 small kids to entertain in 40 degree heat, so I feel your pain!

We did a music class one morning and we were members of a few playhouse (playgroup) which we went to at least one morning.

Did an early morning park trip with a friend, then cafe breakfast and slow walk home with the kids in the pram.

A couple of local shopping centres had play areas, so we had a walk around the centre (in the a/c) and a play.

Soft play, fine during the day when all the school age kids are at school. Have to try a few to find a good one.

Swimming.

TV for a bit...a lot of the CBeebies are good and educational.

Library for story time.

Playdoh, painting, sensory play (I used to put plastic sheeting down so I didn't mind if weird stuff was on the floor...but Dexter like but hey!). Things they liked were toys frozen in tubs of water that they could smash out, icey paints, foam (avoid blue food colouring in it though since you end up with a smurf child), water trays, kenetic sand...Pinterest is good for ideas.

Duplo, chunky Playmobil, toy kitchen, dancing, music, story cds...

It's a hard age since their attention spans are like gnats.

Oh, when the nap was going I used to do 'quiet time' in their rooms instead. I had a stair gate on their door, made the room safe, left a selection of toys, closed the blinds and left them to it for an hour. It took a few weeks of training, but eventually it got to the point where they would potter quietly for an hour in their room, occasionally got into bed and had 15minute nap, and I got time to do housework.

I think it was a good exercise, although horrified some, since I had kids who could amuse themselves sensibly 🙂

While the baby naps I let my older kids choose a toy and take it to their rooms for an hour of quiet time. Other times when I need a break or a Netflix hour I let them have "free play" in our playroom where they can just play in there by themselves.

Very simple craft things. My DD loves foam stickers, I but huge tubs of them and she loves just sticking them all over a piece of paper and telling stories about them to herself. She also has a little easel that she loves to scribble on. If I’m feeling like getting involved we do some painting - I put an old sheet down on the kitchen floor and we do splurges of colour onto paper plates (sooooo much firmer and easier to clean up than paper!) so she can mix and dip different shaped sponges in etc. She had gone off her blocks a bit, but I got the little wooden men/trees etc out of an old train set and now she loves making little towns etc.

If all else fails, a Disney film can be a life saver! Less mind numbing for me than peppa pig etc and we sing along and maybe do some dress up/pretend/ drawing the characters (me not her!) afterwards

I must be an awful mother because I would just let them play while I watched Netflix I don't understand the need to entertain children constantly or take them out for 8 hours a day

Oh man, I am going to lose my mind when dd1 drops her nap!

Things I do with the two of them:
A walk round the block while baby naps in the pram (it can be with a purpose, e.g. to collect leaves for a collage or to the shop. Dd loves walks in the dark with a head torch!)
Playing with magnetic letters on the radiator
Dancing (not good for a sleeping baby but good to entertain the pair of them at once)
Helping me prep meals (eating most of it along the way)
Crafty stuff
FaceTime calls to relatives
Books, tv, iPad games
"Tidying" I.e. picking stuff up and bringing it to mummy and creating loads more work