How to entertain a 3 year old who doesn't play with toys

[EmrysAtticus]

DS is 3 and massively into imaginative play at the moment which is of course brilliant and he makes up all sorts of stories with sticks and other random household objects.

However he has completely abandoned his toys and any sort of play which isn't imaginative. Refuses to do jigsaws, Play-Doh, duplo, train track etc or at most lasts about 2 minutes.

I have no problem with joining in imaginative play for short periods but there is only so long I can pretend to be a dragon for. So when DH and I are at our limit the only thing we can seem to entertain him with is the tv.

On sunny days it's fine as we head out places and have a lovely time. Rainy days like today however I am tearing my hair out. I have seen suggestions for rainy days like baking, painting, water play etc but I have tried these things as it takes me longer to set them up than he will play with them.

Does anyone have any ideas please???

I was going to suggest sand/water table but that's better for outside. Has he got a tent/crawl through tunnel or make a den? Can action figures or whatever become part of the imaginary play instead of you lol? What about playing shops with a till and play money? Or tea parties with a tea set and the teddies?

Thanks icecream, we do have a tent and tunnel in the shed which we use in the garden but could definitely bring them inside :) He has a toy kitchen, scales and till but shows no interest :( His imaginative play is all superheroes and villains which is fun for a bit but he wants to play it for hours on end. I did just manage to get him to play and Orchard Toys game which I enjoyed :)

Has he got any imaginext toys? They are batman etc would he have any interest playing with those? (Can be bought cheap second hand as pretty robust)

Reminds me of my son obsessed with superheroes has loads of the costumes, hulk hands, Thor hammer, Spider-Man web blasters lol! I'm rubbish at that kind of pretend play though, I'd rather play shops/tea party or a board game/colouring!
Play Mobil or duplo? Soon Lego? Like pp said imaginext batman is good and very robust!

children that age don’t require entertaining. Just tell them to play on their own or offer them an activity you enjoy/to help you with housework.

I have a similar three year old! Sometimes I give him a bath in the afternoon for something to do. He has lots of toys there and we play little games with a shark that is trying to nibble him. It means I get to sit down for a while.

Another favourite thing to do on a rainy day is go to a cafe, as some of the local ones have little play areas. Or invite a friend round and then they can play superheroes together!

We have a dressing up box but it has no real outfits so most of the fun is working out how to be a cowboy, police, superhero etc

Lots of cooking (dinners, Cakes etc) for the freezer.

Helping with Jobs, suck as gardening and cleaning.

My eldest is like this. It helps he has a younger sibling to bore senseless play with for a while.

Can your DC draw? DS always enjoyed painting and drawing things from his imagination.

I might try to get DS into superhero's he seems bored of a lot of the other toys. What ones have you got, my DS is only 3?

Otherwise he likes gardening ( cutting things with scissors) making mud with the hose, sandpit, water play and making cakes or decorating biscuits.

We also have transformers the pre skool ones but I suppose that's similar but they change into cars for races etc.

What about dancing like copying the routines from Go Noodle from YouTube streamed to the TV? My son loves that and some are ‘educational’ like ‘banana banana meatballs ‘ teaches patterns etc..

Unfortunately he struggles to play on his own Boggles which is something we are working on. Some good ideas here thanks :)

The only superhero toy we have lamadra is Spiderman. He much prefers to become the superhero himself and use a stick as a sword, wand etc.

Dancing could be a real hit Janice as he is very active :)

Okay, I’m going to suggest the wiggles. It may be a tv show but they do get the kids interacting and my three (nearly four year old but developmentally delayed) is obsessed with it. She doesn’t really play with toys and chews on everything but the wiggles, she adores and they can entertain her for a good while. She copies the actions and it gets her moving and she tries to say what they do.

@EmrysAtticus oh I see, yes of course. I was a bit slow there. I feel your pain, although my DS prefers to be a cat, who licks my face or a dog. Believe me he pretend poos a lot with full noise effects when out, plus sits at curbs. He is in fact a much better behaved dog than our actual dog, who's never sat at a curb. However I draw the line when he starts walking on all fours on the pavement. He's also added bug on its back to his latest repertoire. He does a few other machinery type acts all at inappropriate times, so in comparison your DS is probably a lot more normal in his play.

Can your DS translate the imaginary play into small world stuff? Does he have a small toy dragon and a Knight etc? Although this may drive you crazy too. I had to share my dinner with a manky plastic cat today.

Other than that I recommend water pistols, but just watch them from indoors