What toys do your 3 year olds love?

[022828MAN]

I worry that I'm not doing enough to stimulate my DD (about to turn 3). She just doesn't seem at all interested in things like puzzles, colouring, building, etc and so a lot of the time we revert to banging the TV on as I just don't know what else to try. We do go to lots of parks, farms and pre lockdown to museums and soft play etc. But I'm really struggling to think of how to entertain her, stimulate her at home. I have friends who's children much younger than DD have good hand eye coordination and either build, do simple jigsaws, draw or colour in and I worry that DD will be behind when she starts school next year.
She also won't try and use her balance bike or scooter when we're out either, and again I've seen kids at 18 months whizzing around on theirs.
I know I shouldn't compare her to other children but she just doesn't stick to things and if she doesn't grasp tasks straight away she won't try again and just gives up. Should I be concerned?

The little girl I look after has just turned three and her favourite things to do are; kinetic sand and play dough, jigsaws, duplo, brio train tracks, playing with her dollies, building dens and tents with her older brothers, riding her bike, baking, drawing and "writing" and cutting stuff up - she's obsessed with snipping up paper, string, boxes, anything really!

My DS is slightly older (3y5m) but at home he enjoys:

Imaginative play eg with firefighter costume, masks, puppets, teddies, making a den and hiding from monsters etc
Train set
Duplo
Playmobil ark
Play kitchen
Play doh
Stamps
Cutting and sticking (choosing pictures in old magazines)
Reading books together and by himself
Puzzles
Simple board games for his age (orchard toys)
Sand pit in garden
Helping with cooking/baking

However, I can never persuade him to do any of these things if he's not interested. It can be quite frustrating if he's in a funny mood and says no to everything. As a general rule it seems to work best if we take him out in the morning (like you we used to do lots of activities but lockdown has obviously been harder... still, we take him out on his balance bike, to feed the ducks, and to the park now) then when we get home he seems happier to play by himself or do an activity we suggest. It's a bit of a balancing act between letting him decide and making suggestions or in some cases just insisting we are going out (because he sometimes resists but always enjoys it).

It took him a little while to be up for trying the balance bike, but he loves it now, so be patient and keep offering it as an option.

Does she have a scooter?

My DS will play with his wooden train set for hours. But then he loved trains so that might not be helpful for a child who doesn’t love trains!

I’d explore open ended toys where the only limit is her imagination. Dolls house, vehicles, toy food and kitchen (DS loves his wooden ice cream and cake set and making cups of tea), dressing up, any kind of small world play that she interested in - little figures from a franchise she likes (Frozen?), toy animals, that kind of thing?