2 year old play ideas

[MrsLeclerc]

My DH and I have been working from home since March and haven’t had any childcare since then. (GP were having DS during my part time hours but they were shielding and now a routine operation means they won’t be able to help until the new year)

DS has just turned two and I feel like he’s not getting enough stimulating play.

We looked at local nurseries but the one closest has closed down and the only other one within acceptable distance doesn’t have places left. The local library used to run classes/groups but has closed due to Covid. We’re in a lockdown area so all services are pretty bare bones (we didn’t get post delivered for 3 weeks!).

I’ve changed my hours to accommodate more time with DS but am struggling to find things to keep him interested. I would like to do nursery type activities with him but most things I can find are crazy messy or seem a bit too advanced for him.

In the summer we did lots of walks but as the weather turns it’s not going to be feasible to do that every day. He likes playing with his cars, climbing into empty cardboard boxes and looking at the pictures in his books.

If anyone can recommend some age appropriate play ideas, websites or let me know what your 2 year old enjoys doing in nursery, that would be really helpful.

There's loads of play accounts on Instagram for different ages and interests - I like play hooray, mother could and bringing up babe amongst loads of others. I tend just to follow a lot of play # as well to see loads of different ideas.

Make dens and tunnels and tents with sheets and furniture
My DC were really into pretend play, so I bought a little tea set and plastic food and we’d pretend to have a picnic.
Have fun playing with shaving foam in the bath tub!
Blow bubbles for him to pop or get a bubble machine
At that age, my dc loved printing - hand printing, potato printing etc..
Make a drum kit with upturned pots and pans and wooden spoons!
Roll balls down ramps!
Hide small objects (we used to use clothes pegs) round the house and go hunting for them.
Make a washing line indoors and hang up anything you can find - pieces of paper, hats, gloves, empty cereal boxes!
Stack and unstack paper cups
Wrong time of year, but a paddling pool and sand pit in the garden would probably be successful. I used to hide toys in the sandpit.
Play catch with a balloon.
Cook up a big saucepan of porridge and let it go cold. Add some food colouring and it turns into a fantastic squelchy messy play activity, especially with little toys hidden! I do the same with custard and with mashed potato using a packet of instant smash! Polenta works well too, as does cooked couscous or cooked spaghetti.
Make shadow puppets with a torch.
Thread pasta onto a shoelace.

Look at the 5 minute mum blog, she also has a book and look at Pinterest too.

I’m not on Instagram or Pinterest (I know!) so I hadn’t realised there was anything like that on there. I’ll definitely take a look.

@Fivemoreminutes1 thank you for those suggestions. Some great ideas, especially the ones using bits from around the house. Household objects are much more fun than his toys!

I don’t really do much social media and never post photos on Facebook wall but Pinterest is easy to use.

I'm the last person to be suggesting play ideas, I'm most definitely in the "lax" categore of parent.

However DD and I had enormous fun at that age with her cars, a few.planks of wood, some cushions etc and made ramps to race the cars down.

Also salt dough kept her occupied for HOURS in the run up to Christmas. Shape them, bake them, then paint them.

I'd invest in puddle suits and snowsuits etc too and still get out even if the weather is not great

Play doh is great at that age and not too messy. We also had a sand and water table (and floor mat); I used to put mine in his waterproofs and he’d play happily for half an hour.

"Playing in the sink" was always a hit with my two when they were that age - kitchen sink full of tepid/lukewarm water and lots of jugs/spoons/whisks/bowls/funnels/measuring cups to play with. Introduce washing-up liquid after a while for the bubbles! Obviously put a towel down in front of the sink/under any stepstool you need to use 😂

Just to reassure you, organised activities for small children are a fairly new thing and children from previous generations developed and thrived. In our house the park and outdoor walks were year round activities ; indoors dens made from sofa cushions and blankets, toy cars , toy plastic animals , doctors set , felt tips on pebbles and for the younger age group sorting out saucepans or cutlery while I cooked. Obvs tv or cartoon dvds as well.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I think I’m just feeling a bit of guilt that I’m not doing enough. (That feeling of being a crap employee, mother, cook and cleaner because I’m spread too thin) I’m going to plan some fun things on the weekend ready to set up for the weekdays.

I think I’ll definitely try to get us out walking again too. From a mental health point of view it was so much better when we could blow off the cobwebs. Although we’re experiencing torrential sideways rain today!