Sorry for the long post! Toddler DD is 25 months and seems to be going through a phase at the minute where her favourite things to do are active things rather than imaginative play and colouring/crafts, which were her favourite things about a month ago.
When she was in her imaginative play phase I found it really easy to fill the days as she was quite happy to play with my involvement (playing cafe was a bit hit) or on her own. I didn't need to encourage her to play as she would just come into the living room and pick what she wanted from her toy kitchen etc. At the minute, she seems barely interested in imaginative play unless she initiates.
Now she's in an active phase I'm finding it more difficult to fill our days. She still naps for around an hour a day at midday, so we usually do a dog walk in a morning (which lasts around an hour) and thankfully as the weather is good we usually walk to a playground in the afternoon about 4pm (walk there, park time and walk back takes about an hour). Evenings are straightforward as she will "help" make dinner and then DH comes home so she plays with him.
We have options for active play in our living room but she doesn't seem to go to them without my initial encouragement - but will then play on them for a while. So for example we have a climbing triangle and slide, wobble board, ride of toys and a football. She will play on them on her own or with me but only if I say "why don't you go on your slide" etc.
If I don't encourage her to do these things at the minute, she will just sit next to me, cuddling, she seems quite content but she doesn't ever seem to get bored of doing this? We might sing songs/rhymes or I offer to read to her but she doesn't seem interested most of the time.
I think it's the sudden shift that has me questioning because a month ago she would quite happily move from imaginative play activity to the next and wouldn't sit down at all (like most toddlers!) And now there seems to be this huge amount of time where she sits and is seemingly happy to do nothing. Maybe she's just naturally tired because of being more active and needs the downtime? It's not been my experience with toddlers that they will sit so calmly for so long though so I'm just wondering if it's normal or do I need to encourage her to play more?!
She does have one day a week at a Childminder's where she doesn't stop all day and weekends she usually "helps" with chores or we go out all day so it's only really noticeable on days where we're in the house except for playground trips and dog walking.
What do you all do with your toddlers?