I want to stay in more with my toddler

[Carrotcakeplease]

I am feeling a bit like my life is a whirlwind of activities and my toddler has sort of forgotten how to play. He does at nursery and at other peoples houses but at our house he just wants to watch TV.

I would love some suggestions of things to do with him. He isn’t really into jigsaws. Sticker books work for a while but then he wanders off. His interests are mostly vehicles - tractors and cars and so on.

What might we enjoy? I really want to get him engaged with toys again.

We’d just hit lockdown when mine was this age and I had to try and keep her busy while I worked.

As others have said, playdoh gives you some time as they will play by themselves. A giant box is great, just a box, hours of fun apparently. Randomly shaking things up like a paddling pool with ball pit balls is great fun in the living room, we then did a colour sorting game with the balls. I also bought in her mini slide at one stage to her pure delight and that kept her engaged for ages. A giant bit of paper and different things to make marks with (or they can draw on the box)

really at this age you’ll still only get a short timespan when they’re interested in the activity and you still need to be heavily involved in their game play. We still tried to outside for a walk and things in the afternoon, sometimes collecting things (I still have a tub of sticks by my front door)

I have a vehicle obsessed DS too! I just try to make every game or activity involve a toy vehicle - tape felt tips onto them and use them to draw on paper taped to the floor, make a masking tape road on the floor and off they go with a vehicle, get some paint out and then let them make tracks with vehicles on the paper- next activity is a car wash with fairy liquid in a bucket to wash the paint off, play dough - you’ve guessed it, make tracks with a vehicle, baking tray with rice or magic sand, push the diggers through, use any kind of building blocks to make a tower that they then crash down with a vehicle, use magnet tiles to build a garage for a vehicle. I hear you, it’s not how I ever envisaged spending my days either, but I promise it gets easier - at 3 he happily plays alone a lot more now.

Non-vehicle related - balloons, always a hit here, fun for hours, spray bottle - there’s a dedicated door he’s allowed to spray water onto and he could do it all day - with an old towel to wipe it down and then go again.

If you don’t follow them already check out five minute mum and busy toddler on Instagram for lots of good ideas!

My eldest is 8 now and never liked ‘playing.’ As a toddler he also didn’t like baking, drawing/mark making (until he was 4ish and then loved it), or any kind of small world play. Didn’t like play dough. Didn’t like Paw Patrol or any character based toys. I set up various sensory trays, a mud kitchen and a play kitchen inside, all of which was ignored. I used to take him to a toddler group and while the others sat and played or painted, he would just be racing round from activity to activity but not settling.

He LOVED books and being read to. He liked parks and running round outside. He really enjoyed the Brio trains (we had tonnes of that with Thomas engines) the best, and we had a box of Duplo that we would make things with, but that was honestly all he played with! When he was 4 he enjoyed watching Octonauts and had a wider interest sea creatures and was bought some toy Gups (which were ignored).

At 8 now he’s still not bothered about ‘stuff.’ Christmas presents are always drawing equipment, loads of books and Switch games (his little sister was totally different though and loved any and all toys, games, dolls, painting and baking).

My sons absolute favourite toy was his road mat and a load of little cars. He's been playing with it since he was about 2 and still uses it regularly at nearly 9. I got a bit bored pushing cars around saying brmm after a while but he loved it. Best thing is that you can usually pick up cars in charity shops, car boots etc. for pennies so he can have lots of cars.

Hiii this sounds a lot like my son. Who will happily watch tv if I let him. Some activities he lives are play doh, baking, dancing and easy board games and jigsaws. Also eye spy and hide and seek are faves.

My son has just turned 2. Not long attention span but he LOVES his wooden train track. We have some accessories and other vehicles too.You don’t have to buy brio, the Aldi or bigjig sets are really good.

Small diggers/ fire engines also a big hit.

none vehicle related he likes sticklebricks and Duplo. Also not interested in craft or stickers etc.

Hi OP, I got this for my 5 yo but the toddler has completely adopted it:
www.amazon.co.uk/Fisher-Price-Little-People-Launch-Raceway/dp/B083VZW49V/ref=asc_df_B083VZW49V/

He will spend hours putting the cars at the top and grabbing them up and starting again - plus there's a button on top that plays music and he does a little disco by himself while I'm cooking, pressing and dancing and pressing and dancing...

So yes - cardboard tubes might get you the same effect :) but this one has loops and flashing lights! Needs some assembly IIRC and takes up a fair amount of space under our breakfast bar!

I was also going to suggest a xylophone/maracas/keyboard, because noisy is fun.

And there's a matt that they can draw on with water which is like (relatively) easy clean up messy play: www.amazon.co.uk/Aquadoodle-E72772-Official-Colouring-Suitable/dp/B07FFS6FKJ

Best of luck x

Have you seen the Five Minute Mum book? I find playing at home with small ones really hard (I basically like adventures out and reading books, and that’s it!). But found quite a bit of inspiration from that book.

Also my boy sounds quite similar to yours - he is a MASSIVE trains fan, and got into it from his 2nd birthday.

I'd make the TV less available and he may get better at things like imaginative play. Have you heard of Montessori toy rotation? It's where you only have maybe 5-7 toys available for a week and then rotate them. It's meant to encourage deeper and more imaginative play by having fewer toys out, which can encourage them to play for five mins then move on.

I might be a bit tight about TV. DD is 2Y4M and there are weeks where she watches no TV. DH probably puts a Disney film or something on in the background on his day off with her every few weeks but that's it. She doesn't watch any toddler programmes yet. But she does love drawing, play doh, role play eg. Making tea, chopping wooden veg, looking after her doll. If she asked me to put the TV on I wouldn't do it either, I'd be like 'maybe after lunch' but she is testing boundaries more lately and I'm keen not to let her always dictate things.

My first paragraph at the end, having MORE toys available is meant to encourage shorter ply sessions. Fewer toys is meant to be better.

Play-doh, painting, cutting and sticking, water with washing up liquid in a bowl with some kitchen utensils, helping you with cleaning (give him a wet wipe to clean the bath or something), decorating biscuits or cupcakes (just get the cheap ready made packet mixes). I also find imaginary play really boring but really enjoy doing these activities with my toddler.

Maybe just sitting beside him. I do this with my son. He wants me to play cars but I sit down he plays himself. I obviously interact with him when required but they’ve got such a short attention span. How about marble run too. They’re great fun 😂

Big cardboard box - when DS was 2 last year it was the guaranteed thing to play with, we'd colour or paint the thing. Sit in it and pile in cushions, blankets, and have picnic. Then flatten the thing and prop on the sofa and slide down it, slide cars and dinosaurs down it. Hours of fun over a good week - then box would go out with recycling bins. Neighbours would look out for any massive boxes after deliveries.

Have you tried role play toys, eg a toy kitchen or shop with trolley/till?

Chocolate mud- 2 cups of cornflour and 1/4 cup of cocoa. Mix with water in a tray to gloop. Smells amazing and is very sensory.

If you don't want real paints, these paint sticks are great, with no mess:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Brian-LBPS10CMDA20B-Assorted-Colours/dp/B07PW2HVFF/ref=mpssa113?keywords=paint+sticks&qid=1669240836&sr=8-3

And thanks to the poster who shared a pic of the button board - have just ordered one for my toddlers!

Good old fashioned wooden building bricks or Mega Blocks.

My DC loved both.

Bricks are great, you can build garages, hoses or bridges for the cars or just a simple tower... then DS can knock it down and start again!

Sometimes it's worth just sitting with them while they play whatever it is, even if it is dull. Just turn your brain off and enjoy their company.

I spent a good half an hour with DD at her toy kitchen set. She's just turned two and is definitely starting with imaginative play - feeding me and her teddies with imaginary food from toy forks, wrapping up her dolls in her toy pram, etc. Might be worth modelling a bit of that sort of thing yourself and seeing if he'll join in?

I like structured play or building. When my kids were 2 we'd play with the mega blocks, race cars, doctors kit (I'd be the patient so I could lay down for 5) and paint ALOT!

We have paint sticks rather than tradition paint, I would put dd in her high chair, stick some paper to the tray and give her the paint sticks. Far less mess.

Dd also got a brio starter kit train set for her 2nd birthday and she loved to just pull the train around the track, which the developed to rescuing duggee figures she would put on the track or having paw patrol figures bring things to and from the train. Imaginative play all has to start somewhere small and develops from there.

She loves a balloon to play "keeps uppy" like in Bluey, that can keep her attention for ages!

I think you just need to turn the Tv off at tge switch. It can be 'broken' and strangely only work in day the evenings.
He'll quickly start playing again, p.s. nearly 2 definitely isn't too young for imaginative play

some of us parent children better at an older age I think this is true. We all have ages that we find easier. I loved having toddlers and was a brilliant parent to them, but was a relatively crap parent to them when they were teenagers. I found the teenage years frustrating and tiresome and often very boring. I just wanted to be back playing imaginary games and building Mega Blocks towers with them.

My DS is the same age as yours and loves his toy kitchen. I drink lots of pretend cups of tea, but it definitely keeps him busy.

Another favourite at the minute is cardboard boxes (thanks to all the Xmas deliveries!). He likes to collect small toys like blocks in one box and transfer them to another.

Drawing, painting (especially with random things like toilet paper tubes or sticks), and playing with water are all fail safes but need more one to one supervision.

The first toy DD ever really properly played with was her toy kitchen! We had a the little wooden one from Aldi.

I feel your pain, my DD has had ZERO patience for most of her life and never was a 'explore the room' type child.

I think to some extent, OP, some kids are just better at playing than others. I always felt like we'd done something wrong with ours, who would never stick at anything for longer than 2 mins, and needed constantly attention to do playing. Having seen his cousin, who is a few months younger, and is great at just amusing herself and initiating imaginative play etc, I think all kids are different. Now ours is older (4) it's a lot easier to start him off with some playdoh and wander off etc but only very recently. And tv is still the only way we actually get any down time!

Like you, i'm not a natural 'player', and prefer to be out and about doing things. Maybe set a limit for yourself, like half an hour, play for that long and then let yourself off the hook. If that means TV, then that's life. I found endless days of playing robbers exhausting!