Ideas for keeping 3yo entertained at home

[LuckyFlash]

I work 4 days a week so have 3 days with DS. I’m struggling at the moment to find ways to keep him entertained at home that don’t involve me being super involved all the time. I try to get him out of the house as much as possible - swimming, outings, cafes, walks, parks etc but when money is tight or weather is bad we still end up with a fair amount of time at home. He’s also just started a new preschool so really wants to chill at home when we don’t have anywhere to be.
However he always wants me to play with him and isn’t at an age where he can reliably create fun for himself I often need to direct play. We have lots of fun with toys, role play, baking, painting, drawing etc but these activities literally take up 10-15 minutes before he wants to move on. The only way I seem to be able to have some time to shower and sort the house is to put the tv on and I really feel like it’s going on too much at the moment.

any ideas for the dreaded 6.30am-9am period where I don’t want to have to be ‘on’ or the post-activity, pre dinner 3-5pm stages? Running out of ideas!

I have a 3 year old and a similar set up. Can share the load with husband at weekends.

Son wakes at 6:30/7am every day and we head out for the day at 10am at the latest. We stay out until 2 or 3. He likes to scooter everywhere so that draws the day out nicely as we walk and scoot from one thing to the other. We do parks, the woods, the beach, feed the ducks etc. On miserable days we go to the library or the local play cafe. It takes some serious bad weather to keep us in.

For the 6:30-9:30/10am stint at home he's fairly happy playing with his toys and watching tv. I have no issue with that as he's had a busy few days at nursery and now he's enjoying relaxing. We're about to head out for 5 hours straight or more so I say, give the boy some telly! I make breakfast last longer by doing pancakes or French toast. I have a shower and sometimes he joins me and plays with bath toys.

For the 3pm-6pm stint we've been out all day and he's exhausted so, again, it's playing with toys and watching telly.

I'll play with him a bit but I don't like hours of playing down on the floor so I just explain that I have things to do but I'll play with him for 30 minutes and set a timer if need be. He accepts it fine these days so haven't used a timer for a while. He likes to help with jobs like laundry and so on.

Our best indoor activities are:
Helping with jobs
Brio train set
Magnet tiles
Den building
Making ramps out of cardboard for little cars
Kinetic sand
Yoto player for screen-free alternative to telly

We also do play dates with other mums and their toddlers to share the burden of entertaining kids. They amuse themselves for longer with their friends.

Play dough! Home made is best. Google recipes. Obviously in the kitchen not in the best rooms. Used to keep my 2 happy for hours. As well as the standard rolling pin/cutter stuff they can use cars, trucks, Playmobil people and even Lego in it. Yea it does gunk stuff up a bit but the dough can be tapped out when dry. Store in a plastic container in the fridge. Often lasts for weeks. Oh happy days. 😀
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The 630 morning Times...cbeebies and the like are your friend. A tablet or tv and let him veg out.

3-5pm colouring, play dough, duplo, etc are all good options.