DS is nearly 3 (2 months to go). We haven't pushed potty training so far, due to a combination of laziness, imminent new baby last summer, and hoping that it'll be easier if we leave it longer. And because he's very strong minded and we've had a huge battle about sleep and we really didn't want to make this into a battle too. Also because he never told us before or after he went. We've had a potty knocking around the bathroom for ages, but he never wanted to sit on it and we've stopped asking him.
So these last few hot days I've been doing nappy off time in the garden. I've brought the potty outside and said we're playing a game where we're trying to catch a pee in the potty. To begin with he looked a bit wary (he's extremely independent minded and can be contrary) but later he seemed to get into the idea of it as a fun game. Both days he's peed twice without apparently being aware that it's about to happen. Sometimes I saw it happening and tried to get the potty under it (failed) and sometimes he's told me afterwards. I've just said 'oh well, we'll try again next time' and he's seemed fine with that.
Is is likely that a child this age is not aware when he's about to go? Any suggestions for how to proceed? He's not the sort of child you can get to sit on the potty every half hour until they produce. I'm not keen on bribing/rewarding tactics, and he doesn't respond very well to them anyway. Praise and getting him to see that it benefits him work much better. But I can't really see how it does benefit him, TBH. The old 'big boys' line is beginning to sound a bit tired and emotionally loaded because we use it so much about sleeping in his own bed all night long, so I don't really want to use if for this too.
There's no real deadline, although his nursery and pre-school would like him to be trained by the time he's 3, and I need the nappies (cloth) for the baby who's growing out of the size 1 ones.