Toddler indoor activities

[LaTrucha]

I'm in the early stages of pregnancy and have a 22 month-old DD. I'm really thinking that less outside activity is a good idea, especially on dark, rainy afternoons.

What are good activities to do with a toddler juts under two?

Are any of those 'Things to make and do' books good?

Give them a micro-fibre damp cloth and show them how to dust, my just turned four year old loves to do this! She actually asks me what surfaces she can clean :D

Was coming on to mention the Imagination tree blog but see someone beat me too it.

My dc's favourite thing to do is messy play with jelly and pasta. Cook up some past tubes and then put it into jelly to set. Stick it and them in the bath and they spend ages squeezing and squashing and shooting jelly out of the pasta by blowing through it.

Do your toddlers actually do all this stuff without loads of supervision? Dd is 2.8 and has an attention span of 10mins max before shes had enough of whatever we're doing and if I leave her she paints the dog or glues the kitchen table. She would never sit alone and glue or thread pasta.

(Trying to actually be helpful though to OP) she loves playing with water in the sink and does keep her busy for ages.

2.4 y.o. DS needs a reasonable amount of supervision (I couldn't leave him in a room on his own for long) but he usually is happy to play for about 30 mins. Once his concentration is broken though (eg by me having to go upstairs for a shower - he wants to come with me) he is generally reluctant to return to the activity that day.

I doubt he'd have the dexterity to glue or thread anything on his own yet (never tried him with threading anything tbh ).

We started off threading using pipe cleaners. Easier to hold.

Also pipe cleaners and a colander. Makes a funny space hot once the pipe cleaners have been shooved in the holes.

Space hat.

Small stepladder. 2 or 3 steps. Some flags, a pirate hat and cardboard tube telescope make for a good hour of fun here.

DS also has a playpen play house he can lock us out of with his favourite books in and a roof. He can be in there for a while as it is 'his' space.

Ooh, pipe cleaners for threading sounds like a good idea.

The excitement of pipe cleaners in a colander lasted about 2 minutes here , then DS decided to get a bottle of water and 'fill the colander' (which was sat on the landing floorboards).