What do you do with your toddler for play/learn?

Oops! Didn’t actually create the poll! 😂 anyway, send ideas as id love to get my little tech addict off the iPad ❤️

Outdoor play is definitely possible in the UK! A walk, the park, get rain stuff on and go walking in muddy puddles, my LG loves to walk her baby pushchair to the local shop and ‘beep’ anything we pick up and walk home. Digging in the garden, kick a ball around anywhere nearby with grass. Inside activities - dried pasta/lentils and various tubs/scoops have been a massive hit. Lay down towels and put some plastic toys in a tub with a scrubber and some bubbles to ‘clean’. Play dough, kinetic sand.

Does she enjoy playing on her own? We have a camera in out little girls room and let her play in her room at times, shes 3.5 years old. She has a table and chairs in her room too and loves drawing. I also have a 9 week old baby, it's sounds like you're doing plenty to entertain her, I think the issue here is your husband sitting infront of the TV all day, does he take your toddler out just them 2 or play together just the 2 of them? How involved is he?

Thanks!@Becky love the setup. We don’t have a lot of space right now but once we have a clear up I’m absolutely doing something similar! My husband does sometimes take my girl for walks and he does the running around in softplay but after work he’d much rather relax while he can. We also take turns for bedtime. So every second night he takes her up for 1 hour for bath, story, teeth and bed. So he’s not bad at all, but the tv is often on when she’s around and I guess she sees it as the norm because she’ll ask for her tablet if she’s remotely bored

@Charlotte love the bubbly clean up, I’ll definitely give that a try. Any ideas of play that engages kids for a fair amount of time? I find after 10-15 minutes she doesn’t seem interested anymore

Have to say the lentils and the pasta have been the most engaging so far for my 21m old. I added some plastic dinosaurs for the lentils, with some small bowls to fill with ‘food’ (lentils) for them. With the dried pasta I had different sized tubs and scoops, and some play kitchen items so some of it was sensory and some was more role play cooking. Also did a great one at a friends house where she set up porridge oats, and 3 sizes of bowls and scoops and we told the story of the 3 bears. That kept them busy for ages!

Nursery rhymes with actions. Create indoor obstacle course like jumping from pillow to pillow. Create trays for her I believe they are called tuff trays Getoutside hat, gloves and puddle suits are there for a reason Shapes out of play doh and then create something that’s made out to the shapes like triangle and a square to make a house 🏠 All these can be educational From experience this should keep her busy for 2 minutes 🤣 xx

@Becky how do you find having a tv in her bedroom ? Does it cause any issues? 🙂

@Fay no not at all hun, she doesn't watch it, we only put it there because it was a spare TV as we got a new one for the livingroom, but she never asks for it to be on, maybe once in a while, when I'm getting a shower or something and my partner is at work. We don't have TV before bed either and she's usually un bed for around 7.30 x

We’ve spent about four hours cleaning today. He knows how to do the skirting boards, mop, glass cleaning, hoover and carpet cleaner 😂

Oh its a hard one but if you want to reduce ipad time you'll just have to be consistent and persevere through the boredom/tantruming over it. They will soon find things to do but unfortunately they are going to prefer the screen if its on offer. Maybe try reducing gradually? Also agree that getting outside is absolutely possible in the UK - wrap up and it's getting lighter now too in the evenings which helps. Best of luck. Xx