How to entertain a 2 year old?

Bitsy_Beans

Whilst I appreciate you're not a professional in Early Years age bracket but some websites here might give you some inspiration

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/index.htm
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
http://www.under5s.co.uk/

shellsuit

dondo wrote: »

We (well mostly my wife) took our daughter (who was about 2 at the time) to Tumbletots and Jo Jingles when my wife was on maternity leave and daughter was only going to nursery 2 days a week as opposed to 5 before her wee brother arrived. She got bored of Jo Jingles after a while but loved Tumbletots (it's lots of climbing, balancing, co-ordination etc) and still goes now at weekends (as does my son) and both get a lot out of it. So maybe worth seeing if there's a class near you http://www.tumbletots.com/

All the other suggestions are excellent too.

Thanks for this post, I'd forgot all about tumbletots!

My son is 26 months old and is starting to run me ragged, wanting to be entertained ALL day.

I'm in the same boat as the OP really as I have no friends or family with children the same age as him, so we don't really mix with other little ones.

I've just found a local tumbletots class near me so have booked to take him!

We're also going to our local library tomorrow, so I hope he behaves! :eek: We would have gone today, but they're closed all day on a Wed, as I found out once we were up, dressed and ready to go, doh!


He's not starting pre school till next September (2012), so I really want to look for somewhere he could go, maybe once or twice a week for a couple of hours, so he can mix with other kids. Can you do that with a private nursery?? (I don't mind the cost at all)

money_honey

shellsuit wrote: »

He's not starting pre school till next September (2012), so I really want to look for somewhere he could go, maybe once or twice a week for a couple of hours, so he can mix with other kids. Can you do that with a private nursery?? (I don't mind the cost at all)

Our nursery allows you to do one morning or one afternoon a week so a 4 hour session, we started out doing that with DD and increased to 2 days once I started working again. I think most nurseries probably allow you to do this.

OP - When I'm not working DD and I go swimming one morning a week, and she goes to a baby gym (similar to tumble tots I think). The library is a great idea too. Other than that we go to the park or go to friends' houses (I know you said you have no-one near you at the moment though). We also have lazy days where we relax & do puzzles/drawing/make believe play.

madtrekker

shellsuit wrote: »

He's not starting pre school till next September (2012), so I really want to look for somewhere he could go, maybe once or twice a week for a couple of hours, so he can mix with other kids. Can you do that with a private nursery?? (I don't mind the cost at all)

Most nurseries do half-days as an option, although they might insist on you booking a minimum number of sessions a week. Not all do though so ask around - my nephew used to go to nursery for just one morning a week as that was all my SIL needed them for.

MumOf2Beasties

ditto to all the above suggestions

i also fill a washing up bowl with warm soapy water, place it on a chair in the kitchen on top of a big towel (reduce risk of slipping!) and add a few plastic spoons and cups of different sizes, give my daughter a sponge and she'll spend a good 30-40 mins 'washing up' and filling and tipping the cups

we do this outside aswell when the weather is nice, works well with dd who's 2 and a half and ds who's 5

HTH x

YORKSHIRELASS

Have you got a paved area/patio in the garden? Buy some chalk and let her draw outside. Washes off easily.
Home made playdough is fun. Get some old magazines or catalogues and cut out the pictures she likes and make a collage. Finger painting/potato printing if you can stand the mess. Same with baking. We had a play tent in the garden that my boys loved.

To be honest all activities can be a bit limited with a 2 year old who all have short attention spans. When things got bad we used to just drop everything and get out, go to the park, or just go anywhere where they could run free a bit!

She may also be adjusting to the new routine and the novelty of having you around a lot more. Things may settle down a bit in time. And you are definitely not a bad mother - I admire your honesty! I see Mums struggling with toddlers sometimes and remember those days well. My eldest was 2 in the November and I had my second son the following January - it must have been really hard work at times!

pigpen

She should be able to entertain herself with a large empty box for hours!

You shouldnt be trying to keep her occupied, children need to learn to occupy themselves. She needs at least a few hours a day of .. go and play.. in order to extend her social skills and be independant.

I provide toys, art stuff (crayons/chalk/paper etc) and the space and the children make of it what they do.

If she is losing interest very very quickly it is possible it is too babyish and she needs more of a challenge.. like learning colours/letters/shapes and progressing to words and learning to read.. most of mine could read by 3.5 because they were bored of baby stuff.

Running_Horse

I am always amazed and saddened by the lack of other children in our wonderful park. Same with the mobile library. Take the bus to town; at that age it is like an adventure. Develop several long local walk routes to whatever it is you have locally.

flutterby_lil

Go on a train, my little boy has just turned 3 and keeps asking about going on a train.

Picnic in the park.

Trip to grandmas.

Hide and seek in the park.

Feed the ducks.

Play cbeebies games on the computer.

Painting.

Gardening.

Just sitting out in the yard/garden whilst little one lows bubbles and you pop them.

Just some ideas that we do.

skintchick

Ooh gosh, what do we do? I second the SureStart centre suggestion, ours has messy play and stay and play sessions all week, and we also go to a music group weekly which DD loves.

Other things we do:

swimming

library

walk round town

park

feed the ducks

go a friend's/have a playdate at ours

garden play (we have a slide, seesaw, water table and paddling ppol)

drawing and sticking

read books

jigsaws

play with the train track

tea parties

play shops

cars

build towwers and knock them down

hide and seek with a toy (hide it in the room for them to find, make it obvious though)

they can help with your jobs

phone Grandma for a chat

make music

play with her toy farm

have a bath or shower (she loves this!)

sing or dance to music

There's probably more. Just try things out, and don;t forget days out to attractions, too. Many aren;t expensive and can help relieve boredom. A change of scene often helps Mummy, I find!