Ideas for entertaining an 18mo old - please!!!

[RudyDudy]

DS is almost 18mo and there are times in the day when I'm worried that he might be a bit bored and I'm not sure how to keep him entertained! We do a lot of going out to various toddler groups, music classes, park, etc and a lot of the time he is happy to just potter around at home playing with his toys or things like tupperware pots, etc. But there are times when this doesn't seem to hold his attention and I feel like he needs/wants to 'do' something but I'm not sure what that 'something' is. At his age I'm not sure of what activities he can or will sit and do so I'd really welcome any ideas or suggestions from more experienced or more imaginative parents of young toddlers!

TIA

[Nemo1977]

hi
my ds is 17mths and his fave thing at the min are those magic paint books.
It is fab as its only water so no mess as such. You can get them for 99p from tescos etc. Also likes to help me cooking[mixing cake mix etc] and to do some art stuff particularly gluing things. So if we have been to the park we collect leaves etc and will make a picture a couple of days later..it is messy stuff but I use a splashmat on floor and he loves it.
Good luck

[Nemo1977]

meant to say that todays activity was to plant some flowers in the garden. We got a tub from asda for £3.58 that has poppy seeds in and ds loved the getting messy bit.

[RudyDudy]

Thanks for that Nemo - I haven't tried anything like gluing with him as I wasn't sure he could do it yet but will give it a try! Can you tell me more about the magic paint books - I've not heard of those...

[fisil]

Rudy - do you have a patio? Get a bucket of water & a big brush & let him "paint" the patio.

Also, did you know that there's a building site that you can see from the Wimbledon-bound platform of Raynes Park station. My toddler Mum friends have spent hours there watching trains pass and the workmen in between!

Tour the parks of the area?

Oh, and we went for a walk in the wood on Saturday. Oxshott common (just off the A3) - you feel like you're in a real forest, but you only need to walk two minutes from the car - we had a whole adventure in 20 mins (as much as I can manage, let alone ds!)

And do you go to the pool in Kingston? It has a beech type area so is great for littlies.

We toured libraries quite a bit when ds was a little younger too!

[RudyDudy]

Hi fisil - thanks for that. Yes we do have a patio and he'd probably love that. Was doing some gardening yesterday and he picked up the broom and started sweeping. The wood sounds lovely

I'm really thinking of when we're at home and he needs to be engaged with something or he can get a bit restless.

[fisil]

oh, I'm not so good at that. I let him get on with his endless pottering! Do you have any dressing up clothes? Ds seems to spend hours putting on hats and my shoes and "going to work". And an old sarong tied round the neck to be a king. I know what you mean, like you should be "doing" something, but I don't know, ds really does seem to prefer pottering, and it suits me!

[kittyb]

A tube of tennis balls - you know from a sports shop, 3 tennis balls inside, like a see through pringles tube. They pour them out, they put them back in, they pour them out....

[Cam]

I bought dd a painting easel (large standing plastic one from early learning centre) at 18 months. Finger paints, large brush, big paper, overall. It was her favourite thing. She painted almost every day for years and still uses it now (aged 8 years) and has always got A grades for art since she started school. A bargain I'd say.

[NannyJo]

save all your yoghurt pots, toilet rollss etc then make musical instruments (use rice inside toilet rolls, wrap them, decorate them with your help obviously) that in itself keeps thm busy then playing with them is great and they are proud of their work! HTH

[Nemo1977]

this is the only link i can find toshow u a magic paint book
/linkcgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=90922&item=5178727547&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Basically you just add water to the pic and it shows up colours.

[Shazzler]

My dd is 19mths and I have just read all the suggestions. They all sound good and I will be trying some of them myself.

It sounds that you do a lot for your ds anyway RudyDudy with all your toddler groups and music classes etc.

[Bozza]

Play dough. Bubbles.