What are your 2,3,4 yr olds enjoying at the moment.

[Vickster]

I feel in a bit of a rut. I need inspirationn. All of mine do 9 hour days and I am bored of our activities! Please share!

[greanan]

We had our indoor sandpit filled with water this afternoon. They spent an hour playing in it (such short attention spans so an hour was soo long for them!!)

[kellib]

All of mine are into emergencies at the moment so we've been playing a lot of fireman Sam etc games!

Also been to our local fairy woods a few times as kids are enchanted by it. It's just some little doors and fairies attached to trees but kids love it!

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[Helen Dempster]

Mine are into discovery bottles at the mo :-)

[Vickster]

Thanks! I think i know what discovery bottles are, but can you clarify. Love the fairy woods, we have something similar at a farm near us.

[Vickster]

Ok just googled them and am now saving bottles!

[line6]

Lol me too! I want to make some sensory bottles they look great! Anyone got an advice on te best way to seal them?

[Daisy1956]

Mine loves dinosaurs, we have buried them to dig up later, collected leaves, twigs, pine cones,acorns etc for in a big tray with the dinosaurs -his imagination is great, found LO feeding the dinosaur leaves with a spoon when I asked him why he said that the dinosaur couldn't feed himself.

[silvermist]

Lol me too! I want to make some sensory bottles they look great! Anyone got an advice on te best way to seal them?

My hubby sealed mine with industrial strength glue then wrapped the tops in tape for added safety. They get used all the time and have never leaked x

[Bluebell]

mine are obsessed with mud pies!

Last year I did an owl babies theme - walk in the woods, collected leaves and twigs, 'found' the 3 owls in the tree, lots of discussion about the story and their home and their mums etc. I also later as well as the 3 baby owls bought a larger owl that I use as the mum owl and it makes an owl screeching noise.
Owl pictures with feathers or dried bits of leaves and made a nest with the twigs/leaves/feathers using a box or a basket.

Lots of really good imagination and thinking from that and they loved it - I've got 1 that is still here that did it last year but none the less will probably do it again! Might go see some owls this year too.

Water play and sand play - always!

Also got some shredded paper and they spent 2-3 hours playing, exploring, moving, lying in it - I was really amazed how much they got out of it!

busy bees is always a good game for taking turns/numeracy and they all choose this over any of my other games. well apart from maybe the peppa pig spinning memory card game but some of them are too young to play this properly but still - good fun!

[weedotes]

My 2 year old ,almost 3 year old and 3 1/2 year old have just this week fallen in love with the dressing up box and rack . I ve had firefighters knight and ballerinas running about .
They also love doing their "homework " , I've given each a notebook and the scribble to their hearts content . Copying the older ones .
We managed to fit in a walk in the woods before the rain and got loads of leaves sticks acorns etc and they are enjoying copying the older ones doing art . We drew their initials in glue and they stuck on leav and little sticks .
The two and almost three year olds spent about an hour with me and a 7 and 9 year old cutting little cardboard aeroplanes out of a cereal box and colouring them in . Then another wee while flying them around .
I m feeling brave enough now to do some of the hand and footprint art for Halloween I saw on these forums . ! We also tried a little baking a lot of fun but I had to keep reminding myself ..the process is more important than the product lol oh and play dough ...loads of play dough playing ! Also I just got some extra piece for An ikea train track and that's pretty popular . The 2 and almost 3 year old are here 9 hours and 3 1/2 year old is just 5 hours after nursery school .

[Vickster]

Great ideas. Thanks. I love the Owl babies theme. We have a small version of that book but i will look out for a big version at the library today. My dd did a really good Owl hand print picture at a sure start centre in the summer, so i will get the others to do that.

My DD starts full time school next week so child minding will be very different. I also will have two afternoons to get organised.

Keep them coming! .

[watgem]

my 18 month/2 and 3 year olds are into indoor sand with buckets/spades/shell and pebbles, brio train track, tractor toys , books and dvds, musical instruments singing and dancingxxx