activities for 2.5 year old boy

suomynona

Fri, May 23 2008, 7:23 am

My son is always bored and climbing the walls (which immediately results in bothering his baby sister). I take him outside to play but within 2 minutes of coming home, he's bored. Sometimes I need to get things done in the house. He doesn't have patience for things like coloring etc. He'll do it for about 1 minute and then he'll be bored again.

Any ideas?

Tamiri

Fri, May 23 2008, 7:58 am

You are not dreaming anonymous backwards. If you don't work, I say keep him home. Since you DO work, that's not an option. I wrote that as a joke because of all the posts I read of SAHM married girls who just can't figure out what to do with a 7 month old or 17 month old. 2.5 is old enough for a program, in my mind, just not the 6 days week/5 hours standard here.

The reason you are experiencing issues with your toddler on his days off is that he is used to being overstimulated. In gan - or wherever he goes - there are likely to be quite a few children, and things going on all the time. In gan, they have the children outside for quite a while on nice days (remember, I lurk to see what our future holds for next year's gan) then they come in and have either snack or another activity. It's one thing after another with noise, vision, touch, smell - all the sensory receptors constantly at work. At home, it's quiet and dull. He may be expecting you to entertain, because that is what he is used to.

I guess you will have to put up with it for a while, until he can go out and play with other kids or until his sister is big enough to play with him. I would take him outside for as long as possible and then hope for the best when you come in the house. All of Shalhevet's suggestions are great, but if he's a particularly active boy - um... I don't know if they will work. I wish I had more to offer. Maybe special things? A box of cheap bandaids to play with, a roll of scotch tape. Playdough? Challa dough? Something that will keep his attention for a while and keep him calm.

Good luck!

suomynona

Fri, May 23 2008, 8:07 am

Some of those are good ideas.
Today I let him play with a tzedaka box. I thought he'd keep busy putting money in, but all he did was spill it out and immediately lose interest.

Shalhevet, he has some of those toys, but the only time it's guaranteed that he'll be interested in toys is when they're new. Sometimes he'll get into a toy he already has but it's unpredictable. Whenever I want him to play with his toys, he has no interest. He just wants to bother my daughter.

amother

Fri, May 23 2008, 9:14 am

My most best entertainment ever thought up was I bought 2 kitty litter boxes at the 99cent store, a pack of construction vehicles & a small bag of sand for like 5 dollars. My children can sit at it for hours. At first I used it only on the porch but once winter came I brought it inside. It is messy to have in the house but I put it on the carpet and it is easy to vaccuum up. They LOVE it a year later still. I am thinking about buying an under the bed storage box with a good lid to keep outside this summer. My only rule is no water in the sand, and I only buy one bag of sand a year, if you are too messy you will run out. But your son is probably too young for those rules yet.

Another thing loved at that age was being handed a childrens scissor and a pile of assorted paper, magazine pages already torn out & colored paper. Messy but he could sit for an hour cutting. Something about a little man and a sort of knife. Sometimes I would give a big peice of oak tag to glue the peices on for a collage but cutting held more interest.

A pair of my first skates or roller blades around the house, or even a scooter or bike inside is very busying.

When its time to cook they love best helping. The fun of peeling garlic cloves or an onion is great to a kid. Or even getting stuff out of the pantry or fridge for you.

Ok, here is a really big one - playing with water in the sink. A cup, a cork or 2 from old wine bottles you saved, and assorted other toys that are small and water safe. Just set him right up on a step stool.

The only toy store toys that held interest at that age were cars on a car rug and lego. Zehu.

HTH.

manhattanmom

Mon, May 26 2008, 3:36 pm

Give him a pack of different colored post it notes and tell him to decorate a part of the wall or a door, etc.

If he loses interest in some of his toys, take them away--keep rotating his toys--every 3-4 weeks or so so he doesn't have ALL of them at the same time and then gets bored and needs you to buy new ones.