can't believe i am asking this AGAIN but 3-4 year old activities/toys!

[*Becky*]

DS is sooooooo bored and I am struggling with it big time.

Essentially he wants to watch TV all the time and it is up to me to think of 101 ideas in a day to prevent this. I am all out of ideas and feel like a boring mum...oh and did I mention tired too 

What do your 3-4 year old boys like to do?

thanks 

[~Emma~]

Brodie likes to paint. Finger paints out on the table and he gets on with it.Lots of mess but worth it for a half hour.

 Balloons! I blew up about 6 of them and just let him get on with it! They were from his B'day!


 He's back into Brio big time and he merges it with his cars too. So we build a track and put the car mat thingy out. I'm rubbish with imagination so I let him take the lead with that and the scenarios usually end up ridiculous but hey!  

 Hide go seek. He's pretty rubbish at it but he loves the idea of the game.

 On really bad days weatherwise I do bathtime in the afternoon and make a good hours play from that. SOmetimes I get in myself and he LOVES that! I put the shower on over the bath once D gets out and whilst I dry and change her on the bathroom floor he has a whale of a time.

 He just got the little people garage and he loves that too.

 Baking, tons of baking.

 Helping me 'clean.' I filled an empty skoosher full of just water and he loves to have a cloth and his spray and he follows me around as I clean.

 He likes to play farms/zoo so he gets all his animals on the table and I fill up some little pots with things like cous cous and rice and plays at feeding his farm/zoo animals. Afterwards I fill up the sink and he gives his animals a bath!

 

 
 

[*Becky*]

great idea about daytime baths

He likes to play farms/zoo so he gets all his animals on the table and I fill up some little pots with things like cous cous and rice and plays at feeding his farm/zoo animals. Afterwards I fill up the sink and he gives his animals a bath!

love this too!
thanks xx

[*jazzberry*]

Great ideas Emma!

My boys like sticking and cutting - a pritt stick, some old borthday cards/wrapping paper and a pair of safety scissors keep both busy for ages. Oh, and playdo - with the machine thing you can feed it through, scissors and a rolling pin...

[Mashi]

Yes, Brio still a huge hit here. And his marble run (Christmas present but kids get their Santa Claus gifts here on Dec 6) and he has not stopped playing with it for ages.  HOURS every day.

Painting - he has watercolours and brushes and will paint toilet paper rolls all day long if I let him.  When they are dry stick some faces on them (did them once with photographs and cut out our own plus family's faces!) and then a soft ball and he will do indoor bowling. 

Corn flour and water in a bowl, he loves to muck around with it!

Regardless of weather we don't stay home that much though - even just a walk around the shopping mall just for the sake of it and it is much better for both him and I.  We go to the pet store, camping equipment store, just wander around and look at things. Buy a bread roll for him and we sit on a bench outside or bench inside the gallery. 

DH made him a homemade hot wheels the other day - we were all at home with flu but DS had it two days before DH and I so he was full of beans and we were suffering.  He sliced open a whole load of toiletpaper rolls (they always get saved here for art projects!) and taped them together to make a very long track.  Put one end at the top of the couch and some supports (books, cushions, lego, etc) along the way and made it into a car jump. DS puts his cars down it for hours each day now - loves it soooo much because HE made it!

[Tweakster]

And his marble run (Christmas present but kids get their Santa Claus gifts here on Dec 6) and he has not stopped playing with it for ages.  HOURS every day.

Oh that's good to hear!  Which one did you get in the end?  I think I missed the verdict.

I do agree, getting out is our best boredom buster but that's hard with 2 Becky, I get it.

Finn also likes to shake spices and pretend he's cooking lol  I like the idea of throwing a bunch of stuff in a bowl and letting him muck with water.  He loves mucking with water. 

Becky do you have a Wii or anything?  I was playing Wii with Finn last night, doing some of the fitness, he loved it.  He even liked just watching me do it lol

[anna*]

Lego. Colouring - especially printing off pages of his favourites (buzz lightyear, ben 10, etc) on the printer and then colouring those in). We have some blue masking tape and we get his cars and garage and he has his scissors and makes 'roads' from masking tape and drives his cars along them - that will keep him busy for hours.

[speechie]

shaving cream to smear on the shower walls - kind of like fingerpaints with Daddy's shaving cream- irresistible.

Day time baths- for sure!

Mucking around in the kitchen- loads of measuring spoons- water and some inexpensive things to just 'cook' with- spices, rice, raisins, etc...
But REAL cooking with Mama for sure- we did gingerbread cookies again yesterday- he helped roll it out and cut them and loved the decorating part
PLUS my rolling pin then became a 'steam roller' around the house and he had a blast for about 15 mins just 'rolling'.

He loves to play store- I'll tell him to mark prices on things- set up the aisles, etc, then I'll 'shop' when he's done. Use real coins and his cash register.

We play post office- he'll make cards/letters first- I've got 'stamps' (stickers) for the envelopes, and then he delivers them around slots in the house- drawers, under doors, etc.

I'll let him use his skateboard inside- just scooting on his bum/back around.

We have music jams- I'll play piano- he'll get out his guitar, drums, or other noisy things and we'll wail away for a bit.

Puzzle Buzz- magazine put out by Highlights- he loves the mazes, hidden pictures, etc etc.
Or, "where's Waldo books" he'll search those too.

Usually we are outside, but the winter is challenging, I know!

[Tweakster]

He loves to play store- I'll tell him to mark prices on things- set up the aisles, etc, then I'll 'shop' when he's done. Use real coins and his cash register.

I got him a cash register for Christmas...I can't wait to play store!!! lol  It was only $10 on sale but has all the stuff needed for a good shopping experience. 

You can also play restaurant, we do that sometimes, he 'cooks' with his Play Doh breakfast set and makes me a milkshake, eggs, etc.

[Mashi]

Oh yes, I forgot about some of those things - we set up the living room with his wee table and cash register, he sets out things that he is selling (toys, clothes, bathroom things, food from kitchen, he loves it!!!) and he plays shop keeper. Then we swap and I play shop keeper.  Or we set out bowls and he pretends they are ice cream tubs and he uses his plastic ice cream cones and scoop (which are really sand toys!) and he plays ice cream shop. 

We save the take-out brochures that come in the mail for local pizza/burger/kebab shops and use them as menus to play restaurant as well.  He does love to tell you that everything your order is all gone (he ate it himself) but then does get frustrated when that means the game is done because no matter what you order is 'all gone...'

Postman - we save ALL of our letters that we get (so many added with Christmas cards, he is so happy!) and he has a postbag, DH once turned a cardboard box into a postbox and he sets his table up to be the sorting area and stamps the letters and posts them around the house.  (My new debit card from the bank is currently missing because he has posted it somewhere and we don't know where!!)

DH makes treasure maps and DS goes to find the treasure - make them once and then you always have them. So he sketched out a picture of DS's bedroom with a red X under his bed, and gives that to DS. He then goes to his room and looks where the X is, and in that spot is another sketch of another place in our house with a red X, goes there and finds another, etc etc, and in the final place is a few pennies for his piggy bank (or whatever).

Ahhh the marble run. So, we had not decided.  And then one day my DH came home saying "TA-DA!"  10 euros at the supermarket, cheap and cheerful plastic marble run. Grrrrr. I was annoyed.  But, I suppose in all fairness I was on the verge of doing the same with a wooden one so can I blame him Anyway we decided we would get both - and flip a coin to see which one was for St Niklaus Day (Dec 6) and the other for Christmas.  DH 'won' and he got his plastic marble run already and he is in love with it. Plays for hours.  But he does say, at least 3x a day "I love my marble run but I really really really want a wooden one....maybe Santa Claus knows better than St Niklaus!!"    Wee stinker!!!!  So our agreement was the cheap wooden marble run (15 euro) and then whichever one turns out to be the hit, we expand. I'm pretty sure it will be mine