22.5 lo not interested in playground?!

[Chloevalentine]

Lately my lo has no interest in playground nor our fenced in yard! He much rather walk around the parking lot or my driveway looking at the cars! Just seems so odd to me. I'm trying to keep him active but he's not interested. Any suggestions? Also looking for new activities to do at home.

[Katet]

I don't think it is really unusual, he's still very young & the cars are probably a big attraction. At that age my DS1 would have sat all day watching trains & buses & cars. In fact at 21months old when I was heavily pregnant with DS2 we'd spend 1-2 hours sitting at the bus stop next to the railway station & watch the trains & buses go by & we always went home because I was ready not him.

Maybe try taking him for walks around the block rather than trying to keep him in the yard.

[creations]

Sounds like mine too! He would have watched trains and buses all day, or road works with a digger or other big machinery. I even took him on a few 'days out' to the local electricals shop to just look at the long line of washing machines, driers, fridges, cookers...
Sometimes we went out just to stand on the pedestrian bridge to watch the barriers go down and the train arrive. He could have stayed there hours.

You could try changing up the toys in the yard if you really need him to spend some time playing there, it sounds like it's a place which needs less direct/hands on supervision rather than the driveway so perhaps that's your concern.

bucket of water and a house hold paint brush to 'paint' the fence with water?
chalks to draw on the floor/fence?
a bunch of toy diggers/cars and an area to drive them (we have a box of chunky gravel/stones for play digging)
water play with several buckets/tubs and various cups, jugs and funnels, a few boats

He may just need something to inspire him to spend some time there.

[Chloevalentine]

Thanks for the suggestions! Our house is on a pretty busy road which is why we fenced in the area and there aren't any sidewalks to take a walk around the block. I take him to a playground where we can walk along a trail by a pond but it's hard as he needs to hold my hand and he's not to thrilled lol. But even so he just takes me hand and walks me back to the car. So we end up back home without getting any exercise!

[creations]

If it's more physcial exercise you want maybe make up some games using whatever obsessions he has at the moment (so maybe with toy cars?) for example set a box of cars in one room and an empty box in another room and he is to run/jump/crawl back and forth to collect one car at a time, you could ask for coloured cars for instance if he likes colour naming.  You can also do this out in your yard. Or set up some heavier items for carrying.  Many times I opened DS's craft cupboard so he could access his big bottles of paint (heavy for a LO!) and then asked him to bring them one at a time all the way through to the kitchen and line them up.  Then put them all away again!  He loved it!

The stones I mentioned are for DS to dig, shovel, move place to place in a wheel barrow and things like that. It is physical exercise in teh absence of a garden for him to dig in, we only have a roof terrace and limited to what can go out there.  I also got some shiny glass stones form teh garden centre as 'treasure' for him to find, so he can play, pirates, building site, pretend gardening etc.
Maybe you can set up an assault course for him out in the yard?
I did find there were phases where DS would do lots of physical stuff but only if I clued in to his current obsessions.

[Chloevalentine]

We definetly do a lot of playing with buckets of water where he washes his cars and sand in the yard. He just seems to get bored of it so quickly. I'm also looking for some good things for him to play with inside toys. He's never really been much into blocks or Legos. Instead of him just roaming around the house going into the drawers I'm trying to think of something that he can play with to stimulate his curiosity.

[Hedgehog17]

Have a look on Pinterest for Toddler Activities 

There are 1000s of brilliant ideas of easy things to make and do to keep a curious toddler occupied, indoors and out 

[Katet]

Instead of him just roaming around the house going into the drawers I'm trying to think of something that he can play with to stimulate his curiosity.

He has actually done a really good job of stimulating his curiosity, he is interested in the world around him IMHO the way forward is for you to embrace that & realise that he is self directing his learning in a natural way & not the artificial way that society is driving parents to believe we need to stimulate our children.  As a toddler his 'job' is to explore it is how he learns, children opening & shutting doors 100 times isn't really about them being annoying or naughty (that is our mental decision to see it that way) really it is about them bringing out the natural scientist/learner/explorer in themselves... you may think the roaming around isn't helping him learn, but honestly it is & possibly more so than sitting playing with a bucket of blocks if his brain wiring isn't developmentally there. So much about what our children should or shouldn't be doing is more about our perceptions from social learning rather than what they are naturally wired to do... children actually tend to do exactly what their development needs them to do

[creations]

My DS always liked "busy boxes".  I agree with Kate about exploring the world, if however those drawers he is opening are unsafe then busy boxes may supply one outlet for his curiosity and wanting to rummage.
A basket or old shoe box, he can decorate the outside with stickers if he likes sticking yet, and put a variety of items in the box. Not a 'set' of blocks or a 'set' of kitchen toys etc but more of a random collection.  Mine had things like a paint colours chart from a DIY shop, finger puppets, train tickets, a small ball or squidgy thing, a set of picture cards, one music item, a few different textures items (small fabric samples or things like a nail brush), a little book, a pine cone...
He would go get his busy box and empty it out one item at a time and explore it, then the next then the next...until he had a pile of stuff then put them all back in.  Would he like something like that perhaps?

It may also depend on what toys you already have at home and how you have them stored or set out. Some LOs like 'invitations to play' where you set things out rather than keep them in their storage boxes, and perhaps set out unexpected combinations or in unusual places as a surprise.

[Chloevalentine]

I totally agree with that! Just wanted to make sure that I offer enough play choices and that he's not just bored lol.