how did you teach your child to entertain themselves

[Anonymous]

I think much of it is personality...but also child order. My son enjoys activities more when I am involved (read, recognizing/praising him). He is now 5, and still prefers to be doing something with me...than on his own. I often curse myself for not teaching him more independent play early on. I post just so you know its an important skill to teach kids, and one that you'll value more as they get older.

The success I have had, is in small blocks of time. Literally, taking the time to set up an activity, explain that I have to do something (transfer a load of laundry), tell him i'll be back in 5 minutes, and i want to see what he's done while i'm away. Then, when I return (in 5 minutes) review what he's accompolished and give him the praise he seeks. He's proud of himself for 'doing it' but wants to be recognized. As I said, I've created a bit of a monster.

Once he is comfortable with 5 minute blocks, work up to 10 minutes. And so forth...

[Anonymous]

I do think personality plays a big part here, but here are some things that seem to help in my situation (DS is 20 months and what I like to call a "mover".)

We don't have a designated playroom, so all around our main living area we have big baskets, some with lids, some without, that he can "get into" as much as he likes. I also have a play kitchen, a train table, and a basketball hoop with a bunch of balls in a bucket nearby. This stuff is spread out amongst our open kitchen-living room-TV room area. Unless he's in a crabby mood, he will happily take cars out of the basket and push them around, push a big truck around the house in circles, play with his kitchen (especially when I'm cooking or cleaning up the kitchen) or take other toys out of other baskets and play with them while I am doing something else. I think there is so much he CAN get into that he really doesn't get into "bad" stuff - and there's actually very little he's prohibited to touch anyway.

The other thing I do is make sure I take a minute every five or ten minutes to reinforce his positive behavior. I'll walk over to him and interact so he's getting some positive reinforcement for his independent play.

Now, all of this means that my house hardly looks like a child-free zone, but it does mean I can occasionally read the paper, respond to emails on my blackberry, or cook dinner while DS is happily playing.