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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ages 3 and 5. Fifteen minutes would be great. Just looking for screen free activities. Also we have tons of Lego, crafts, the usual. Just trying to see if I’m missing something.  [/quote]

With my 3 yr old, we've found that the we see the best benefits when we take something they already like and augment it in some way. So for instance, DD loooooves her stuffed animals and dolls (mostly gifts from grandmothers), which she calls her babies. So we've given her things she can do with them, like a little stroller she can push them around in, little clothes to put on them and take off, etc. She also gets a lot of mileage out of the small table and chairs in her room (they are for her but she likes to set her babies at them too) and all her play kitchen stuff. So I would look at what they are already doing, and what seems to engage them the longest, and then find ways to extend that.

It's also useful to do a little reorganization of their toys every month or so, so that things that have been tucked away get displayed more prominently. My kid doesn't gravitate toward her building toys as much (we have Duplo, wooden blocks, and magnet tiles), but if we shift them around periodically, she is more likely to notice them and pull them out, and any toy that seems "new" to her will occupy her for longer.

I would also say that sometimes she just goes through phases where she doesn't want to play on her own at all. She was like that towards the end of 2020 and it got to the point where we were exhausted because she didn't even want to do screen time alone. But it phased out and now she's back to playing on her own for 15-30 minute stretches. Such relief when that comes back! I think she was just feeling a bit insecure for a bit and needed more attention/reassurance, but once she got it, she relaxed again and became more independent. Sometimes she'll even ask us to leave when we are playing with her so that she can do it alone. It's great.[/quote]

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