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[quote=Anonymous]OP, you probably understand these intuitively, but two things:

1) There is no holy grail. At best, there are 5-10 activities that, if rotated, can cover your child the vast majority of the time. The hunt for just one thing that is a guaranteed go-to is probably influenced by streaming TV/iPad, because they are all-in-one entertainment centers with unlimited engaging content. Arguably, there are some open-ended activities that kind of do that, but they are less designed to suck you in, require more work on the "player's" part to stay engaged, etc., so nothing really compares.

An analogue-- especially in the days before kids had so-called screens as a default, and lifestyles were wildly different-- would probably be "running around wild in the woods with a bunch of other kids, exploring, making up elaborate games and building stuff." That's unlimited, compelling entertainment right there, but, you know...

2) To that end, the more solitary (or sibling-only) activities that are best for what you're asking for are the most open-ended ones. So no specific toy, exactly, but like...

-Paint and paper
-Digging in the yard
-Water play
-Banging nails into wood (per PP) or leaving them with a bunch of random wood pieces and rocks in the backyard to do... whatever
-Stuff like that, where they can theoretically create endlessly, and in ways even less constrained than Magnatiles (limited shapes, limited pieces-- not that they aren't also great!)

My 2c.[/quote]

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