My 2 year old loves to play with me and lately he likes to move his little bench out next to me while I'm busy doing chores or cleaning up, making a lot of noise to get my attention and trying to get me to stop what I'm doing.
I usually don't mind about this behavior, but sometimes it disrupts my handling of daily tasks, such as playing around at the kitchen counter while cooking or making pasta and coffee, which is a nuisance for all parents, and that's when I need something to distract him so he can entertain himself. I would choose to place him on a play couch, the soft foam blocks allow to do anything he wants such as sit, climb, jump without him getting hurt.
One of his favorite things to do is to stack the blocks up high, then run and crash into them. He can repeat this process for at least 10 minutes, which is long enough for me to take the clothes out of the dryer or vacuum the kitchen.
In fact, I buy a lot of small toys for my boy, like stuffed animals and puzzle toys, but he can lose patience with those little things pretty quickly. At this age, what he really enjoys is running, climbing, jumping and crashing around in his little toy cars, which means he likes messy play and doesn't like to be confined. So I will try to engage my child in different experiences, which isn't bad, he has the freedom to choose if he wants to like what he is touched or not.
I also chose a style with very bright colors in order to get my child's attention at first glance and purchased some extra small balls that can be placed at the bottom of the couch to turn it into a ball pool, this way, even if he keeps jumping into the pool, it's still better than scattering the balls and small toys all over the place.
When I'm not busy, I'll play catch and hide with him, I'll put together foam blocks in the shape of a house or an animal, he'll wonder how I did it, sometimes he'll join me and try to help me with the shapes, sometimes he just likes to destroy the put-together patterns, it doesn't matter, as long as it's fun for him.
These are my tips for keeping my toddler busy, I would love to hear what do you do with your toddler?
