Things to do with a toddler.

I remember food colouring pasta shapes. Lots of colours Fir mixing in a big bowl.
If you feel adventurous and don't mind the mess a tray with Cornflour and water. The texture changes from runny to hard at touch.
I have some cutters like home punches that make different shapes - hearts, stars, bears etc. Cut out on different patterns and make a collage.
Collect conkers and pine cones - decorate for Christmas.
Make Christmas bunting.
Tent/den and a tea set - hour of fake cake (sadly) and tea.
Finger paint and add glitter before it dried.
Playshop with packets and tins.
Water play in the sink or bath. Tea set?
Chalk pictures on the fence and garden path.
Sensory jar making. Liquid or noisy.
Cardboard box with different materials in - cotton wool, piece of cotton, wool smoke, paper, card, corrugated card, baking paper sample, sand paper all in the box to take out and feel.
Mine loved putting socks on the washing rack. Folding vests etc.

Exhausting age.

Snap

Right time of the year to plant sweet pea seeds indoors, or broad bean seeds outside, or for quick results plant cress seeds on kitchen paper, a single broad bean seed between glass jar and absorbent paper, or an amaryllis bulb planted now should flower for Christmas.

My little grandson loves a full sink of water with bubbles filled with loads of plastic dishes for him to ‘wash’, keeps him busy for ages,I put a little plastic apron on him but be prepared for a very wet floor.

anyone with ideas for me - my 11 year old grandson arriving this afternoon - Please ! !

Maybe drawing with chalks on the patio or pavement. Dressing up using old scarves, bags, hats etc.
Making a tent with an airer.
Child size cleaning set.
Have a look in shops like Poundland or The Works or charity shops for inspiration.
Good luck!

If the toddler is 2 or 3 then all the above ideas are brilliant. If the toddler 74 with orange skin and a dyed blonde combover you will need to be very firm and expect tantrums when he can't have his own way.

To be honest it sounds like you are doing a brilliant job. Toddler boys seem to be full of boundless energy. I have Action rhyme DVDs which my dgs loves. Also Happyland toys and Wow cars are great. Rolls of lining paper and finger paints are a good but very messy idea, hand and foot prints, walking across the paper making tracks on the way. Followed by a bath with lots of bubbles. I will be trying some of the ideas on here with my dgs when it is too cold and wet to go out.

Threading pasta onto bootlaces. Garden chalks for paths and walls (washes off really easily). Small garden tools to 'help'with leaf raking, digging, etc.

A large empty cardboard box and a packet of colouring pencils/crayons - my twins would sit in a box for hours colouring it in.

A large box with ball-pool balls in it. A large empty box with a blanket and a bowl of low fat popcorn for 'movie' night (often became nap time!). Small dolly and pram for walks - dolly can be washed and have his/her hair done, wrapped in a blanket for walks, have his/her clothes washed in the sink while stood on a chair, then pegged out on a low line - an eminently unisex activity loved by my girls and their wee (male) cousins. Decorating cut out crowns with stickers (any craft shop wll be able to supply coloured and shiny paper and stick on jewels).

Baking, very basic woodwork, supervised science experiments - what happens if we... Encouraging reading, writing, counting etc.... every activity can be a teaching/learning experience - little minds are sponges and soak up everything.

Basically, embrace your inner child!

Goodness! What lovely ideas. Thank you all. I'm definitely going to use many of them and prepare for next week. VampireQueen ?

I look after my Dgd just turned 2 and have done since she was 9 months old. We do very similar to what you describe except my little one loves drawings. Then there's puzzles and we bake. She likes to stir things. If she's getting crotchety then we do what I call 'water games' basically standing at the sink with plastic cups and spoons and bubbles. She also helps 'put the washing away' - or rather she gets its out and puts it back again. I'm a music teacher so there's lots of musical instruments around so we do that too. We don't have too much TV as her mum limits that but I do find that some days we don't have it on at all. But she does like Waffle and Topsy and Tim. She is very different from her brother at the same age. He was all about trains, puzzles and Duplo. ?. But what they both do love is just being outside, wandering about in the garden, feeding the chickens and making a mess!

Apparently my DGD played for a whole afternoon in a pillowcase the other day!

My wet day fallback when all else had been exhausted was to make myself a cuppa, grab a book, fill the bath and dump them in. Boats, fish, bubbles.......bliss, I could sit on the toilet and read for ages.

I used to get my GDs in the bath and give them play foam and the squeegee to clean the ‘windows’ which was the solid shower screen. “Hello lady. Would you like the windows cleaning?” “Oh I would! How much do you charge?” “Twenty thirty lady” ....and so on. ?

Playdough. Flour, water, salt, and colouring according to smell... green for mint, yellow for lemon, red for strawberry. They love it...

My DGCs enjoyed using an adult sized paintbrush, dry on every surface imaginable! There used to be a craft book on Amazon that gave numerous ideas for things to made with cardboard boxes - cars, houses etc

My GS who is two years old (Three in Feb) Loves litter picking. He now has his own 'grabber' that lights up and makes a sound, which he finds easier.

I have looked after my grandson since he was born and seem to remember he loved usvto make ramps and run his cars down them at the age yours is. I used trays hardback books or just pieces of cardboard of different sizes. Plastic tubscor boxes at the bottom to see how many we could catch!

A large cardboard box that that he can climb in and out of and hide in.

Please do not worry too much about him being bored. Children of that age can find fun in everything and are learning all the time. It sounds as though you are doing a great job and your son/daughter is lucky to have you.

Try mixing cornflour and water....it’s very satisfying to play with on a tray. Another great sensory one....possibly for the bath or shower is sensitive shaving foam. Just amazing fun...for you too!

Grandson is the same age and loves the brio train set I kept from his dads childhood!

I think that we try too hard to amuse children, so they don’t develop their imaginations. Remember how few toys we had as young children? We just made our own amusements.
My GD’s daycare has one day a week where they remove all the toys, and the children have to improvise their play. I think that’s a great idea

I buy cheap plain biscuits & grind them to 'sand' in the food processor. We spread it on the floor and make all sorts of tracks for his toy cars, trucks etc. We make hills that can be knocked down & rebuilt - hours of fun. When we're finished we put the sand on the bird feeder in the garden
Thank God for our grandchildren

My GS, now 3, never liked colouring but he loved 'magic' painting books- the ones where you paint the page with water and the colour appears. He gradually learned not to run the colours together and as his hand control improved he moved on to 'proper' painting with a paint box.
We have boxes of toys but the most popular things are pans, wooden spoons and dried pasta for pretend cooking.