Toddlers horrible at indoor free play!

[Crayola kiddies]

I have four pantries I bought at crappy tire .... They have have 3 shelves and doors and I arranged my toys in the pantries and put child locks on the doors ... I open a different door each day. Great form of toy rotation and there is not so many toys out at one time .... The more toys the less they play and when the doors are closed its neat and tidy. I have cars and trucks, duplo, puppets, puzzles and push toys (shopping carts strollers lawn mowers ) available at all times as well as a kitchen centre, doll centre, tool bench, and reading centre. I also have a huge magnetic chalk board painted on my wall. So there is lots of choices even if I don't open a pantry door for some reason.

[AmandaKDT]

I only do art once a week and take out the crayons/markers on a limited basis so that it is something special to do. If you are finding they aren't playing with anything then it is probably because they have too much. Try putting half the stuff away and see if it changes. It can take awhile for them to get into playing on their own if they are used to always having someone lead the play. Imaginative play doesn't really happen until well into their 3rd year I have found, and actually playing with other kids (as opposed to near them) doesn't happen until around 3 years old either.

I do similar to what Crayola kiddies does with her toys. Some are always available and others are rotated.