Keeping My 3 Year Old Busy at Home All Day

Fill the kitchen sink with water and give him some unbreakable dishes and utensils. Put some kid music on and let him dance. Make a fort with sheets and chairs. Get a train set or hot wheels. Play catch inside with a small squishy ball. Play-doh.

Yes - structure the day the way daycare or preschool is structured - it's easier for everyone (child & provider). Have set times for a movie, for music/movement, for arts & crafts, for snack, for outside, etc. The child can have some choice within the structured window - example, finger painting or coloring during art time. Try combining new things - for example, if it's nice, he can play outside, but he can also collect rocks or pine cones or other items. Wash the rocks, then paint them during arts & crafts. Give them as paperweights or display on the windowsill or in the houseplants. Dry out the pine cone, then coat it with Peanut Butter & roll in bird seed, and hang on a string. During the next outdoor time, hang it near a window and watch the birds come. Get a book on birds to identify what you are seeing.

Plant something fast growing like radish seeds and lettuce. Every day, or every other, pull weeds and watch for growth. Decorate popsicle sticks during arts & crafts, and use them to mark the rows in the garden.

Go to the library and get a book on simple at-home activities that don't involve the computer or the TV. You'd be amazed at what's out there for zero money! Everything can tie together. Once activities are chosen, take out a book on that subject, and read it during quiet time.

Good luck!!

One idea is to let him play with shaving cream. It is messy, but if you cover the table with a throw away table cloth it makes clean up much easier. We took shaving cream and made it different colors then mixed them to get other colors. It was fun and helped us learn colors.

Maybe you could start planting some flowers in cups for your son to plant outside in a few weeks teaching him about how things grow.

-- legos
-- play-doh
-- make cookies (I have a recipe for dog treats that is really easy and fun and not smelly. My son loves to make dog treats - we did it today actually. He uses his cookie cutters and other utensils I give him to make designs. We make numbers and letters and shapes with forks and play-doh tools. Fun. PM me if you want the recipe. It has flour, oatmeal, peanut butter, and water).
-- watch Meet the Letters, Meet the Sight Words, etc. from preschoolprepco.com (cheaper on amazon.com). Or rent them for free from your library if they have them. Buy the books and workbooks that go with them too.
-- go to the library
-- help prepare his lunch (my 3 yr old cuts veggies with me)

How about a garden something that grows fast! I hear radishes are easy. Crab grass always grows fast. You can also put the seeds in Egg shells and plant the eggs at easter in the ground. The calcium is good for the soil. My kids love to garden. Bubbles are always good this time of year and cheap. Dirt boys like dirt. I take some potting soil and put it in a baking pan and let them GO CRAZY! Water and floaty toys with dish washing soap and food coloring is always a hit as well. Does he have a bike or a push car to play with? Puzzles keep my little guy semi entertained and focused for the moment. Magazines from the mail glue and cutouts work well too. Then there is always chalk on the sidewalk. Macoroni kids is a newsletter we receive with some updates on activities happening around time perhaps uncle and nephew would like to partake in that? Did you also consider swim lessons at a rec center. might give uncle a nice little break :)

Try your local library, there are usually lots of free , fun activites there! My library has story time for preschool aged children that often includes art projects, singing, and other active stuff other than just listening to the stories. There is another library a few miles away that we go to sometimes for a free music and movement class. In bad weather a trip to a fast food joint with an indoor playground can be a great way to burn some energy, if you go midmorning before the lunch rush it will not be too crowded and you can just buy a cheap snack like cookies and milk instead of a meal. You may also want to consider investing in a membership to a children's museum or the zoo, I know Denver has both. Then you can go as often as you want for a whole year! If you need more activities he can do at home there are plenty of great ideas on the internet, check out all the preschool websites for recipes, printables, etc. My kids love making eatable art like pudding finger paint (just add a few drops of food coloring to some vanilla pudding) and peanut butter playdough (1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1 cup honey or corn syrup, 1 1/4 cup powdered milk, 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar, mix well). For some quiet sanity time he could play free online games at places like nickjr.com but you want to really limit screen time of course. Best of luck to you and the child's uncle!

There are a few websites that I play with my son who is now four. www.ixl.com, teaches the kids math skills. There is also www.pbskids.org that has lots of educational, fun games. Also, you can get stuff for crafts. Walmart sells kits that have several crafts already pre packaged that you can put together. I stay at home with my kids and know it can get crazy lol..

I would find some parent websites for your area that list cheap and free activities and then find some weekly things that they can do. There are all kinds of story times and music classes, possibly nature classes, etc. I would just check out your local resources. Also, look at your doctor's office and stuff for those free magazines that list activities. Our local skating rink has a toddler skate every week that is really fun and an active boy would love it! Also we take Music with Mar classes, which are all over the country and they are the most reasonably priced music class I've found and both my boy and girl love them! I would say having 1 or 2 routine activities every week will make the time at home much easier. Does the uncle like to cook or bake? He could also do that with your son, my 3 y/o loves to help in the kitchen!

I agree with the other poster who said to follow the same general schedule as the day care--
breakfast,
morning activity (ex. outdoor time for 1 to 2 hours or art activity in doors)
snack
Books or coloring/painting
music & movement or water table (aka your kitchen sink)
clean-up
lunch
nap (if needed), or movie time or
snack
free play

Or something like this. You might call the daycare & ask them what the schedule was.

If you google "Toddler art activities" or "preschool music activities", etc., you can come up with a whole bunch of activities to try.

Also, since it's family that's watching him, you might want to spring for a pass to a local water park and the zoo, or other outdoor fun activity "field trip" to go to. And have an indoor back-up, like one of those indoor play places that they can take the child to to burn off energy/exercise if the weather is bad or the adult is not feeling well (heck, in a pinch, have them do a "special treat" and treat them to lunch at McD or Chik Fil A, which have "playlands" indoors for kids).

It also helps to find/explore the local parks, even the playgrounds of nearby elementary schools. Just going to a new playground can break the monotony (at least for me)

And check your local parks & rec and/or metroparks/state parks - a lot of them will offer classes/activities starting at age 3, and they are usually cheap or free.

At the craft store I bought my daughter sculpting clay that air dries. Its fun like play dough, but then you can paint it latter. In the craft department she also has an art box of colored paper, toddler scissors (keep those hidden except when doing crafts), stickers, stencils. She loves her arts and crafts.

She has a CD player and kids music CD's and that was a bigger hit than I could have ever imagined. She listens to music and jumps on her bed 2 hours a day!!!!

On special occasions we make something in the kitchen that will be fun for her. Keep is super simple, packaged brownies or cake so she can hold the mixer. She loves learning to cook in the kitchen. Next we are going to make bread, but thats going to be messy!!!!!!!!!!!

Fort making is huge (couch cusions and blankest, but the other day we set up a 4 man tent! That stayed up for a week and provided lots of fun)

Mine adores tea parties, but I'm sure there is a boy equilent (like going out in the garage to hammer some nails into a board)

special outings like indoor park, outdoor park, play date with other kids and she absolutely loves loves loves to go out to lunch, even if its taco bell.

My nephew love to build things with his grandpa. Maybe get something that requires building at the craft store.