if so, tell me how you made that happen!
Mine is 18 months and plays independently for about 5 minutes. That's it. Well, unless we are outside, then she wander and explore for as long as I let her.
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mine is 14 months and will! I have 2/3 of the living room sectioned off by a super yard (stretched out). she has free reign in there. she just wanders from toy to toy, dances, reads her books, plays with me, etc. I'm not sure how it started, but I let it happen now even though I feel guilty not playing with her 24/7!
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My son wouldn't play independently until he was at least 2 years old. Not sure if it was a function of not having the right toys or what, but he's now able to correctly play with things, like a train or car.
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My 19 month old sounds very similar. He will play independently inside for about 5 minutes or maybe a tiny bit more, but then he'll grab my hand and take me to something he wants me to help him with. He is also much more likely to play independently if he's outside!
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my nieces are the polar opposite. One is 8 and still does not play independently! The other is 5 and has played independently since she was 1! My parents babysit both during the day since they were each 1, and still can not get over the difference between the 2! The 8 year old is the one dancing around the living room, jumping from lap to lap, talking non-stop now, while the 5 year old, is happily colouring at the table, or downstairs playing by herself for hours. To each their own!!
I was the kid who could not play by themselves!! -
Mine is almost 14 months and she plays independently very well. She always has, you can put her in front of her toy kitchen or her activity cube and she will play for 20-30 minutes by herself. I can't take credit for it, she has always been very independent!
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At 18 months my son was definitely not playing independently very much. As he got closer to 2, he started to entertain himself a bit more. Now that he is almost 3, he can occasionally play by himself or look at books for 45 minute stretches!
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Yes, but she *just* started to, and she's 19 months old. It's not for very long stretches, but she's definitely getting more imaginative with playing.
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..well, my 2 year old will definitely play independently, but it usually means chaos, mess and destruction. lol
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@Urchin: oh, yes, in that case I guess mine DOES play independently, lol.
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She is 19 months and does play independently. It will usually be going to her little table and desk and coloring or picking out her books and reading them. Most times she wants us to read the books but sometimes she sits down and tries to tell herself the story.
We have a somewhat Montessori-esque type set up at home where her books are on a low shelf that she can reach and take them whenever she wants. Her crayons, markers, and coloring supplies are on her desk so she can go sit and draw whenever she wants.
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C plays independently and is willing to entertain herself for decent stretches of time. She likes to play, then come see what I'm up to for a couple minutes and then go back to playing on her own. She's 19 months, but has been this way since before she was a year old.
@mrsjazz: Ours is similar. All her toys are on shelves or in easily accessible bins, along with her books. Her pad of paper and crayons are on her table. She just plays as she sees fit.
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@mrsjazz: @loveisstrange: Ok, so, LO has two shelvs of toys I rotate every week. I have had it set up since she was born. BUT, get this, she rarely gets anything off the shelf herself. If I get something and play with it, she starts playing, but otherwise can easily ignore the shelf for days. She would much rather pull all of the tupperware out of the cabinet or unroll toilet paper.
I must have gone wrong, somewhere
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@lizzywiz: nope, that's what my son was interested in as well. Never mind that he had puzzles galore, Little People, etc. He was interested in the toilet paper or the random stack of magazines.
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@lizzywiz: Haha, I think a lot of it comes down to personality. C was independent even as a newborn. She never liked to be cuddled too much or held. She wants to be down, roaming and exploring on her own.
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my 2.5 tr old has just started to play independently, although there are many times he still wont. I think its just his personality though. He's very shy so playing with strangers or doing things by himself is hard.
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@lizzywiz: Oh, my daughter pulls stuff out of the cabinets and unrolls the toilet tissue, too! But when we put the gate up and keep her in the living room she goes to play with her books and coloring stuff.
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It really depends for her. Sometimes she wants to stick by my side and others she'll play by herself in her play area.
Sometimes it's just about diverting her attention enough to get her interested in something else. Then she will be fine to play alone for a bit. Usually flipping through books, in her kitchen or her recent is "cleaning". Lol she loves to take a used dry sheet and goes around the whole family room wiping everything down.
Sometimes playing with a Tupper ware in the kitchen while 1ft away from me is as independent as she gets! -
I'd give it time. That may not be what you want to hear, but my son didn't get into sustained, regular periods of independent play inside the house until a bit after 2.5 years old. He's 3 now, and he plays/"reads" by himself regularly and for sustained periods (up to an hour sometimes). He's an extremely social and active kid, though, so I suspect that his natural tendencies played some role in his disinclination to playing inside alone.
He only recently started asking if he can play with his toys and moving from one toy to another on his own. As recently as 6 months ago, I would still mostly have to set him up with something to encourage him to do an activity/play with a specific toy on his own and then it was pretty hit or miss whether he stuck with it.
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My 14 month old does for quite some time. Actually, the other day I was thinking about how glad I am to be having another baby because he needs a friend to play with him! We have the IKEA bench turned on it's side so all toys are organized but at his level where he can easily get them. He goes into the baskets and takes things out and puts them up.
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LO is 17 months old and has always been great at independent play. She easily spends an hour or more at a time playing on her own and loves it. I of course make random conversation with her as I'm cleaning or doing other things, but she is very content to play by herself. She loves books and will sit for hours looking at them - when she wants one read to her, she brings it over and will crawl in my lap, but most of the time she prefers to flip through them herself. We do have interactive play during the day but she makes it very clear when she is done and wants to just entertain herself. She does have free reign of the house but is pretty good about only playing with her toys or things she knows she can play with.
I don't know if we just got lucky with her temperament or if it's because she's had independent play time from the very beginning. Even as a newborn, we'd put her down on her play gym and let her kick around for a bit on her own during some of her awake times. As she got older, we'd put her on the floor with some toys and let her play with them for a bit whilst we got on with other things, and now of course she can access whatever she wants, wherever she wants.
LO is super affectionate and very attached to mummy, and she loves when we do play with her (which we do, a lot!), but she is still quite an independent baby.
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LO is pretty good about playing independently - she's happy to amuse herself with her toys and books if I'm busy doing something. She usually comes to me every 5-10 minutes to check out what I'm doing then goes back to what she was doing.
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Olive does but she was born that way. Don't get me wrong -- she can definitely be clingy like crazy, but she has always been good about playing independently since she was a baby through no doing of my own!
Charlie has always needed, and even still needs, us to play with him more than Olive does.
Mrs. Lion wrote a great post about this topic recently!
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@sorrycharlie: We had this setup until about last week from when lo was crawling! It worked out great and lo does play independently!
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