I'm curious how much independent play your toddler gets every day. Sometimes she goes off and starts playing so quietly on her own that I hate to bother her (she's been cranky the past few weeks), but then when I don't play with her I feel guilty! I know independent play is important, but how much is too much? I'm trying to find a good balance.
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Maybe An hour or two, throughout the day.
I try to engage her as much as possible, but I could be going against the grain! We read lots of books & play, and I try to engage her even when I'm doing chores (like folding laundry or cleaning up the kitchen).
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A couple hours? She's very independent so we let her do her own thing for the most part. Yesterday, she spent an hour going through my purse - taking everything out, examining it and then putting everything back in. Over and over and over again.
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Same as @BabyBoecksMom! I'll sit with her while she scoots around and plays, I'll stack blocks or cups for her but she generally does her own thing.
She does say "hi!" To me over and over and talks to me while she plays, lol.
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2-3 hours i'd say. sometimes i feel like it's too much but he's so content to chase the dogs or sit and look at books by himself. i can usually tell when he's tired of playing by himself because he gets whiney and wants to be held.
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Maybe a couple of hours (eta: broken up through out the day). He plays really well by himself so I just leave him be. I'll sit with him on the floor and watch him or play on my phone. He let's me know when he's ready for something new. He gets super clingy and whiney. I'm not really sure how much is too much or too little. I guess if she's content, I would let her play on her own as much as she wants.
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Only recently, about an hour each day, broken up in spurts. My son really started playing alone after age 2. Before that, he really wanted someone else to play with him, even if it was something that he could handle, like sorting. I guess it wasn't as fun or something for him.
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As long as he is happy I'm happy so probably at least an hour broken up? Maybe more? Depends on his mood and my list of to dos.
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About 2 hrs depending on what she s playing with. If it's writing/drawing/painting, 2, but with dolls/Little People, none because she needs someone to play the other "characters". LOL!
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an hour or so broken up~
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My 3 year old gets about 2 hours (broken up). He's going through his imagination stage so he likes to pretend he's an animal or character or whatever. My DD is 14 months and doesn't get much independent play because she's always next to me!!
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As long as he'll play alone independently, I'll leave him!
Generally, it's only for 5-10 minutes at a time before he whines for me or comes to find me. On occasion, it's 30 minutes. He's 16 months old. Probably it's 1 hr over the course of a day.
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Probably 1-2 hours throughout the day. It's usually broken up though. When he's done wanting to play by himself he comes to find me. I usually alternate between engaging him in between in the chores that I'm doing at the time and playing with him with his blocks, reading books, feeding him...
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A ton of it, which probably contributed to the fact that he rolled at 3 months, crawled at 4 months and is pulling up to stand at 5 months.
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LO is very independent so she gets a lot of independent play time! She's very happy to sit and read her books for hours (not exaggerating, she will spend hour long blocks or more every day pulling all of her books off her bookshelf and flipping through each one). She also loves just walking around the house chatting and carrying different objects - her current faves are our throw pillows, I think she has a sense of accomplishment because they are so big!
She will come to me frequently, just to give me a smile and a quick cuddle, but then she's off on her own again. We read together a lot during the day though and a lot of times when she's reading her books, I'm laying on the floor next to her reading my book.
Sometimes I worry I don't provide as much stimulation as I should, but she's so happy and developing just fine, not to mention has a super strong attachment to us, so I've decided not to worry about it. She's 15 months.
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Not much. I really wish she had more independent play, but she's not particularly good at it. She usually demands that one of us join her. I can usually get her to do 15 minutes straight in the morning of independent play when she is well rested and happy, but for most of the rest of the day she is very demanding of our attention. She mostly wants to read *all* the time, which requires that we sit with her and read her the books that she brings to us.
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I let her play on her own after work on weekdays so I can get some dinner on the table. After dinner, we all play together or I sit on the ground and watch her play. On weekends, we let her play on her own if we're doing work. For the most part, we play with her.
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16 comments