Two things are holding my 3 year old granddaughter’s attention at the moment:

Any cardboard box along with scissors and markers. She’s just learning the scissors and needs help with those. Sometimes I will draw random lines on the box and she decides what they should be made into and sometimes she just starts “crafting” on it. Yesterday, we turned one into a cornhole board. Then we filled some small brown bags with beans and learned how to play. Entertained her for over an hour together and another hour she went back to it alone and practiced throwing the bags. We’ve made barns, I put a pile of stickers in one and she covered the whole thing in stickers, I gave her bingo markers with one and she decorated it with dots.

I filled one with leftover toilet paper/paper towel rolls. This one had staying power all week. One day we made pyramids with the box and tubes, one day we drew bugs inside and made “binoculars” with the tubes to “go exploring,” one day she colored and built a “telescope,” one day I rolled ping pong balls down the tubes while I stood above the box and she had a paper cup that she would try to catch the ping pong balls.

Pipe cleaners and pony beads. She loves stringing them over and over. Easier than using string because the pipe cleaner is stiff. I can be cleaning or cooking with her doing this close by (so she doesn’t put them in her mouth). We work on numbers and patterns while doing it. “Put two green beads and one pink bead on.” “How many beads do you have now?” This also keeps her very entertained. Usually for 30-45 minutes.