Setting Up for Play
Small changes that make play start on its own.
This is the highest-leverage thing on the whole site. What is within reach, how much is out at once, and whether a child can get it and put it back without asking decides how much they play alone.
The changes are small and dull: fewer things out, at their height, in open containers they can manage, with a clear place to put them back.
Rotating toys is the other half. Half the toys in a cupboard, swapped every few weeks, makes the ones that are out far more interesting than owning more.
Activities
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Setting Up a Room So Play Happens Without You
The highest-leverage thing on this whole site. Fewer things out, at their height, in containers they can open.
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Tidying Up Without the Battle
"Tidy up" is an impossible instruction. "Put the blocks in the blue box" is a job a three-year-old can finish.
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Teaching a Child to Play Alone
It is built, not waited for. Stay in the room, say less, and leave for two minutes before you leave for twenty.