I have never seen a post that I was more qualified to respond to. My son at 3 took everything apart, broke things to see how they worked, was so hard on our house. Eventually I realized he needed to put together and take apart and now all of his favorite toys are building materials. Here’s his fav materials:
Picasso blocks
Brain flakes
Zoobs
Legos
Knex
Boxes/scrap paper/tape
Outdoors he likes buckets, water, sticks, etc
Marble ramps are fun, but you can build them out of everything, u don’t need a special set.
Look up “loose parts play” and “tinkering trays” for more inspiration
This book is also good for 4-5 yo: what do people do all day by Richard scarry. It shows how a bunch of things work in a little kid friendly way.
