Hi,
Welcome.
I have a DS 2.8 and he runs two adults ragged unless he's ill. He's been intense and in need of novelty since the first weeks and it has gotten steadily easier as he does entertain himself more, but it's still a challenge. It's hard to imagine two of them. Spending large parts of most days out of the house seems to be necessary for us. For example we found a homeschooler's school that allows toddler and up kids to attend their field trips if a parent accompanies, we go to library story hours, playgroup, errands, a few hours of babysitting, etc. We're looking forward to preschool for next year not for academic learning but just for an experience of independence in social interactions, ie learning to manage socially without a parent present. Plus it will be novel, at least for a short while, and novelty seems to do for his brain what a good book does for mine.
Home is just well stocked with more stuff than I thought I'd ever buy. The stuff seems interesting to DS when he has been away from it for a bit. I also have lots of games or books etc that are way beyond age level such as chess, scrabble, adult level picture books tied to his interests, real model kits, etc that I am okay with getting destroyed, all bought used to be used up during this stage of life. Surprisingly most things so far pretty much intact. We try to follow a put it away before getting something else out rule but it's more of a guideline. Much of it goes in mixed 18 gallon open bins: playdoh bin with ziploc bags full of old playdoh, plastic toys bins, books bins, puzzles bins, paper and crayons bin, etc.
When he was a younger toddler I had to search far and wide for a table low enough that he could actually use it. Traditional children's tables (and chairs) seem to generally be too tall for toddlers, which isn't fair at all. Tables made for daycares are great but I never found one reasonably priced. I ended up with little plastic step stools rather than chairs as it was the only thing that didn't just tip right over. The table ended up being a cheapo large plastic coffee table from goodwill. Worked out really well.
So in a nutshell my approach to keeping the home environment interesting and stimulating (and somewhat organized) is to have a lot of bins and go out a lot.
Polly
