I wish I had some ideas- my DS is 20 months, so a bit younger than yours, but he is not very good at independent play. I find that hard enough now, with just him- I can't imagine how you do it with a bubs as well.

I don't entirely know how to encourage independent play. A little while ago I found it particularly frustrating that I was unable to get a thing done as DS needed me to play with him all the time, so I did a bit of research and asked some questions on here. The answers I found were a bit frustrating- in general terms, it seems like some kids play well on their own, and others don't. And others start off not playing well on their own and then seem to learn that skill as a part of their development, but not by anything their parents did- it just happened. It seems to be largely a factor of personality.

I do try to do what I can, as its a skill that I do want DS to develop in whatever measure his personality allows, simply for his own development. When he is playing on his own, I let him go for it and encourage him when he comes back to me. My DS is also quite task oriented, so I can ask him to do or get things for me and he will go off and do it then come back to me- this is very small things at the moment due to his age, but I hope to extend this out as he gets older and praise him when he come back to me to 'show off'. I kind of hope this might empower him to do things on his own and give him a sense of accomplishment or achievement. Its a theory anyhow! Does anything like this work on your little man?

Best of luck...watching this thread with interest.