Kiddies "Toys"

Quality

Was having a think tonight, We have a playroom full of toys and yet the boys get miles of mileage out of fun non toy stuff.

For example

Tin foil/kitchen roll holders
The argos book
The smiths catalogue
Boxes all sizes
Pots and Pans
Wooden spoons
The cushions off the chairs for leap frogging on
Toilet Roll (yes my boys are like andrex puppies)
Empty bottles used as missiles
my car keys (which usually end up missing)


Anyone have any other suggestions, I cant think of anymore at the moment!

Weidii

When myself and my sister were kids we used to love getting our hands on a good cardboard box! We'd do all sorts of things with them, make them into a car or a robot or a hideout.

Also we used the clothes horse and various bedsheets to make "secret" bases too, much to the dismay of our mother.

yogidc26

The argos book O good how I love that book they can look at it for hours

Daddy. They end jummping all over me useing me as a bouncing castle

January

Yep my nine month old daughter gets great enjoyment out of empty plastic bottles... Daddy calls her BamBam as she likes to hit him on the head with them

lalalulu

I wasted 80euro a few month's back in the early learning centre on toy's for my little one she was 7 months at the time and i thought oh i'll get her some great educational toy's she has barely looked at any of them. I got her a crab that flies across the floor and she love's this.. for about 10 seconds :rolleyes:

I usually give her a basin full of water with lots of cups, pots etc and let her loose she gets a great kick out of this...
I do think i'm not doing the best by her when i look at the toy's she's got but honestly it would be such a waste to buy anything new for her!
I would love to hear about other thing's around the house that my lo could play with?

spurious

The basin of water with different sized cups is actually a truly excellent way for a child to learn the basics of the mathematical concepts of space and volume.
Far better than anything the Early Learning Centre could get made in China.

When she's older, games or toys that involve accuracy and measurement are great. Remember the back of the Bunty, where you could cut out the clothes and attach them to the doll figure? All about learning to be accurate and neat.

IsThatSo?

spurious wrote: »

When she's older, games or toys that involve accuracy and measurement are great. Remember the back of the Bunty, where you could cut out the clothes and attach them to the doll figure? All about learning to be accurate and neat.

Now there is a blast from the past, used to drive me mad using the rotten safety scissors and then cutting a chunk out of the dress

Older kids (who won't eat things) love washing up liquid to try making bubbles with different implements, like a plastic fishslice or a casserole spoon etc. Might be an outside activity though.

Homemade playdough is great too, if you put enough salt in they just can't eat it, even if they try. I bought normal plastic cookie cutters to use with the playdough (thinking "I am a domestic Goddess, I will use them at a later stage when I make cookies with my children".................pffffft!!) You could also use the baby forks and spoons to let them stab it, make designs on it etc. A dash of food colouring works wonders to liven the playdough up.

For the child that loves bottle/bottle tops (I had two of those), as she gets older use different size lunch boxes or plastic food storage boxes that she can work out which lid fits on what.............that was a big favourite with both my boys.

For a very small child, 5 months onwards, a clean empty crisp packet is just the business, they crackle for aaaaages and have shiny bits

lalalulu

Yeah my little one loves empty crisp packet's!! Also empty milk carton's, dirty nappies :eek: remote control's, my make up and bascially anything she's not supposed to have.. I work with toddler's so have great idea's for home made toy's for that age group but i'm stuck when it come's to my own.. She's to young for most activities as most require the child doesn't put the thing in their mouth

embee

yogidc26 wrote: »

The argos book O good how I love that book they can look at it for hours

Yes indeed. I came home on Sunday with the new catalogue. She spent easily 2.5 hours flicking through it.

My little one loves playing with dried pasta... she counts them, measures them in the weighing scales, makes them into faces etc. She has endless toys but prefers talking/singing/make believe/makey-up games than playing with toys. If only I'd known she'd be like that, I'd have saved a fortune.

She has a freaky Philippe Starck teddy (see pic) that my aunt bought in Paris when she was a newborn... she calls him "Johnny Fourheads" and he has his own personality

Davidth88

We have had terribly complicated games recently with sticks and leaves.

Something about putting the sticks to bed , my daughter sat on the front doorstep playing like this for about 2hrs on Sunday while I made dinner


Love the imagination

I like the idea of the dried pasta , Ill try this out

Quality

My toddler also loves making his own den, with a few blankets over chairs, like a little homemade tent.