{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 30: Box

You read it right.  How about giving a really big, really cool box to a toddler as a gift.  You wouldn't think so, but there are a whole lot of things that a child can do with a box, and they will find those ways.  You can help them create a house, rocket ship, truck, boat, fort, comfy reading spot, the largest coloring/painting surface they've ever seen, and so much more.  Give them a large box with a set of paint and paintbrushes and a promise to help them turn it into whatever they wish.

Where should you get your box?  Call around to local furniture stores or places with large appliances and ask if they will save you a large box.  I'm almost betting that they will, as most places just put their boxes out for recycling.  What an inexpensive and easy gift that kids will go crazy for!

Create With Your Hands:  Creativity with Cardboard Boxes

{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 29: Flannel Board and Felt Pieces

Believe me when I tell you this:  I have not met a toddler that does not love a flannel board (also sometimes called a story board or felt board).  My mom made Greyson one for his second birthday and he loves it.  He will play with it for an hour at a time, creating his own scenes and stories with the felt pieces.  You could purchase a flannel/felt/story board, but you can save lots of money and have a better quality board by making your own!  Make sure to check out my simple flannel board tutorial.

If you're not into making your own flannel board, here are a few options that won't break the bank.  Make sure to get some felt pieces to use with the board!

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 28: Cooperative Games

Cooperative games are great for toddlers, if they are ready.  Usually, depending on the child of course, they are ready by 3 to start learning the many skills it requires for cooperative games.

Skills:

• cooperation
• following directions
• taking turns
• life skills (winning/losing)
• concept skills (colors, shapes, counting, etc.)

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 27: Shape Sorters

This is a classic toy that has survived the test of time.

Skills:

• problem solving
• fine motor
• shapes
• colors

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 26: Shape Roller Coasters

I actually had to look up what the "technical" name for this awesome toy was, which just so happens to be "shape roller coaster" (also seen as a "bead maze").  I lovingly refer to them as the "Waiting Room Shape Thingy", because you can find them in any waiting room that may have children in it.  Amazingly, they aren't just available for doctors' offices to purchase!

Skills:

• shapes
• colors
• fine motor

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 25: Bubbles

I know what you're thinking..."Bubbles?  Seriously?"  Yes, bubbles!  Bubbles can be used inside for just as much fun as outside in the spring and summer.  I used to wrangle the attention of 10 preschoolers with bubbles (once one saw them, they all came running!).  It's a simple activity that can be used during daily transition times, and it's great breath control practice for little ones.

"You get what you pay for."  This statement is true with bubbles.  If you've ever bought them from the dollar store, you will quickly realized you've bought watered down soap that barely produces 2 or 3 bubbles that pop one second after launch.  I've recently heard great things about Gymboree bubbles.  A mama told me that they last so long and will even sometimes bounce!  We are in love with Gazillion bubbles in our house, as they definitely live up to their name.  They are included here.

 

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 24: Puppets

Puppets are awesome (even for adults) good fun, and they are a simple, imagination inducing gift for toddlers and children.  Folkmanis puppets are my favorite because they are so detailed and often-times very realistic, and we are lucky to have many in our house because Barefoot Books sells them!  Greyson loves his Folkmanis bunny finger puppet he got for Easter.

There are lots of options when giving a puppet for a gift.  My favorite (of course) is pairing it with a book.  

Barefoot Books Puppets

Skills:

• fine motor
• gross motor
• pretend play

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 23: Sensory Bins

Most people don't think about sensory bins as gifts, but they are the perfect, personalized, homemade gift for toddlers.  They are inexpensive, and can provide hours and hours of fun for little ones!

Sensory bins can be made from almost anything safe for children to explore.  We have a few different kinds of bins right now, but the possibilities are numerous.  All you need is some kind of container with a lid to keep the items, and an imagination to decide what items to place in the bin!  Here are some ideas from our collection:

Simple Sensory Bin  #1

• beans
• plastic animals or bugs
• measuring spoons or cups

Simple Sensory Bin #2

• dry split peas
• toy vehicles
• measuring spoons or cups

Pom Pom Sensory Bin

• craft pom poms
• measuring spoons
• ice cube tray

The key to a really, really good sensory bin is to appeal to all of the senses (or as many as you can).  Smell seems to be a difficult one to appeal to, so think about adding a few drops of essential oils or some other scent that can spice up the sense-factor.  And remember, you can't always taste things in the sensory bin ;)

Go through any dollar store with an open mind, and you can create an amazing sensory bin for very little money!

Sensory Bin Ideas:

• beans
• rice
• dirt
• Easter grass
• sawdust
• sand
• rocks/stones
• pasta/noodles
• cotton balls
• feathers
• flour
• sugar
• koosh balls
• corn kernels
• cereal
• acorns
• nuts
• water beads
• epsom salts
• water/bubbles

{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 22: Trains and Tracks

Trains seem to be a staple toy of a little boys life, but don't forget that little girls love things that go too!  When it comes to trains and train tracks, there are lots of options out there.  I tend to gravitate towards the wooden sets, mostly because they are sturdier and much nicer to deal with than the plastic variety, but they also seem to last forever.  My mother-in-law has a wooden train set that was my husbands (ahem...almost 28ish years ago) that is in near perfect condition still.  In fact, it's Greyson's favorite thing to play with when he goes to Mamaw and Papaw's house.

It's important to remember that when thinking about a train set, less can be much, much more.  I've seen many toddlers get completely overwhelmed by hundreds of pieces of track and never able to keep it together just perfectly.  Most of the time, they are perfectly content with a simple 8 piece track that they can easily get together and manage themselves.  It's nice to add track pieces as they get older, too.

Skills:  

• pretend play
• fine motor
• imagination

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 21: Toy Vehicles

Toy vehicles are a perfect pretend play toy.  Most kids envy the fact that the adults in their lives can drive, and love to pretend that they are in the driver's seat.  Toy vehicles give them that fun experience, while also working on several other skills and having fun.

My sister and I used to line up wooden blocks to use as roads, and I recently taught Greyson how to do this with his vehicles.  He loves it!  Another perfect pairing with toy vehicles is a road rug or road mat that has roads printed on it for driving.  

Skills:

• fine motor
• pretend play
• imagination 

 

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 20: Nesting Blocks

Nesting blocks are one of Greyson's go-to favorite toys.  It's such a perfectly simple toy that so much can be done with them (much more than just stacking and nesting!).  We have a Melissa and Doug set (shown below) with the alphabet on them.  Greyson will stack the blocks, and then we sing our alphabet song while pointing to the letters (forward and backward just for fun).  We'll also use the nesting blocks as a mountain for our Army men to climb, as well as hiding spots when the Army men climb in the boxes.  Nesting blocks are one of those versatile toys that's just begging for an imagination to turn it into all it can be.

Is anyone else as excited as me that there are Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss sets of nesting blocks?

Skills:

• problem solving
• sequencing

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 19: Musical Instruments

Have you ever met a toddler who doesn't love music?  Music is not only fun for them, it also stimulates a lot of learning.  Greyson dances to any musical beat that he hears, and has really begun to love singing and playing his own music.  I much prefer instruments that only make noise when he causes it to make noise, not one that requires batteries and plays on it's own when it's touched.

Skills:

• cause and effect
• music
• fine and gross motor

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 18: Alphabet Letters

The more exposure to alphabet letters children get, the better!  There's so much to do with alphabet letters, you cannot go wrong with them.  We have felt letters for our flannel board, letters on blocks, magnet letters, bath letters and more.  Keep in mind when shopping, it's nice to have both uppercase and lowercase letters in your collection.

Skills:

• early literacy
• fine motor
• letter identification

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 17: Sorting Board

Sorting boards are next to impossible to find in stores (at least around here), which confuses me because they are a great learning toy.  Sorting is an essential math skill, and this simple toy can help children develop it.

Skills:

• math skills
• fine motor
• concept skills (shapes, colors, etc)

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 16: Peg Boards

Many people have never even heard of peg boards, but almost everyone has seen this fun little game:

While it's not quite the same, you can imagine how much fun a kid would have with their own version of this game that we all can't get enough of.  This is an open-ended toy that can be used for so many things, all at the discretion of the child's imagination!

Skills:

• fine motor
• math skills (counting, patterns, sorting, adding/subtracting)
• colors, shapes
• creativity

Feeding Update Friday: Week Ten and Eleven

Okay, so the last update was that Greyson was able to move towards table foods for his mealtimes as opposed to all purees.  We've given it a good three week trial period, and we have not liked what we've seen.  While we knew we would be losing some volumes because of the switch, we've seen a pretty steep loss in volumes, even in his one-meal-a-day of yogurt.

When given softer table foods, Greyson is mostly just playing with them.  Sometimes he'll take tiny, tiny bites of something, and sometimes he just flat out refuses.  His breakfast meal of yogurt has been between 1 and 6 ounces, which has varied greatly from his consistent 4-6 ounces before the switch to table foods.

Talking with Greyson's OT and SLT over the past two days, we have come up with a new plan.  We are going to go back to mostly purees, while still presenting him with a few more table food choices.  This way, he will still be getting more consistent volumes while getting more experience with table foods.

I know this is a work in progress, but it can be absolutely exhausting to try to figure it all out.  On a positive note, Greyson is doing well playing with foods.  Today when I was making lunch Greyson was at the table with some slices of colby jack cheese.  I peeked over at him and saw him smiling so big, pointing at his ears with both hands saying, "Mommy!  Cheese, ears!"

  

He had shoved tiny pieces of cheese in both ears, and thought he was the coolest thing ever!  

{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 15: Bathtub Art Supplies

There's lots and lots of learning that can take place in the bathtub, which is why I've included bathtub art supplies on our list.

This is another gift that can be homemade for a more personal touch.  I will caution you, however, that we've tried a few bathtub crayon recipes without luck.  The colors just don't write vibrantly on the tub like we'd hoped, so make sure to test them before giving.  We love using our Easy Bath Tub Paint, but for a different texture paint with more vibrant colors, it's nice to use good old store-bought sometimes!

Skills:

• fine motor
• creativity
• sensory
• color and color mixing
• concept skills

 

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 14: Art Supplies

You cannot go wrong when giving a toddler art supplies, due to the fact that the supplies are used up in no time.  Greyson goes through construction paper so quickly, and crayons get broken (don't throw them away!) or lost almost as soon as you open a fresh container it seems.

There are some art supplies that can be homemade for more personalized gifts.  While I have not tried out any homemade paint recipes just yet, it's certainly worth a look if you'd like to go that route.  Those broken crayons that seem to pile up?  Pop them into a cute silicone ice cube tray, melt them down, let it cool, pop them out, and you have brand-new and fun-shaped crayons!

Making Crayons Tutorial at Skip to My Lou

Skills:

• fine motor
• creativity
• early writing skills
• sensory
• concept skills

Art Supplies:  

• crayons, markers, colored pencils
• paint (washable, finger)
• paintbrushes
• paper (construction, card stock, lined)
• dot painters
• scissors (child safe)
• stickers
• stamps/stamp pads
• coloring books
• popsicle sticks
• pipe cleaners
• glue
• pom-poms
• glitter
• art smock

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 13: Lacing Beads

Little ones love working with their hands.  Lacing beads are a versatile toy that can be used to learn many different skills.  There are lots of different options out there, below are just a few that I find fabulous!

Skills:

• fine motor
• patterns
• math skills
• colors, shapes

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 12: Lacing Cards

Lacing cards give toddlers great fine motor practice for early shoe-tying skills.  They are a simple and quiet way to keep kiddos entertained, and are super cute and colorful!  These are on G's Christmas list.

There are lots of different options for lacing cards.  You can even make your own for a more personalized gift.  Just take some cardboard, trace the shapes that you'd like, cut them out, and add a pattern of holes with a hole puncher.  You can paint or color the shapes however you'd like, buy some cheap shoe-strings or yarn, and voila!  Homemade lacing cards :)  Hmmm....maybe a tutorial post is in order...

If you're not into making your own, here are a few super cute choices.  I'm feeling a very strong pull towards the Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss cards, they're just too perfect for words.

Skills:

• fine motor
• life skills
• concept skills

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 11: Books

I know you were thinking it..."When is she going to post about books?"  Books are the most fundamental simple toddler toy necessity.  At the risk of sounding cheesy (cheese!) books can teach your child so much (beyond just how to read) and take them places they've never been (or ever will be).

I think my husband has finally conceded to the fact that you can never have too many books.  We have enough books here to catalog them and start our own library, but Greyson's gift list will always include books.  Always.

Barefoot Books have the most amazing books for children, and there is FREE shipping on orders over $60.  That means you can stock up on books for all the children you know (and even for a few different holidays, birthdays, and baby showers!) to earn that free shipping.

For the holidays, Barefoot Books has created Dazzling Gift Sets for even more savings.  These sets come shipped loosely (meaning they're not packaged together), so you can buy a set and separate it amongst a few children or even a few special holidays.  Here are a few of my favorite sets.

Curious Cleo Gift Set

Alison Jay's Laptime Stories Gift Set

Singalong and Swingalong Gift Set

Traditional Tales Gift Set (including our new book, The Little Red Hen)

The Little Red Hen

I ordered Greyson one of Barefoot's brand new books, The Little Red Hen. I've always loved this traditional tale, but when I saw the illustrations in this book, I knew it was special.  (It also helps that it comes with a Story CD narrated by none other than Debra Messing!)  Check out the illustration by Kate Slater below.

Here's a few more of my very favorite children's books that I think should be in every home with kids.

{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 10: Building Blocks

I titled this post building blocks because there are many, many kinds of building blocks besides the brand that immediately comes to mind, Legos (nothing against Legos, because they rock).  Bristle blocks, mega blocks, snap cubes, etc, building blocks are one of those toys that have endless possibilities.

Skills:

• fine motor
• problem solving
• creativity
• math skills
• sensory

A Few Things to do with Building Blocks:

• sort them (by color, shape, size, number of "nubs")
• count them
• make patterns
• build anything you imagine

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 9: Costumes and Dress Up Clothing

Who didn't love to dress up as a kid?  Actually, who doesn't love to dress up?  Dress-up is good for so many things and it's fun.  Costumes and dress up clothing are great gifts for toddlers because at this age, children are learning how to pretend.

Let me tell you a fabulous costume/dress up clothing secret:  Halloween is 2 months before Christmas.  Stores like Target and Walmart put their Halloween costumes on deep discounts November 1st, and each day after the discounts get deeper and deeper.  In fact, I got Greyson two costumes at Walmart this year at a whopping 90% off 8 days after Halloween.  (Yes it was that good that it needed to be bolded, italicized, and underlined).  So for a total of $1.46, Greyson now has a ninja costume and a superhero costume for his dress-up bin.

If you've missed the amazing sales at your local stores, here are some other great costume options for you.

Skills:

• dramatic play
• life skills

    

  

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 8: Puzzles

I've never found a kid who doesn't enjoy a puzzle.  The best part about them, is they teach so many concepts with one simple toy.  Some people gripe that puzzles are nearly impossible to keep organized, but there are many solutions out there to help store them neatly.  One of my favorites is also a frequent-pinner on Pinterest from many different blogs:  the pencil pouch puzzle storage (say that 5 times fast...).

Picture from Signature Moms.

Greyson isn't at the stage where he has many jigsaw puzzles for us to use this method yet, but when we do, I have a few ideas of my own.  I'd take a picture of the puzzle put together to tape to the outside of the pencil pouch so that he would know what puzzle he was choosing before putting it together, as well as have the template for putting it together.

Greyson loves wooden peg puzzles, and is beginning to enjoy easy jigsaw puzzles with some help.  Here are a few that are perfect for toddlers, representing a few different concepts.

Skills:

• fine motor
• problem solving
• concept skills (shapes, animals, transportation, colors, alphabet, etc.)

If you have lots of wooden puzzles to store, a great purchase is a wire storage rack.  It keeps the puzzles organized but also easily accessible, and we love ours.

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{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys} Day 7: Dolls

Parents of boys:  Do not just skip over this post.  It's okay for boys to play with dolls.  Some boys love them, other boys couldn't care less about them.  My son has a doll, and his name is Reese Stu.  Reese Stu was born in 1983 when Shane was born.  Shane toted Reese Stu around for a few years, and then one day, was done with him, so my mother-in-law saved him for her grandchildren.  Greyson hasn't really discovered the awesomeness of dolls yet, but when he's ready, Reese Stu is waiting with (literally) open arms (and in a pair of my favorite preemie pajamas of Greyson's).

Greyson (3 months) with Reese

The great thing about dolls is there is such a huge variety to choose from.  You can choose a soft plush doll, a doll closes it's eyes when laid down, or a doll that sucks it's thumb.  My preference is for a doll that requires the imagination of a child to make it cry, make it go "potty", and make it fall asleep.

Skills:

• dramatic play
• life skills

 

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