What do your toddlers REALLY play with? - Page 3

[hildare]

Originally Posted by BreakfastyMichele 

My daughter is nearly 34 months old and loves two things above all others

--her baby, and anything that goes with it (baby bathtub, diapers, crib, stroller, bottle  )

--her kitchen, pots, pans, food, dishes, etc

So, I guess she's falling firmly into feminine gender roles.  It depresses me a little until I realize she's just doing what I do.  We cook and bake a lot, and she has a baby sister, so she's just mimicking me.  At least that's what I tell myself :)

those are only 'feminine gender roles' if you make them be.  my dh cooks and cleans and does lots of baby stuff.  give her the chance to watch some dudes cook too, if you have a dude handy.  ;)
 

[Lilygoose]

My DD is 26 months.  She currently loves her art easel, particularly the chalkboard part, and gets really excited when we use the paper and paints.  She also adores very simple puzzles (the kind that don't have interlocking pieces, but a separate part for each number, letter, animal, shape)-when left to her own devices this is her go to toy, leggos and blocks (she builds castles and "pyramids" ;), a tea set, and occasionally her doll.  She also loves to play hide and seek, tamborines, drums (small bongos), shaker type instruments, and an electronic keyboard.  She really loves to play music along with the tv or a CD and to have mom and dad play too.  She also has a play kitchen that she likes in spurts, and cups and water in the sink brings her great joy!  For a while we had a big cardboard box her new carseat came in and that would entertain her for long periods. 

[AudraR]

I noticed most people already posted my recommendation of books, but I'll reiterate it, since you just can't go wrong with books   They key is to find books about things that interest them; trains and dinosaurs always pretty popular.  I use a website called www.littleonebooks.com to pick out books for my niece, since they separate the products by age. 

[HidaShara]

DD is 29 months, so she's a lot older, but when she was about 2 she started seriously, intensively "playing pretend" by herself.  She was happy with any kind of "guy" - little people, action figures, dolls, animals, anything.  She's not picky about what they are, as long as she can have them act out scenarios.  We got her a Calico Critters kitchen set with like 60 pieces for her 2nd birthday that she loves, and continues to love.  Anything she can play pretend with.

She also loved/s toy cell phones and toy strollers -these two are big hits!

[gbailey]

DD is 2.5 and she really likes playing with her kitchen, eeBoo memory animals and eeBoo puzzle. She loves to "read"  books. She's memorized a lot of her favorites. Oh, she has an Elmo learn to dress book that she really enjoys. We donated a lot of her older toys because she stopped playing with them so we replenished her supply for the holidays. Arts and crafts is a big thing with her. A crayon or pen so seh can draw circles and lines and coloring books is huge for her.

[marieangela]

My 21 month old has two older brothers, so she is exposed to lots of toys that are beyond her age.  It also makes it tough to know what to get her, we have a toy kitchen, little people, legos of every size, dress up clothes, puzzles, books, playmobil, cars, musical instruments, etc. etc.  What she really seems to like playing with are books, little people/playmobil figures, things that play music, toy cell phones and balls.  I've been so caught up in buying for her brothers that I haven't done too much shopping for her.  One thing she really likes, that we don't have are those musical eggs that you shake.  She also really likes to put things in and take them out of bags.  I think she would be thrilled if I found a mesh zippered bag and put some musical eggs in it as a gift. 

[cyclamen]

Those of you who have bought little brooms, where did you find them?  All the little brooms I find are too big for my peanut.  And that is one thing I know she'd love to play with.

[t2009]

Originally Posted by cyclamen 

Those of you who have bought little brooms, where did you find them?  All the little brooms I find are too big for my peanut.  And that is one thing I know she'd love to play with.

We have a swiffer-type broom & I just took out two pieces from the shaft to make it shorter & gave it to DS. His favorite game is to see what toys we can fish out from under the sofa (among, ahem, other things). He also loves playing with the duster & dust pan.

Other toys... books & play dough are the only things that will keep his attention for more than a minute. Other things he likes (for short, short periods) are instruments, blocks, doll, stuffed animals, anything he can dump, balls, toy cars/trucks, simple puzzles, kitchen stuff (mixing bowls, wooden spoons, etc.).

Oh & by playing, I mean dumping toys out of bins,

[HidaShara]

Originally Posted by cyclamen 

Those of you who have bought little brooms, where did you find them?  All the little brooms I find are too big for my peanut.  And that is one thing I know she'd love to play with.

We got a little one around Halloween from an art/craft store.  DD was supposed to be Kiki (from Kiki's Delivery Service) for Halloween, but in the end chickened out because she was afraid of flying the broom ("no, it goes too high!").  She insisted she would be Kiki "when she's bigger".  She's too scared of the stupid thing to even touch it.

[nolonger]

Originally Posted by cyclamen 

Those of you who have bought little brooms, where did you find them?  All the little brooms I find are too big for my peanut.  And that is one thing I know she'd love to play with.

I got ds's here:

http://www.broommagic.com/shopexd.asp?id=162

[Flower of Bliss]

Things my 15 month old esspecially loves to play with:

wooden blocks and stacking toys (she has a few favorites from a nice Haba fantasy set, but just basic alphabet cubes are loved too)

instruments - we have several baskets full, and they all see TONS of use: bells, drums, maracas, kazoos, guitar (love the plan toys one), ...  These have been the most used toys in my home for about 3 years.  We continue to add to the collection, and it's generally my go to gift suggestion for DD2.

dolls and stuffed animals

the play kitchen and the assorted stuff (our wooden with velcro cutable stuff sees the most play)

doll stroller (we love the one from Nova Natural so much I've considered getting a second for DD2!)

schleich animals

My 4 year old DD1 plays with all of this stuff too.  They're definitely lasting toys around here.

[plantnerd]

12 months-

anything electronic, especially cell phones, calculators, and remote controls

candles

pots, pans, and tupperwares

push toys- shopping cart, lawn mower, vaccuum, walker/scooter

blocks

board books

small items and containers (bucket and acorns, spoons and bowls, etc)

[PatchChild]

Duplo blocks have been very popular since DS was about 16 months old.  They still are now at 3.5.

Any real tool is much better than any toy.  Spoons, brooms, brushes, that kind of thing.

[Courtney-Ostaff]

My husband brought home this:

http://www.amazon.com/Kidz-Delight-Silly-Talking-Broom/dp/B000MWFQE6

[Mal85]

DD is  21 months old. Her favorite things to play with are:

- Blocks, she has Lego Duplos and a Lego table that she'll sit at and build her blocks.

- Babies, this is pretty recent she's started playing with her babies a lot. She nurses them, wraps them in blankets, puts them to sleep, etc.

- Board books, she loves ones with flaps and she can lift the flaps to see what's under it. A lot of those have pretty flimsy flaps though and she rips it pretty easily. My mom found her one with sturdier flaps, as thick as the board book pages, and that's her favorite right now.

- She has a bead maze she likes to play with.

- We have a giant sized pillow, like the size of three of her. She loves to jump on that and lay on it with a blanket. A bean bag would probably serve the same purpose.

- Little People. We have a couple of hand me down sets and she's getting a couple more for Christmas.

- Anything with lids or latches or locks that she can figure out.

Those are her favorite things, but really it's hard to get her to play independently. It's recently started happening a little more often and when she starts doing something on her own, I don't mess with her at all! I rejoice in the few minutes of me-time! I have found if I sit down with her when she asks me to, read to her, build blocks for a few minutes, or rock her baby with her... then once she gets into whatever we're doing, I can kind of slip away without her throwing a fit. She just likes to have me there to facilitate the play and get her started, then she's good on her own for a little while. Yesterday, she spent a good 30 minutes playing on her own with her baby, it was glorious!

ETA: Play silks! I forgot to mention these because she uses them in every area of her play. She won't play with just a playsilk, but she loves to wrap things up in them or use them as blankets for her babies. She finds soooo many uses for those. By far, the best thing to have around.

[AKislandgirl]

DD is 22 months:

• play silks are used daily as blankets, doll slings, capes, peek a boo, etc...
• Lego duplo blocks
• schliech animals, she mostly has farm animals and is getting some forest animals for Christmas
• baby dolls
• wooden food and bowls, spoons, pots and pans
• puzzles with knobs
• musical instruments, we have a basket full of various shakers, bells, Kazoo, whistle, drums, and a xylophone. She LOVES these!
• crayons and water colors