What toys do you *love*? - Page 2

[Losgann]

Originally Posted by 2GR8KIDS

If he is a "deconstructor" you still might do OK with things like Lego, Knex, Zoobs, etc. .

I like that term, 'deconstructor'. That's definitely him!

We had the larger lego pieces when he was younger and he did like those, we just didn't have very many. I looked up the zoobs though and those look REALLY COOL!!! Especially some of what they showed you could make with them- Ethan is totally into insects, especially the 'dangerous' ones like scorpions and tarantulas.

I'm going to get him some of those. Ooh, and they both LOVE marbles. I found a wooden marble run at the same site. Thanks for the lead!!

[Losgann]

Barbie car (the vw Bug)

Okay this thing annoys me. My dad got it for Will a few years ago and she's *never* played with it. It's the type with a remote control, but it makes such a horrible screeching noise that Will tends to leave it alone.

It's been the doorstop in her bedroom for the last year. But she's getting more into Barbies (she has a few I picked up at a yard sale sans clothes. :LOL ) and I think, "what if I toss it and that's when she'll decide she wants to do Barbies and misses it?"

I do this to myself. Do they even make the barbie cars that aren't motorized anymore?

I used to have the Barbie Vette. Hmm.. ebay..

:LOL

[Sneezykids]

our list...
DD (8yo)
Wood kitchen, wood food, dishes
Baby dolls, cradle, dolly clothes
Scraps of fabric for various imaginative things
art supplies (a favorite)
playdoh
Spy stuff
tinker toys
geometric blocks (the kind you see in schools) ours our wood, both kids LOVE them
Fashion Polly :LOL
some Barbis (she sold most in our yard sale though)
Matchbox cars
books
and the biggest one... DIRT AND ROCKS!! Oh, and STICKS!
Dd is always outside collecting, creating and playing

DS (3yo)
Large Tonka dump truck (his favorite toy by far)
Tonka fire engine (it does have sounds but not too obnoxious)
Wood hammer and peg bench
train sets (brio and we have the FP Geo set (..gift, it's plastic and I didn't buy it!)
matchbox cars
books
art supplies (the hole punch is a favorite and good for them to do)
balls
trike and (new) big boy bike (training wheels!)
FP fold up car track (the kind they wind up, no batteries required...ALL kids who come here play with this toy)
and of course DIRT ROCKS AND STICKS

both my kids love to dig in the dirt and we all know that is a childhood pasttime right? They get the old screwdrivers and really have fun. They have a sandbox and a beach full of sand but they prefer finding the patches of dirt in our yard (newer house) and using the 'real' dirt :LOL :

Toys I won't allow:
Legos (I like them, but ds throws them so they went into a long time out)
PIT BALLS and the playhut SOLD in our yard sale (picking up 100+ pit balls is not fun!)
Noisy toys that break, remote toys that break
Skateboards (I had a closed head injury on one at 17 and refuse to let my kids own one OR a scooter)
toy guns
toys that are not interactive (we have some but they are not played with so there ya go!)

ETA...I just got rid of tons of toys to our daycare, goodwill and the yard sale. I would love to get rid of more. I really don't like many toys at all, in the summer they are outside digging and running and on their bikes. One thing I have a hard time with is throwing out the stuffed animals

[Monkeyfeet]

Originally Posted by Peppermint

Toys that are used daily around here:
-the cardboard brick blocks

I had forgotten about those! I used to love them! Where can I get those?

[Peppermint]

http://www.fatbraintoys.com/cart/sho...d=melissa+doug

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...795368-4388866

Toys R Us has them around here too, and I got ours at a Teacher's supply store.

They are the single best toy in this house, no question.

They make castles, paths to walk on, ships, my poor deprived kids have pretended they were "Game Boys" which one of their friends has.- :LOL

I can't tell you the number of things those blocks have been.

[Monkeyfeet]

Originally Posted by Peppermint

[ my poor deprived kids have pretended they were "Game Boys" which one of their friends has.- :LOL

.

that is the best! :LOL :LOL :LOL :LOL

[farmer mama]

Originally Posted by Peppermint

my poor deprived kids have pretended they were "Game Boys" which one of their friends has.- :LOL

That is so funny! Once we had some neighbor kids come over and play and they didn't know how to play with my kid's toys. They asked "But what does it do?" looking at all the wooden stuff you need you imagination to play with.

[Monkeyfeet]

Oh and to answer the question..

right now dd's favorites are:

Melissa and Doug's big wooden blocks (we would LOVE a second set, but they are expensive)

and a wooden hammer and peg set

[supervee]

I haven't seen this in the lists...characters. DS likes characters of any kind. Little People, Playmobil, animals, action figures, anything with a face LOL... they go on grand adventures in the car, across the floor, in the dirt. It helps with his creative storytelling and also I've noticed with working through issues he has with various things in his day.

[2GR8KIDS]

Another possible source of cardboard bricks is Lillian Vernon. That's where we got ours; they were reasonable.

[bonbon mama]

Use milk cartons to make the bricks--clean them, dry them, cut and tape them or cover them with contact paper. We had a whole collection when we were children. They don't support a child's weight like the others do, though.

[chefkath]

We try to keep the toys to a bare minimum around here. The fewer toys they own, the more creative ways they come up with to play with the ones they do have. I love watching that imagination at work.

What we do have: Lots of art supplies - we never throw anything away if we can possibly use it for building or creating something. A couple of board games (Harvest Time and The Sleeping Grump). Playing cards. Several trucks of various sizes. A bunch of puppets and some stuffed animals. Two very beloved baby dolls and a cradle for them to sleep in. A xylophone, a recorder and an ancient electronic keyboard. Legos. Blocks. A few wood peg puzzles. Playsilks, random fabric scraps and old clothes for dressup. "Pattern Blocks" from Melissa and Doug. Buckets and shovels for the beach and dirt pile. And lastly, the biggest (and favorite) toy we own: the Little Tykes play kitchen. (Yes, it's plastic - but we never could have afforded the wood kind, and the kids just love it anyways.) They use regular pans and utensils from the kitchen with it, and usually use Legos or blocks for food.

That sure sounds like a lot of stuff when I write it all down! I guess "bare minimum" isn't the best way to put it. But we don't let the inventory grow - whenever we get something new, we give something else away.

[dancingmama]

wow, is my dd the only kid who plays with dolls???

i'd say 75% of her playtime involves her "babies" -- nursing them, feeding them in the highchair, taking care of them when they are sick, putting them in the baby swing or stroller or doll carriage, putting them in her little sling, inviting them to a picinic or tea party.... she has created a whole little village of friends.

[Monkeyfeet]

What is Playmobil?


DD is only 8 months, so we are not too familiar with what is out there!

[mommyto3girls]

My dd is very into her babies also doing the same as your daughter. She loves her play kitchen as well. But, with it being summer she plays mostly with buckets, cups, trowels, her bug collecting kit, water, and balls. We are outside the majority of the day, either at the community pool where she plays with cups buckets and balls with the other kids or in the backyard collecting bugs, playing in the sandbox or with the hose or playing t-ball, soccer, or any other made up ball game.

[mahogny]

My DS's (3.5 yrs) faves:

*Brio trains
*books on tape (he works the stereo all on his own)
*the attachments to the vacuum cleaner (the hose is a snake, the attachment tubes are telescopes, swords, musical instruments, etc)
*scissors, markers, etc. just assorted craft supplies
*pipe cleaners (I think they're called something more PC now like "chenille stems", but they're the same thing.)
*flashlights
*toy broom
*toy rake, shovel (for outside)
*tunnel (a nylon collapsable tunnel)
*trike
*wagon
*bubble juice
*sidewalk chalk

[sunnmama]

Originally Posted by maya44

6.Plastic buckets for sand play. (Is there an alternative?)

Sure! Empty yogurt containers!

(hey, it's recycling! )

[ceilydhmama]

Originally Posted by dancingmama

wow, is my dd the only kid who plays with dolls???

i'd say 75% of her playtime involves her "babies" -- nursing them, feeding them in the highchair, taking care of them when they are sick, putting them in the baby swing or stroller or doll carriage, putting them in her little sling, inviting them to a picinic or tea party.... she has created a whole little village of friends.

My daughter is completely into her babies. She also loves her first aid kit and likes to drop her babies from high heights so she can bandage them up. Sigh.

Her latest though is knot tying. She will tie anything, to anything, with anything. Dh has taught her about 8 knots which are now everywhere.

Favoutite plaything #3 are art supplies. She is fairly certain that glue, paper, tape and sparkles are all that's required to create anything she can imagine. Which she then ties to a baby and does first aid on

[gentlemommy]

Originally Posted by 2GR8KIDS

My 5.5 year old son now likes building toys for the first time. So one of his favorites right now are Legos, and he also likes Knex and Zoobs (although the Zoobs break so might not be a great choice if your son breaks toys a lot- I'm amazed at how durable Legos are, by contrast).

He also spends lots of time with his Playmobil people. He has lots of pirates, knights, soldiers, etc.

He still uses his dress-up clothes, though less than he used to.

He has elaborate ideas for building things. Sometimes he just lets loose with empty boxes, stuff from the recycling bin, various tools, tape, glue, etc.

He also likes board games- chess, Battleship, Great States, etc.

Oh my goodness! If it weren't for the age difference, I'd think my son was living at your house! I'm all verklempt! I'm laughing a bit at the part about letting loose, and the list of things you mentioned after that...know it all too well. I'd love some suggestions on how to get tape up off of a linoleum floor.

Okay, I stopped there and posted, and now must go and finish the thread, but I just had to respond as soon as I read. Any chance you live in central FL? I'm sure my ds would *love* to have a like-minded fellow to play with!

[Fiercemama]

This past Xmas I really figured out what kinds of toys our family does best with - the simpler the better, open-ended, and things that encourage interactive play if we have little friends visiting (usually the adults like to get in on these too).

I avoid anything electronic. If DD gets anything that has batteries, the rule is that she can play with it as long as they work, but they don't get replaced. Toys that are advertised as "interactive" rarely are.

Pint sized versions of things we use everyday. A squeegee is DD's mop, and she loves to help out. My sister found her the most awesome shopping cart - like those big duffle bags that have wheels, like you see little old ladies with?

Some of my DD's faves (she's 3)
* Bandanas. She can play with a bandana or a dishtowel for HOURS. Our budget version of a playsilk I guess. Once she wrapped her Elmo doll up in a red bandana and told me he was The Baby Jesus (it was close to Xmastime).
Also sarongs or filmy scarves.
* Play food and dishes. Kids of every age love these. We have been served many delicious gourmet meals! We have a bunch of those velcro fruits and veggies that kids can "cut" in half. Sears catalogue has an awesome Asian food set that I have my eye on.
* Books, books and more books.
* I keep the baby toys in a bin for when we have little guests, but DD still loves to pull them out and play with them!
* We have a fabric fishing bag with little felt fish that you pick up with fishing rods with velcro on the end. Its interactive and light enough to take when we go visiting. Someone crafty could probably make their own set easily enough.
* We got a puppet theatre that hangs with a tension rod in a doorway. So far, DD is not quite into it - maybe in another year, but again, its a project that someone craft could probably make themselves. Or even just put up a tension rod in a doorway, and put a cloth over it that kids can hide behind and put the puppets over the top.