[jennmiller]

Hi everyone!<br>
I think my 28mo DD needs a few new toys to add to the rotation. We like things that are open-ended, no-tech, and allow her to be creative. What are your kids favorites?<br><br>
Also, where did you get them?

 

[CountrylivinmomtoB]

Braylynne likes her wooden blocks, her playsilks, her kitchen, her babies, her bike (she rides around the house on it). She also loves her lincoln logs. And books of course.<br><br>
Hope that helps. As of where I got the stuff, the playsilks i made and everything was bought used.

 

[Cardinal]

Sidewalk chalk is a new favorite of ours... we let our son use it to "graffitti" the white fence outside. He loves it and it washes off when it rains. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"> I like looking at his marks, too. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"><br><br>
He also loves his trucks, cars, and airplanes. Uses his imagination to make them take off. Melissa and Doug make great ones, if you want wood.

 

[CountrylivinmomtoB]

I forgot to add, her dollhouse. We just got her one and she loves pretending with the people.

 

[jennmiller]

Thanks for the great ideas!!! Where can I get good, chunky wooden airplanes, cars and trains? I've been doing a bit of searching on the net and haven't found anything that great yet. It has to be out there. I know I had this stuff when I was young. Maybe e-bay.

 

[yogachick79]

Both Haba and Melissa and Doug make great wooden toys, blocks, puzzles...<br><br>
We are also big on the playsilks and sidewalk chalk just became a hit with the nice weather finally coming around. He colored for almost 2 hrs straight the other day!!!<br><br>
I also want to let him start doing more with finger paints and clay. He loves mashing things with his hands <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol">

 

[luv2bmommy2*2]

I bought my daughter a doctor coat that included all the "doctor tools" for $20 at Toys R Us.We had to go to a costume party that was what we thought a "hero" was. I believe the co is imaginarium. She totally loves it! They have different outfits there-fighter fighter, teacher, vet just to name a few. I will be going back to buy her another one for her birthday. She is very interested in learning all the names of the body and playing doctor (I am a nursing student and she helps me study-she already knows all the terms for the backbone and some of the organs) <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"> When we get tired of being her "patients" she will get her baby doll and stuff animals.

 

[Babytime]

These are plastic, but my 2 yo and 5 yo adore them - Kid K'nex. They spend hours creating their own creatures and then using them in imaginative play.<br><br>
They both love figures of any type (animal, people) and blocks. They like painting and coloring. They also like dollhouses, dolls, their puppet theater, their train table and outside toys of any type!

 

[AugustineM]

OK, you're going to think this is weird, but I gave up on toys for my 2 1/2 yo. He doesn't like them. These are his favorite things:<br><br>
Long pieces of rope, small blankets, his sister's clothing, piles of dirt, rocks and sand, grass (running on it), our cat, jumping on the couch, pinching things with tongs, pretending to "cook" and "clean," pulling up plants, weeds in the yard, practing peeing in the potty and outside about a million times a day... etc. etc. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile">

 

[CandyApple]

You're on to something !<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile"><br><br>
Both my guys love the smaller wagons right now. They sit in them, pull them around, put their blocks, trucks and other toys in them. And play-dough is another hit.

 

[rubyruby]

My DD (30 months) also loves her doctors kit. She also plays with her dollhouse & kitchen a lot, plus all the "food" and utensils with it. Melissa & Doug make a wooden bead stringing thing that she is just getting the hang of by herself (it says it's for 36 months). I love most Melissa & Doug toys and usually buy them slightly ahead of time so she can grow into them.

 

[Max'sMama]

Paperclips = fish<br>
clothespins = ticket punchers<br>
Roll of tickets (they com in large rolls for raffles/drawings, etc) = tickets for trains, entering the room the 'races'<br>
Pipe cleaner = fishing poles<br>
Recyclables = I wash out everything I want to recycle and stock ds kithen w/ real stuff.<br>
Plants-dc can plant a dozen beans and after 4 days of watering unearth 1 plant per day to see the growth.<br><br>
Glueing (sp?) shredded paper, foam shapes, popsicle sticks (walmart has 300 or so for $1.75) strips of paper, glitter, popcorn, corn kernals, feathers, poms, oatmeal<br><br>
Rice table inside instead of sand or water (much easier cleanup) and hide items for a hunt in the rice.

 

[Codi's Mama]

DD loves balls, dolls, books, baskets/purses/backpacks, blankets/dish towels, "Codi sized" chairs, her spring horse, the keyboard piano, pushing a doll around in her stroller, her sand/water table (outside), and her slide. She'd also love a swing, but we don't have any place to put one.

 

[mama2walden&luna]

My dd loves her play kitchen and all of the wooden food we got for it and utensils. We got the kitchen from Magic Cabin and the accessories from there and also from Target.<br><br>
She loves any kind of arts and crafts. We have Play-Doh, modeling clay, little tools to mold with, chalk for her chalkboard and also for outside, washable markers, crayons, ball point pens, Color Wonder finger paints and paint brushes, and lots of different types of paper. She draws, paints, colors and sculpts non-stop. This stuff we get just anywhere we can find it.<br><br>
She also loves her playsilks and various dress up stuff like costume jewelry, shoes, hats, etc. The playsilks we got from Magic Cabin, the rest is just old stuff of mine or things we have picked up used.<br><br>
Oh, to go with her kitchen, she also has a shopping cart that she fills full of her "food" and goes to "the store." This is a really big hit with her little friends when they come over to play. We actually got it at Dollar General!<br><br>
There's a great cataloug that I have been wanting to buy from called Back to Basics. It has great imaginative toys for kids. You might want to check to see if they have a website.

 

[mandalamama]

i have one of those play tables that holds a train set, but use it for everything. every day she does something different, either blocks, wooden puzzles, rolling balls around on the table, whatever. she likes the wood on wood noises. playing in the dirt with a spoon, sidewalk chalk. washing her "baby" doll in the sink. carrying her cat around, teasing the cat with a stick with a feather on it (they play for hours!) tons of crafts stuff, crayons, finger paints, sock puppets, she even loves to cut paper with safety scissors.<br><br>
house cleaning is big fun. sorting toys into baskets, holding the dustpan while i sweep. i ask her to throw things in the garbage or recycle for me, or put things in the sink, she LOVES to have "errands" because it's a game to her. playing with old cooking tools that are her own, having her own low cabinet.<br><br>
puzzles are the biggest hit so far, i think. also making our own books with stickers, markers, crayons. and reading, reading, reading! can't have enough books. especially ABCs and 123s she goes nuts for them. she also likes to make photo albums with her own picture in them, switch the pics around a lot.<br><br>
have you considered starting unschooling? offering pages to color with letters or numbers, sorting beads into bowls, etc. my babe sometimes isn't into toys at all, she wants to "play school" instead.

 

[LoveOhm]

My dd is still a baby but might I add bubbles, books, & a bike to the list

 

[Ekatherina]

my ds just adore origami. (paper folding) you can find millions of books on that. here in japan it is very famous. he cant fold by himself of course but he likes pretending of folding planes, trains, ships etc....they all look alike however <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol"> . our japanese friends when they visit us, they always make him origami animals and anything he wants. but you can also master it. there are even patterns online! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/duck.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Duck">:

 

[Rikki Gard]

To Ekatherina (and other posters) - Kumon (a Japanese company) has a folding workbook for preschoolers I got at piggyroo.com - just thought I would let you know in case you were interested!

 

[mamatobean]

DD loves her play food,playsilks,stuffed animals,lincoln logs,blocks,and baby dolls!

 

[LynnS6]

Our favorites are:<br><br>
Wooden blocks<br>
Trains<br>
Doll house<br>
Playmobile - yes they're plastic but they have excellent play value - you might be able to duplicate some of what they do with Plan Toys<br>
Trucks of any sort - at 2 1/2 ds was majorly interested in <a href="http://www.activetoys.com" target="_blank">garbage trucks</a>, and now it's fire trucks.<br>
Wooden doll stroller<br>
Play tunnel<br>
Play kitchen<br>
Markers, crayons and paper<br>
Puzzles