What do your girls play with?

I'm a bit at a loss here. DS is very easy and always playing with his cars, trains, now he's in love with the Imaginext police car he got for Easter... and DD, nothing. She'll occasionally do a puzzle and play with play food or her little ponies, play 20 minutes with playdoh or her color wonder book, but there doesn't seem to be anything she really loves playing with anymore. She's obsessed with her Dora backpack but it's not like she can actually do anything with it. She seems to spend most of her time whining to go outside, then once outside whining to go in (hopefully that will change in 10 days when we get the swingset!). Drives me nuts.

Any idea??? I swear we have every toy you can think of already... dh is leaving for work again next week (not sure how long, but it could be the whole week, *gasp*) and I already know I'm going to go nuts! They watch way too much tv already...

 

Alice likes to write and draw and color and do her workbook (I picked up a preschool workbook at A.C. Moore's the other day). She also likes the play food/play kitchen and small toys like whimsy pets/little petshop. If she can put it in her pocket, she's very happy with it. But she also loves to play with the trains and cars/trucks that Royce plays with.

 

Ava also loves to write and do her "homework" in her preschool workbooks. I picked up several at the dollar store. She also loves to play with dough that I make with flour and water She plays with it while I cook, she uses cookie cutters and makes her cookies and puts them on my cookie sheet. Addison loves her Leapster and playing games on my iPad . They also love for me to take a load of towels out of the dryer and put them on the couch for them to fold. I have to re do most of them but it keeps them busy for a while!! ( dh showed them how to fold LOL!) They also love their guinea pig LOL!! They dress HIM up and HIS nails are always painted!!! Nail polish is something else that keeps them busy, I buy the little girl polish that you can barely see and Ava esp. LOVES to paint her own nails. I sit her at her little table with a couple of paper towels and let her have at it. Mega blocks they both love. We went to a party where the people had an easel with a magnetic dry erase board on one side ( they had alphabet magnets on it) and a chalk board on the other it kept several little girls happy for a while!!!!! I am thinking about getting one!!! My girls really don't play with many toys like my boys did at this age, they always want the little pet shop toys or Rapunzel barbie dolls or plastic horses but once we buy them, they are quickly forgotten. I can also give my girls a baby wipe and let them " help" me clean - they wipe down the cabinets, the table - none of it needs to be done, they just like to think they are helping. Any big box that we get and they can decorate and climb into we save until it has had it! They do LOVE the swing set and their bicycles and the sand table. They also love to put the silverware up when the dishwasher is done. They love to " help".

 

My dd loves to annoy her brothers Seriously this is what she could do all day long, just pressing their buttons!

Her favorite things to do are color, draw and read. She's also extremely active so we got her a soccer ball and net for her birthday and she loves it! She also can spend hours in the sand box.

 

Around that age they started getting more into drawing and art (and it has continued to increase since then!). We also starting allowing them free access to washable markers & crayons at their art table, which helped.

They also played with building toys (Magna Tiles are awesome -- we didn't have them at that age but I wish we had!) and looked at books.

They liked to fill purses, bags, and backpacks with lots of random objects and carry them around and pretend they were shopping or having a party or whatever.

At school they always enjoyed washing baby dolls (the hard plastic kind obviously) and doing dress-up. We didn't do much of that at home because both those things tended to get very messy.

I do remember that it was hard for them to just play on their own -- they always wanted my involvement. I was always amazed when other parents said that their kids just played with toys by themselves. This has gotten a lot better in the past couple of years, not that that helps you very much right now!

 

DD loves to draw, color, read. She has twin baby dolls that she takes on walks throughout the house, loves to play with blocks, her toy computer, Alfie the robot, loves to pretend to play soccer, the play kitchen and play tea set. She also has an Olivia dollhouse that she adores.

 

Little people toys (doll house, school bus, car, swing set), art projects like coloring or painting, playdoh, colorforms, building blocks (all kinds), race cars, books, play kitchen, shopping carts and strollers. I find that if I put most of their toys away and give them only a couple of options, my girls are more likely to actually play with their toys. I also encourage them, for example "Oh I think Baby is hungry. Why don't you cook her some breakfast!" Oh and I have one super girly girl who loves to play dress up too. I've given her some of my old purses and she like to accessorize with them

 

My little girl loves pretend play -- specifically princesses. She puts on a princess dress, and this hannah montana wig we got her and then she runs around the house and pretends a dragon is chasing her, etc. She also likes this cash register that we got her -- I believe it's made by Zillions or something like that. Anyways -- we got it at Toys R Us and she plays with it everyday. Good buy!

She also likes to draw, color, or do the water paint books...really anything crafty!

 

My DD loves to color, draw and read. She loves to play with her dollhouse, baby dolls, barbies and barbie cars. She also loves jewelry and her dress up clothes. Her favorite thing outside is her playhouse.

 

I'd also add real quick... put away some of the toys she's not interested in, and pull them out in a few weeks... rotation does wonders around here!