what 'free' things do your children like to play with?

I've been thinking about how most of the time my girls play with things that are 'free' (well at least readily available in our house). They seem to really like novelty and I'm not prepared to go out and buy new toys for them all the time. I thought this could make a nice thread...

• small oblong tins of sardines act as mobile phones (as do the even smaller tins of anchovies which the girls covet as really high tech phones!) – they adore these. When we finally get around to eating the fish, it's pretty mashed in there .
  
• plastic boxes (like tuppaware or old ice cream containers) get turned upside down, one under each hand, and the girls run along pushing them on our hard tiled floors; they also love to match the lids to the tubs as well as gathering things inside the tubs.
  
• old keys which I scrubbed up and put onto key rings (actually I had to scrounge rejected keys from a key store as we didn’t have any).
  
• tea-towels or drying up cloths (not sure what you’d call them) which they love to wrap around their teddies and themselves.
  
• old magazines which they like to look at the pictures (now they’re beyond the eating paper stage). As I don’t really have magazines I usually just give them free catalogues.
  
• a single balloon lasts days in our house as the girls love it when I blow up the balloon and just let to go without tying the bottom so it flies around the room – they race to bring it back to me to do it again (until mummy runs out of puff)

Actually pretty much anything which doesn’t seem dangerous gets passed to the kids to have a play with – old cardboard tubes, muffin tins (to put objects in), empty oatmeal tins, straws, colander, saucepans etc

What do your children like to play with?
lisa

 

FYI, I think there is some warning out there about letting your kids play with (and mouth) keys... I thought it had something to do with lead.

My kids LOVE it when I let them loose with my tupperware and wooden spoons. They'll stack it, take lids on and off, etc.

Any box is fair game also

 

QUOTE(mel&2 @ Aug 21 2007, 11:51 AM) [snapback]373414[/snapback]
FYI, I think there is some warning out there about letting your kids play with (and mouth) keys... I thought it had something to do with lead.


yes, you're right. i checked that these keys don't have lead in them. it's important to do that.

 

plasic containers, the boxes diapers come in, their own babyfood jars, oh god the list goes on!

 

My girls love to take the dining chairs & line them up as a train. They line books against the legs as the train 's "buffers". They love my whisks, wooden spoons & tupperware. I can't keep a pair of shoes in the closet - they love to walk around in my high heels & sandals. They also love to take my junk mail & pretend it is their mail & color on it. Most of all - I have a large collection of sterling silver teapots, creamers & sugar bowls - they love to play "tea party" with them - I have bought them several children's tea sets - but my girls are high maintenance, only sterling antiques will do .

 

My girls love empty boxes, plastic bowls and wipe containers to bang on and stack, and water bottles.

 

empy diaper cases, any box and the wipey container (not empy ). they love to take the baking trays out of my cabinets, i don't love it!

 

Wesley has a favorite box that he likes to stash stuff in and drag around the house.

Usually he stashes our shoes, my colander, an empty coffee can, an empty cereal box, a washcloth and various of his "real" toys. I always look there first when I can't find my shoes.

The puffs containers are also a hit. The roll a rounds balls fit in there nicely.

And he likes to play with clothes. Waves them around and such.

But his FAVORITE it to get a hold of a kleenex box and start plucking. He gets half the box out before I can get across the room to grab him. It's adorable. =) It's not allowed mind you, but he loves it. He likes to do it with wipes too, but kleenexes are his preferred pluckable play toy.

 

They love tissue paper: If a gift comes in a bag with tissue paper, they will play with the tissue paper for hours!

Empty paper towel tubes: They love them. They march around the house and pretend that it is either a horn or baton.

 

My girls love the empty diaper boxes. It becomes a train or a car or anything they can think of. They also like the empty Parkay butter tubs.