Your best toys and resources

[mumofone]

Which toys do your children always return to and love playing with? What resources do you always turn to?

[loocyloo]

Double post!

[loocyloo]

Sand , water, rideons outside

Inside Duplo, wooden train set, play food, dolls, small world play, roleplay accessories ( hats, bags, wands, wings, tape measures, phones and cameras ) and books.

Oh and playdough, drawing, cutting and sticking

My schoolies were loving a wooden marble run and knex before it all went strange!

[mumofone]

Sand , water, rideons outside

Inside Duplo, wooden train set, play food, dolls, small world play, roleplay accessories ( hats, bags, wands, wings, tape measures, phones and cameras ) and books.

Oh and playdough, drawing, cutting and sticking

My schoolies were loving a wooden marble run and knex before it all went strange!

Thanks loocyloo. i always wonder if im missing some good toys. I have most of these although not many ride ons...

[loocyloo]

I don't have many ride ons ... a cosy coupe and a dumper truck that were DD and DSs, 2 little tikes racing cars that double as sturdy walkers and 2 scuttle bugs. Oh and a little tikes quad bike! I have had balance bikes and pedal bikes/strikes in the past, but they didn't really get used. X

[Maza]

My ride ons never really got used and so I got rid of a lot of them. I do wonder though if that was because we just had grass at my old place. Now, in my new house we have a pretty big patio and I am really, really looking forward to using it in lots of different ways when I set up childminding again. I should imagine the ride ons will be more popular on that surface.

It's so hard mumofone because we are catering for lots of different ages as childminders. One year you could have lots of babies on your books and then you could go through a period where you have pre-schoolers.

I used to find going to groups quite useful because then I could see what toys my mindees gravitated towards. Sometimes though, I would deem a toy/resource too big or too expensive for my setting, but they would be getting their weekly fix/access to it at the group. Other times I would see something that I could justify buying for my setting - or could buy something similar.
asw
Outside tended to be sand, water and cooking/potions resources.

Indoors - playmags, trainset, craft resources, tea set, playdough, sometimes cuddly toys with vets equipment, tent/den building. I only really had one mindee who was into dolls, but I suspect I am in the minority there.

[Pixie dust]

My current little ones love being outside and using the outdoor kitchen space that has old saucepans/spoons etc inside its pens/paints/scissors and Happyland people.

[SYLVIA]

Toy kitchen and play food. Dolls and prams. Lego knex. Train set and vehicles. Small world people and animals. I have cosy coupes scooters and they are played with all the time. Castles and garages are also popular

Craft, colouring and painting, play dough too

[Mouse]

The most used outside resources are the sand table, water table and the mud kitchen (used with sand & water, not mud!) I've got metal tea sets which are used in all 3, as well as shells, conkers, sticks etc. I've also got an outdoor box that's got small balls, hoops, ribbons, bean bags etc.

I have got sit on toys but I don't always bring them into the main garden. Just as I think the children aren't interested in them and I think I might get rid of them, they start to play with them again!

Before I closed, the favourite indoor toys were jigsaws, colour sorting toys, role play and dressing up, dolls and small world toys.

[FloraDora]

Indoors and outdoors:
Loose play Resources, treasure baskets made for interest of children/ age. Small world set ups. Water play, pipettes and different size scoops and bottles...science based or magically based eg potions

Indoors: my most liked and played with resource was a small cupboard, the bottom of the arts and crafts bureau, with 3 shelves and a base shelf. On the 3 narrow shelves were 21 little rectangular baskets with small world characters and animals and loose parts, all divided up With a picture label. On the base were larger items that encouraged set ups, bases, wooden discs, fabric, grass mats, tunnels, cylinders, baskets and trays.
Every morning, from 12 months to 5 children would go to this cupboard first...no matter what activities I set up in the living room, this was in my dining room...they would open the cupboard and some would just choose their favourite basket, the older ones would pick items to create settings too...take them to wherever they felt happiest, outdoors, indoors, next to the cupboard, in the hallway...and play for ages. It was by far the most popular and all would return to cupboard when finished too.
Cleaning materials, dusters, feather dusters a small Real vacuum...a lot of the LO’s that came would ask for these, they loved cleaning the patio windows too.
Musical instruments...they loved a basket of percussion and the boomwhackers...but I was lucky to have a small room which was the family music room and they loved going in there on their own or in two’s and playing the piano, drums and making music. I had a child friendly CD player so they could put their own music on and play along.
Outdoors:
‘Mud’ kitchen, but rarely used for mud. Like others, potions and sand and gravel, pots and pans and things to stir with...if it had been raining they loved the bits of water that filled the bowls and pans. Pram and buggies were liked best, from as soon as they toddled they used them to help walk. They rarely had dolls in them..also a wheelbarrow, that often did have a doll in! Although I had three little girls At one point who loved dolls so anything Doll like was there go to whether indoors and out.

All time most used toy was our galt pop up toy. Babies liked holding and sucking cylinders, toddlers liked putting them in and out and older children loved popping them out to see how far they would go. I loved that no matter what age or ability I could find some skill to learn using it, finer motor , counting, colour matching,memory etc..

Crayons and paper was a go to for every child too...a little writing / drawing table with different size and shape paper, blackboards, whiteboards and books, with pencils, crayons, chalk , markers ( on a high shelf so only taller and older children could reach to use and templates.
To be honest, if left with an empty space, LO’s will create play....with the cushions, their own shoes,a stone, looking and listening....