Everyday basic toys!

[Peppa]

Please can i have any ideas of basic toys you all have please. Finding my mindee who is 2 is bored.

Please can you give ideas where to get best deals on them.... also can i spend my tax money? Theres no way i will have a tax bill. Just money tight at moment and want some basic everyday ideas.

I dont have a separate play rooom, just my living room.

Any ideas will help!

Thank you

[loocyloo]

best deals are car boots/nearly new sales/freecycle etc

or buy a muller jelly or something and get 20% off at elc!

my little ones love dolls & buggies, teaset & play food, (and small bags to put everything in and carry around with them!), duplo, cars, books, musical instruments, sand & water (outside!!!), and at the moment, the big favourite is beanbags/egg&spoon sets from elc! (and a bucket/bowl or 2 to put/throw them in, mix etc) also enjoy painting!

xxx

[Chanelle]

Buy a box of cornflour!! That is all that is needed in my house!!
Vary that by adding buttons etc ....



My kiddies love the till, tea set and food .. we have tea parties with water !
Cars and Garage
Workbench and tools
Happy Land Houses etc from ELC
Zoo Animals
Dinosaurs
Lego and other construction sets
Duplo for little un's
Instruments

Dolls and clothes (Make a washing line to peg washing on - make a washing machine out of a big box

[lauredt]

trains, trains and more trains (especially magnetic ones)
bag of balls (soft, bouncy, jingly, lighting ones, squahshy ones with goo in)
wooden trolley with wooden cubes
kitchen untensils and free access to the pan cupboard and the veg drawer at the bottom of the fridge
bowl of warm water with washing up liquid
gravel area outside with jugs and buckets
books, esp tiny cardboard ones, by the truckload
bunch of "people who help us" figures. Great for making a queue. (a british pastime I understand)
pop up tent, tunnel, making dens, playing with torches, putting some music on and dancing while "jamming" with the instruments
Chalking, or "water painting" on the back wall

My boys also love the dolls' house (to park trains in) but it does take up a lot of room

And ultimately, their favourite thing is the great outdoors. Garden, park, duck ponds, puddles in the takeaway carpark, or just walking to nose over fences in neighbourhing gardens. Entertains them for hours!

All my toys come from table top sales, Freecycle, and sales at specialist online retailers. Or Ebay.

I hope you find what works for your LO! Boy or girl, by the way?

[RainbowMum]

Most of the lo's tjat come here love stickle bricks - I onlyhave a small basic bucket but they love them!

Cheap ideas = treasure basket - or a washing up bowl with collection of bits, such as a spone, plug & chain, small glass jar such as th mini jam's you get, pine cone, assorted tins or boxes, fine mesh bags, large smooth pebbles, loofah, the list goes on - you can google treasure baskets and get some very good ideas. Be careful if you buy a basket - the cheapest are often made with products grown with pesticides, look for organic. Before I could afford a decent basket I used a tesco hessian shopping bag!

Junk modelling - never throw ouwt out!

Toy kitchen - I only have a very cheap small plastic kitchen but they love it anyway plus the box of toy food and pans to go with it!

[youarewhatyoueat]

Get down to your local pound shop for baskets of brushes and bits and check out the charity shops for jigsaws and toys. Don't forget natural materials are fab, I've got a box of wooden blocks that have got to be a favourite, had to walk past a charity shop at the weekend that had two wooden baby walkers filled with blocks at £4 each!! I tell all my friends if they having a clear out to let me check first! bit cheeky but they know me well enough.
Have fun
Caroline

[mushpea]

ours play with
trains, dolls, dolls houses, happystree, fisherprice little people, toy kitchen , toy work bench, tents, shopping trolley and till, cars, my little pony, sylvanians, puzzles, books, lots of messy play, cooking,painting, playdough etc trips to the park, walk in the woods, toy fishing in the water tray,

i do find though if you have to many toys out at once they tend to flit from one thing to the next then get bored as they never really settled in to a game, not that it lasts long at the age anyway.!

[hectors house]

Find out if there is a toy library in your area -

I pay £12 a year which means I can go each week to the toy library and the children can stay and play for a couple of hours if we want - in my town there are 3 sessions a week, in 3 different venues but we generally go on a Friday as at toddlers on other days. Borrowing at the moment 2 brilliant story sacks - books and finger puppets of Jack and the Beanstalk and the Gingerbread man. I keep a list of what I have borrowed to show Ofsted that I can expand on toys to meet childrens ages, needs and interests.

I can borrow up to 6 toys for 3 weeks - which means I can rotate the toys, let the children choose what they want to borrow, borrow multi cultural toys and equal opps resources and not feel I have to own every toy every made - although I still look in the charity shops every time I'm in town and when my husband asks is that a new toy - I just say it's from the toy library!

[Peppa]

Find out if there is a toy library in your area -

I pay £12 a year which means I can go each week to the toy library and the children can stay and play for a couple of hours if we want - in my town there are 3 sessions a week, in 3 different venues but we generally go on a Friday as at toddlers on other days. Borrowing at the moment 2 brilliant story sacks - books and finger puppets of Jack and the Beanstalk and the Gingerbread man. I keep a list of what I have borrowed to show Ofsted that I can expand on toys to meet childrens ages, needs and interests.

I can borrow up to 6 toys for 3 weeks - which means I can rotate the toys, let the children choose what they want to borrow, borrow multi cultural toys and equal opps resources and not feel I have to own every toy every made - although I still look in the charity shops every time I'm in town and when my husband asks is that a new toy - I just say it's from the toy library!

That sounds great, but not in my area!

Thank you everyone! Shall be expanding soon.

[FizzysFriends]

Ring your DO and ask about a toy library, ours have one just for CM's its really cheap and they travel to you.

[Peppa]

Ring your DO and ask about a toy library, ours have one just for CM's its really cheap and they travel to you.

sorry i may sound daft buts whats a DO?:blush:

[FizzysFriends]

sorry i may sound daft buts whats a DO?:blush:

:blush: I didn't type it in full as Im not sure how to spell it. Its a development officer.

[louise]

Oh never thought of writing down the toy library toys. I will start doing that. Ours is £5 for childminders £2 for parents and thats it apparently. I can borrow 3 items for up to 6 weeks but i change every two. Ours is at the childrens centre. It started in june and i've had most of it!! Apparently i can go to any of the 3 toy librarys but as i don't drive its too much hassle.

I haven't brought many just cm toys as my ds is 5 so i've always been mainly influeneced by him. All i would say have already been mentioned.

[Peppa]

my surestart centre doesn't and won't do one! I have a meeting soon with Someone...Think shes a Childminding Support Officer..... My Support officer is...............the forum! :)

[Chanelle]

Oh never thought of writing down the toy library toys. I will start doing that. Ours is £5 for childminders £2 for parents and thats it apparently. I can borrow 3 items for up to 6 weeks but i change every two. Ours is at the childrens centre. It started in june and i've had most of it!! Apparently i can go to any of the 3 toy librarys but as i don't drive its too much hassle.

I haven't brought many just cm toys as my ds is 5 so i've always been mainly influeneced by him. All i would say have already been mentioned.

I work in a nursery in the mornings and we have a little book that we write in what books we borrow from the library .... also if we borrow things from the toy library ... we also add why we have borrowed certain items and link it to the EYFS.

I will also be doing this when I childmind :)