The old ones are the best!!!

[Bananabrain]

I know I'm a bit sad but I always get so much pleasure from watching children actually 'play'

You know old-fashioned games like hide and seek and dollies tea parties.

I'm always moaning about how children need so much 'input' these days,but this week I was pleasantly surprised.

The older ones {and me!} had a whale of a time playing happy families,the old card game and all the children played almost all day with a few bowls of water,straws,cups etc with a bit of fairy liquid.

Thought I'd share,know I'm a saddo.my house is bursting at the seams with toys but I just felt really heartened this week.Couldn't believe that they could play for so long with such simple things

I'll go away now and go back to my old ladies things

Be interested to know what you guys think. And any more ideas about really simple stuff you do would be gratefully appreciated.

[misst104]

I totally agree. Sometimes the simple things are definately the best. My two lo's have had graet fun today in a makeshift den made from a clothes dryer and a sheet

xxx

[jibberjitz]

Sounds like they had fun Mine love a good cardboard box - hours of fun

[TheBTeam]

We spent half a day with one lad making a robot from boxes and sellotape, and tin foil, more fun than anything else he was really pleased with his two foot high model

[helenlc]

Sounds like they had fun Mine love a good cardboard box - hours of fun

When I worked as nanny the boys lived near a small indepedent electrical shop. We used to walk past and I would "relieve" them of their large cardboard boxes - we would make shops, cars, planes, anything really.

Poor mum and dad though - they lived in a tiny 2 bedroom terraced house but bless them, they would keep the box going for some time.

I had an 11 yr old, 9 yr old, 8 yr old and 3 yr old having the time of their lives with a bubble machine in the garden this week - I got some lovely photos of all of them trying to catch them. It was lovely to see them outside enjoying themselves with something quite simple.

[miss mopple]

2 of mine spent ages yesterday making balls from newspaper and having races with them blowing them with straws.

Simple stuff is always the best

[Roseolivia]

I agree. Yesterday i was in the play room on the computer (of course on here) and my daughter brought a flannel in and put it on the table neatly. She then got a pepper, cup, knife, fork out of the toy kitchen, put them on the flannel, sat at the table and said to me 'mam, look din dins' which i was impressed with as she's just turned 2. She loves all the bought toys but enjoys playing with anything, like putting stones into flower pot and transferring to another pot.

[The Juggler]

Even the sand or water play - 2 year olds can play for 1/2 hour plus in water with different cups etc.

Or using a chair and some cars to push under the "bridge".

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Mine love happy families and it is always requested. Girls play tea parties in the garden and we all sit around, including the boys with their Teddys

Latest game is "kirby", do you remember that one? Where you throw a ball over the road and see if you can hit the kirb for it to return. Last month we have 6 balls going backwards and forwards for over an hour and it was me that got fed up with it!

[loocyloo]

mine spend hours afterschool just running around in the garden playing 'it', stuck in the mud and assorted variations!

[FussyElmo]

Mine love happy families and it is always requested. Girls play tea parties in the garden and we all sit around, including the boys with their Teddys

Latest game is "kirby", do you remember that one? Where you throw a ball over the road and see if you can hit the kirb for it to return. Last month we have 6 balls going backwards and forwards for over an hour and it was me that got fed up with it!

Taught mine kirby last summer and it is the one game that is requested over and over again. In our local paper two teenagers have been threatened with an asbo because they were playing kirby while waiting for a friend - the world has gone MAD.

[samd35]

I used to love kirby, would play for ages.

x