Our Favorite Open Ended Toys
I am always on the lookout for open ended play toys for my kids, it is something so important to me. I love knowing that they will have to use their imagination, they can come up with a million different things to do/play, and I love to see the different ideas that end up coming from the different toys. This past year or so I have been simplifying the things that we bring into our home and being more intentional with them. I wanted to share some of our favorites that have become our go to whether it is my kids pulling them out to play or giving them as gifts to others.
DOCTORS KIT
I think this is my kids all time favorite toy, they love to play doctor whether it is to each other, dolls, stuffed animals, or anything else their little imaginations dream up. We love this particular doctors kit because of a few things… 1. I love that it is wood so it is going to last a long time, plus there is just something about wooden toys to me. 2. The doctors note pad, this is King’s favorite part. I love that he sits and sounds out different words and practices his handwriting without even realizing it is what he is doing. 3. The diversity in the kit, it has everything from a shot syringe to “medicine” square big pieces and even an x-ray for a broken bone!
MAGNETIC FISHING
This is such a fun activity because you can either contain it to the board it comes on or get creative and put it on a blue sheet or piece of paper and create a pond for your kids to fish in! My kids love seeing how can catch the most fish using a timer and also telling each other where to move the rod as they have their eyes closed. They are learning hand eye coordination, directions, time, and colors!
PUZZLES
King is in a stage right now where he loves to do puzzles. I love to watch him have to problem solve and think through how the picture looks and what he is looking at on the piece that he is wanting to put in. After he puts together the puzzle he loves to get cars or his dragons out and play on them using his imagination to make all sorts of different magical things come to life!
COLORING/DRAWING
This book is my all time favorite one I have found. It uses water to let them draw, has a bunch of different pages that are either plain or have an activity on them and then they dry allowing them to do them again! I love that it doesn’t create a mess, gives them lots of different things/activities to do, and it is super easy to take places. We actually are going to get another one of these for our beach trip to Mexico we have coming up because it is the perfect thing for kids to do while traveling!
I hope this gives you some fun ideas for open ended toys for your littles. I am always looking to find things that will keep them using their imagination but also will last through all three of my littles.
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