It’s been a while but at Easter had fun with play do’h again. I realised we’ve been having fun with play do’h for at least 4 years with my children, it’s a long time considering my eldest turns soon 6! Of course the playing has developed with the years: first the kids explored the feel of it and made shapes with cookie cutters. Now they are making 3d things themselves. What a versatileand affordable toy! It made me think of a few other toys that have grown with us:
Play kitchen and washable crochet food: we invested some in a wooden play oven, mum still had some plates and cutlery from my childhood, some has been bought and then I used rest yarns to crochet play food. I’m pretty sure my daughter was 1,5 when we got the play oven and this set is still a hit with visiting children (although not so much when there are just our children any more.)
Cars, car mat and train track. We bought the main part of the good quality Brio train track we have on a flea market making it a very sustainable purchase… and very entertaining toys from before my son could walk. I wouldn’t like to be gender biased but even though my daughter loves building a track because it’s like making a puzzle for her, she does get bored playing with it. However, when and if they through in a few Barbies or Polly Pockets in the same game they have a common starting point, which can create amazing imaginative games using pretty much everything in our home as parts of their game.
Dress up clothes and face paints, they love dressing up! In my opinion it is a bit of a pity that so often kids get those ready made fancy dresses (that our children love too) as I find it more fun when we take different accessories and clothes and create our own figures.
I do like our Easter tradition though where kids dress up as witches, decorate lovely willow branches and go around the neighbourhood wishing well and receive chocolate in return. The upside is: one only needs a dress, maybe an apron, few scarves and face paints to create a witch. That means all kids can participate even though their parents wouldn’t have plenty of money to put on fancy dresses. And the kids realise they can create an outfit too rather than hop in an already made character.
Legos – not cheap but has to be on the list because it is so versatile! The size of the bricks have gotten smaller and the complexity of the constructions have by now outgrown me (lucky they have a dad who likes the building just as much as them) but I can’t see an end to their interest in legos and I know my eldest was building Duplo towers while I was feeding her new born little brother, which means she was just over 1 when she started.
Paints and pencils, pretty obvious but also something I wish all kids should have access to. And I wish they have an adult that at least sometimes sits down and does something together with them.
None of the noisy, fancy, complexed, and often expensive, toys seem to have kept their value as well as these simple and versatile ones that seem to grow with the age of the children!
What other other favourites are there that last for years? Maybe some that we have missed or some that we are growing to?
Free But Fun 
[…] simple enjoyable things that don’t require much effort like to read, draw (or design clothes), build with legos or play games together. Our kids are quite creative on their own and they have paper, scissors, […]
[…] other day I made a list on the affordable long lasting toys that I definitively would recommend to any families with small children. That made me think of […]
Lego’s, small plastic animals, and play doh for sure!
Small plastic animals are a great addition to the list!
My kids love Lego, paints and play doh too! These have been with us for 7 to 8 years. Didn’t know about this Easter tradition. Sounds fun!
That’s an interesting Easter tradition!! I haven’t heard that one before!
I thought I had blogged about it before but realised now I hadn’t. I don’t know if they do that even in Sweden, that we share most traditions with. It’s a tradition that has developed from several different traditions so maybe it’s just us who live were the East and West (the protestants and orthodox religions during the crusades) met who do that?
Good fun for kids though!