Hmm. too many bears.

I'm currently sitting (a little bit bored I have to say) with 10 minutes before I need to start cooking tea. I feel like I'm not doing enough with/for V, and I'm starting to think part of the reason is because we really don't have enough "stuff" for her to do. She's not a particularly destructive or irritable child, I just think she needs more stimulation. I'm getting very sick of saying "I think she needs more educational toys" and coming home to find MIL has bought more teddies. So half of the teddies are being consigned to the toy box, the other half will probably go mysteriously missing, and here's what I'm thinking about getting instead:

1.lots more crayons, colouring books and paper
2. some paints for messy play
3. LOTS of plastic sheets and aprons for said paint and all the other messy things we have
5. lots of cardboard boxes to decorate and then use as storage for ^^ all this.
4. some wooden blocks... maybe these?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 500wt_1203

but not sure as those are a tad pricey. Think I might go to the boot fair first...

and these...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 2496wt_952

because she already knows the letter Z so I think she'll enjoy these.

5. an etchasketch type thing... I think mum and dad have one- might not bother if I can't find it but I'm sure she'd like that
6. lots of pictures of animals then printing them off, laminating them and turning them into flashcard things? She likes animals. I was going to do letters but she got a poster with lots of letters on it.


As usual I'm looking for a bit of validation and just wondering if there's anything else your little ones love that doesn't cost the earth and is vaguely "educational". I was thinking about getting her some "kitchen" things, like a pretend washing machine (as she's much too interested in shutting the door on the real one) but I'm not completely sure whether it would be worth the money yet...?

We have a plastic tea set DS love making mummy tea. Imagination, role play ect.
Play dough is easy to make and is cloud dough and we call it ooze but cornflour and water. Puzzles?

Penny loves her kitchen. The sticky letters on the bath are fun and we often end up counting the plastic duck bath toys. Books with shapes/colours etc and sticky foam shapes are always good value too hth

Urgh I hate hate hate cuddly toys, I think a special couple is more than enough.
G loves her stickers, pencils, wooden blocks, peppa pigs and kitchen x

I know what you mean about cuddly things!
How old is your LO?

I feel the same as Kirsty about cuddly toys - a special few is definitely more than enough!

One thing I'd say is try to think of things that you think you would enjoy too - the fact is that it's going to be you (probably) that's going to be playing with her, so it's no use you trying to do something that you find a chore. I've made that mistake - I hate painting and all the faff that goes with it, it's always a pain to set up and then a chore to tidy up after, as they never do it for more than five or ten minutes, so it's just not worth it (in my eyes). I ued to try to do it regularly, but have stopped now as I just got so frustrated with it! Now we do things like lego or train track building, and we're much happier.

Chalks are fab, sugar paper, penny loves gluing stuff, especially bits of tissue paper and we did some flowers from paper plates which was fun.
Ikea has good wooden blocks and a truck too. The play food is nice too.
How about a cheap bucket of animals.
Another fun one is sorting the scraps of fabric in my project bag

@aimeet that's quite sneaky!

I'm sooo glad I'm not the only one that has a cuddly toy issue!

V's 16 months. She's got a play kitchen in the lounge that doubles up as a child barrier to the telly and we go to the library a lot so she always has different books every few weeks...
She seems to enjoy crafty things- painting and drawing with crayons at her toddler groups. I think she's really outgrown the cuddly stage as she's got a couple of teddies, a dog and twin cats that she loves. But she ignores the rest and just walks over them to get to her other toys haha!

Ikea has good wooden blocks and a truck too. The play food is nice too.
How about a cheap bucket of animals.

I think play food might go well with her kitchen, but it might be something she grows into as she does try and eat the wooden apples at the children's centre! What sort of animals are they? Same to a tea set, but it might be a nice christmas present for her...

@KimmyM what's cloud dough?

http://www.pocketfulofposiesblog.com/20 ... gh-recipe/
It basically the opposite of ooze it turns from a solid to a powder easily. Great fun and very cheap.