Best toys for unsupervised play?
With the holidays approaching, I'd love to hear other parents suggestions for "unsupervised play" toys. My goal would be something that our toddler (2.5 yrs) can play with on his own for stretches of 15-30 minutes (before getting bored).
Criteria are: Educational and not too loud with sound effects, easy to clean up, and ideally, would be safe for his younger sister (11 months).
He loves his wooden train set, but he still wants "momanddad" to set it up.
All ideas welcome!
3 Answers
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We received a building block set a few years ago (my kids are now 7 & 10) where the blocks came all neatly packed in a nice wooden box. The kids could then remove and play with the blocks, and afterwards it was easy to put the pieces back in and stow the box away.
These particular ones were from Pottery Barn, I cant find them on the web, but I'm sure any blocks-in-a-tin would do.
Alphabet blocks might be nice too.
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Puzzles. Melissa & Doug makes great 12 piece ones - they come in a set of four. Here is the vehicle set
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Hey Steve!!
Sammy's only 20 months, but...
The only things that will keep her occupied for a more than a few unsupervised minutes are washable crayons and her mega blocks. I usually start a creation - then she goes Gaudi on it. :) I'm usually in the kitchen and can still see her relatively easily while she plays in the living room.
Aloha,
Beth
Yeah, we have alphabet blocks, and some building blocks, but not a lot. I've thought (thus far) that he's a bit young to have a vivid enough imagination to really make good play out of "just blocks". He can stack & knock them down, and that's about it at this point. I have lots of fond memories of playing with action figures & blocks, and matchbox cars & blocks, but I think that was at a much older age...
- Steve Lacy, Dec 8, 2009