Top 5 Toys My Kids Loved That Weren’t Toys

When we started out our own parenting gig we had big ideas: no plastic, no chemicals, lots of child-centered routines, whole organic foods, lots of breastfeeding, and independent play. Sounds perfectly holistic, right? We found ourselves a little sidetracked by the shear plethora of really noisy, really annoying toys from big brand names gifted from well-meaning family and friends. Despite the piles of beeping and booping plastic, we noticed that our kids were drawn to everyday household utensils and cheap crafting supplies.  Who knew?!  Welp, here are the Top 5 Toys My Kids Loved That Weren’t Toys:

1.  I give you my first parenting win: the realization that crafty puff balls could keep my then new walker very, very busy placing these little suckers on top of every baby/dog gate in our house. Now, our first kid never put things in her mouth, so if yours does you may want to skip this one until a later date. Regardless, our daughter, now almost 6, still loves playing with this cheap craft supply.

2. A box. Do you know what you can do with a box when you'er 3?  Anything your imagination can conjure up. Hand your kiddos some washable markers and watch them go to town for hours...or until they start fighting.

3. Pipe cleaners. My 6 year old has been making what she calls pipe cleaner "sculptures" for yearssss. Give her a bag of pipe cleaners and a seat at the table and she'll have an endless array of creations displayed 45 minutes later. 

4. Tissue paper. This one is going to make a mess, so be prepared. But for $2 you just bought yourself some time to chill while your 18 month old crinkles and tosses the sheets of light tissue paper in the air. Once bored, we used to teach our kiddos to crumple up individual sheets, making some sweet little tissue balls to work on hand eye coordination. We'd grab a mop bucket or waste paper basket and show them how to throw.

5. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid in the early 80's, I remember loving when my mom would let me bang on the pots and pans with her good ole fashioned wooden spoon. My kids were no different. They loved playing with wooden spoons, testing out their percussive limits, banging it on all kinds of different surfaces throughout our house. They're great in a sand box or tub too!

The longer we do this thing called parenting, the more I feel like we're able to confirm our initial feelings: it doesn't have to be so complicate.


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