With the weather outside so incredibly hot at the moment (I’m not complaining, love the sunshine!), we’ve been taking refuge indoors during the warmest times of the day and so I’ve been looking for ways to keep Florence entertained and calm at the same time. […]
Not so long ago, I told you all about our plans to transform our garden from a drab and swampy mess into a toddler friendly play space for Florence to take advantage of through the summer. While I have planters across the middle of the […]
With so many lovely responses to my recent Simple Baby Play posts, I thought I would finally get around to sharing with you a list of items I class as baby play essentials. These are all things that I have built up over time and most of them are things you will more than likely have in your house already, and the rest I either picked up at Wilko, Tiger, The Works or Poundland. They are my four go to store for picking up little bits for play which don’t cost a bomb. When it comes to storing everything, we have a little plastic drawer unit in our conservatory where most of it lives, but you could use a large plastic box, a spare cupboard or drawer. One thing to bare in mind is, as some of the items are quite small, I keep the contents out of reach of Florence so for safety reasons, she can’t just help herself to these things.
Kitchen Utensils (wooden spoons, spatulas, whisk, measuring spoons etc)
Collander
Cookie Cutters
Plastic Cups – Stacking or otherwise
Brushes (Hair, nail, pastry, make up)
Rubber ducks
Miniature Vehicles
Miniature Figures
Sponges
PomPoms
Waterbeads
Feathers
Googly Eyes
Pipecleaners
Straws – Plastic or paper
Silk Scarves
Balls of all sizes & types
Shower Gels
Baby Oil
Empty plastic bottles
Tuff Spot
Plastic Storage Tubs
Marshmallows
Cereals
Popcorn
Zip Lock Bags
Musical Instruments (You could of course use Pots, Pans & home made shakers too!)
Textured Sticky Back Plastic
Fabric & Ribbon Scraps
Pegs
Foil Blanket
Ice Cube Trays
Baby Safe Mirrors
Bubbles
Kitchen Roll Tubes
Board Books (See our favourite baby board books here.)
I hope you’ve found this little list of baby play essentials useful. If you’re looking for some ways you could use them within your play, you can check out my baby play posts here.
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I’ve had so many lovely messages about my last baby play post that I thought I’d share another five simple baby play ideas with you guys. What’s in the bag? Whenever my Mum comes to visit, the first thing Florence does is empty her handbag […]
Since having Florence, I have become passionate about play. I have loved seeing how, even from an early age, Florence has learned new skills and understandings through playing and today I wanted to share with you 5 simple baby play activities that you can do […]
Today, Florence turned 11 months and I am finding it quite hard to believe just how close we are to Florence turning one! We are busy making plans to celebrate a year of Florence Ivy in style and today has been all about searching out the perfect gifts. Our presents to Florence this year mostly consist of toys & activities in the garden. I am going to do a little post on what we have bought for Florence in the next few days, but I thought I’d share some of the things we’ve seen and loved from some of our favourite toy retailers as part of Florence’s birthday wishlist.
Back in my days of Beebies, I used to sell some beautiful handmade fabric food. We’ve recently taken the samples I had in storage out and added them to Florence’s toy box and I’d really like to add some fruit & veg to her collection. Sadly, the lady who used to make them has gone on to make other things but I have found another fabulous Mama run business and I love this cute little vegetable set from Mummy Made it Me. They have an adorable little fruit set too! 
I’ve seen these pretty much everywhere online over the last few months and am so inspired by the sheer amount of ways you can play with the Grimm’s Rainbows. They make great stackers, bridges for imaginative play, are fab for colour sorting, building & more. 
With Florence getting more and more confident on her feet, I just know she is going to be running around everywhere when we are out and about through the summer. I’m not a big fan of reins, but actually, this little back pack with added reins is super cute and will mean I can keep our little wanderer close by without her being confined to the pushchair!
Florence has really taken a liking to playing with vehicles and wheeling them around the room so I thought a toy garage would go down well for her too. I think she will love pushing the cars down the ramps on this Whizz World Lights and sounds Garage and it’s great for developing those all important fine motor skills. 
I can;’t wait to start Florence’s train set collection off. The possibilities for play are endless with toy railway and I’ve found this cute wooden rainbow coloured train set from Early Learning Centre. It has little animal vehicles and a beautiful rainbow arch and for just £12.80 in the sale, I think it’s a real bargain and a perfect first birthday present. 
My sister had this this music set
We read and look at books every single day and they are often the first thing Florence will reach for in the mornings when we come down to play. I love the idea of her having a little comfy chair of her own to sit in as she flicks through the pages of her favourite stories and this one is just beautiful! 
Florence is a fiddler and so something like this to keep her little hands and fingers busy would be perfectly suited to her! 
Florence has just become a cousin to a baby girl and has taken quite a liking to her. However, becasue she is so young still, the fact that the new baby isn’t already ready to play with her walker and doesn’t really like being patted on the head like she does with the dog is quite a difficult concept for her to grasp. I think having a little baby doll would be a lovely little introduction to roleplay and might help her understanding of everything going on around her a little more. I love that this Bonnika Baby also comes equipped with her own little carry cot & bottle – perfect for packing up and taking to Grandma’s! 
Play Prompts
I stumbled upon this Play Hooray on Instagram recently and have been inspired by their play ideas ever since. Claire has put together these play prompt packs to make sure you never run out of ways to play with your little one and I think they’re great for keeping play varied and fun. The do a whole range of different sets, but the ‘Original Play Prompts’ would be great for us and they’ll last us for years to come! 
While I could browse the toy shops for hours and hours, I really must stop and move on to the all important party planning! More on how we are going to be celebrating Florence’s birthday to follow, for now though, I hope you’ve been inspired by some of our First Birthday gift ideas. 
*This post includes some affiliate links to products sold on Amazon.
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As you know, we’re working with Hape in the lead up to Christmas to share our thoughts on a selection of their baby toys. Last week, I told you all about all the fun we’ve been having with our Penguin wobbler and this week I […]
As well as some fab toy reviews, I’m going to be sharing a few festive baby play ideas here over the next few weeks. Today I thought I would tell you about our Christmas Discovery Basket which is suitable for around 6 months and above. […]
