Amber McCallum – Page 6 – A House of Play

22 February 202422 February 2024

Favourite Toys – 3 year old boy

My son has definite preferences when it comes to toys. He tends to play with the same favourites over and over. If I do a toy rotation and introduce something new, he will of course be interested in it, but he always goes back to the tried-and-true. Here are his 6 favourites.

6. Play Food

Both my kids love play food. They love to get my husband and I a “coffee” in the morning with some treats on the side. The food is used in picnics, birthday parties, pretend shop play and so much more. I don’t think brand matters much to them; they play happily with all of it. I do try to vary the material of the food – felt, wood, plastic, resin, etc. – to give a little extra sensory experience.

5. Trains

Our trains and wooden tracks are out all the time. My son has a favourite steam engine that he will drive endlessly around the tracks. He also likes to see how many trains he can connect in one strand and how far he can pull it without breaking. We have a few varieties of tracks that all work great – Brio, Hape, Ikea, Bigjigs – but when it comes to the trains, Brio is the clear favourite.

4. Large Trucks

My son loves vehicles, especially large trucks. He will lay down flat on the floor and move the truck so he can watch the wheels turn. He finds it fascinating and will spend long periods repeating this over and over. When he is working on the rotational schema, this is one of his favourite activities. Again, we have a variety of brands, but the Fagus trucks are probably out the most. They are beautifully made, sturdy (he will sometimes ride them), and easy to manouver. To me, they are well worth the investment.

3. Play Couch and Foam

I can’t have a favourites list without including the play couch. We have a Nugget that has been a house, a slide, a monster, a table, and so much more. We also have slippery wedges from Arches Magoo that my son can’t get enough of sliding down. The play foam is such a great way to for kids to burn off excess energy. If we had the space in our house, I would invest in more.

2. Animals

Now we get into the farm play. My son has had a love for farms and farm animals since he was about 18 months. He loves his Schleich animals. He will set them up in little scenes around his barn (see below) and make up all kinds of fun stories for them. It is his preferred small world play.

1. Barn

My son’s number 1 favourite toy has to be his Fisher-Price barn. When we go away for a few days – he misses it and talks about when he will see it again. This barn was passed down to us from friends before my daughter was born, so it’s probably about 10 years old. My daughter used to love it too. It’s still going strong and gets used pretty much everyday in our house. Many times I have thought about buying my son a fancier barn, but this one is just so loved, it doesn’t really make sense to replace it. It’s red and his favourite colour is red. It has swinging stall doors, a grain silo he can drop things down, and it’s light-weight so he can easily take it out and carry it where he wants it. I’m not sure what other features we could really ask for.

So that’s my son’s top 6. What are some of your 3 year olds’ favourite toys?

22 February 2024

Favourite Toys – 5 year old girl

My daughter is a generalist when it comes to toys. She likes everything, especially new and novel toys and activities, and doesn’t express strong preferences for any one thing. However, when I thought about it, there are certain toys that she does play with much more frequently than others. Here is her top 6.

6. Play Food

My kids love play food. They love to serve it to us, sell it to each other, bake and cook with it, and the list goes on. If my daughter is looking for something to do in the morning, she will often gravitate over to the play kitchen and take out some food. She doesn’t have a preference when it comes to brand, but she does love play ice cream. We have the Scoop and Serve and Scoop Ice Cream Counter and Stack magnetic set from Melissa and Doug and they both get a lot of attention, along with our Jellicat ice cream cones.

5. Dollhouse

My daughter’s dollhouses are in her room and when we go upstairs after dinner, this is often her first stop. She also knows that I have a weakness for dollhouses and Maileg, so if she asks me to play, I will likely say yes. Our dollhouses are Pottery Barn that I (very, very fortunately) found on marketplace, the furniture is a combination of Maileg, Ikea, Pottery Barn, and vintage items, and the critters are Maileg.

4. Magnetic Tiles and Ball Run

What kid doesn’t like magnetic tiles? My husband and I even like playing with them. My daughter especially loves to build castles and houses with her magnetic tiles. Once the house is built, she will bring in tiny pillows, blankets, food and people to complete her pretend world. She also loves when my husband will build a ball run with her. The Picasso Tiles ball run that we have is very fun, but it does require some adult help to set up.

3. Wood Castle

This toy was a risk I took that thankfully paid off. We started my daughter’s collection of Ostheimer castle pieces a year and a half ago. These pieces are expensive, so I teamed up with some family members to buy her a few. At first, they didn’t get a lot of attention, and I was worried. But, more and more she started pulling them out to the point where they started getting used almost every day. We invested in a few more pieces for Christmas because they are so popular. I think part of the appeal is that just pulling out one tower creates an instant magical scene. They are whimsical and beautifully made (and smell amazing) and they inspire my kids (my daughter especially) to build imaginative castles and villages. They have become a clear playroom favourite.

2. Translucent Cubes

I think if there is one small toy that my daughter uses the most, it has to be the Bauspiel Lucent Cubes. I got these cubes for her as part of a Bauspiel sampler set from Scholar’s Choice and I was surprised how much she loved these cubes. They look unassuming, but they are brightly coloured, feel very smooth, have a satisfying weight, and are so open-ended. They are my daughter’s “treasures” that she uses in small world play, to decorate wooden block builds, as play candies, in sensory trays, and much more. Pretty much, whatever she is building or creating, she adds in these lucent cubes.

1. Play Couch & Foam

My daughter has lots of energy and loves sports activities. When she’s at home, she will often have a lot of excess energy to burn and so the thing she loves most in the playroom is the play couch (Nugget) and foam slippery wedges (Arches Magoo). She loves to build forts with the couch and blankets and bring her play food inside. Whenever the slippery wedges are configured into a slide, she will run straight toward it. These foam pieces take up a lot of space, but my husband and I both agree that the enjoyment the kids gets from them, makes it well worth it.

I love hearing about playroom favourites. What are some of your 5 year olds’ favourites?

19 February 202419 February 2024

Leftover Flowers Sensory Play Tray

Flowers are so expensive, it’s a shame to throw them out once they start declining. I had some flowers that were starting to wilt, so I froze them in a container of water and turned them into a flower ice block for sensory play.

freeze leftover flowers for sensory play

I placed the frozen flower ice block on our Tuff Tray with a few play scarves underneath for colour and grip. Then I added my DIY Fizzy Powder, water, some bowls, scoops, pipettes, dried rose buds, soap shavings and a selection of loose parts.

I have done ice block, fizzy play before, but tried a few slight adjustments this time – and it worked better. The ice was thinner, so it was easier to separate the flowers from it and I put the ice out early on the tray so it had started to melt by the time the kids came in to play with it.

Materials

Flower Ice Block
Fizzy Powder
Natural add-ins (I had some dried rose buds (Sewing Seeds Play) and soap shavings that I put out)
Loose parts (the resin pieces are from Stars and Sensory and Playspiration on Instagram, the acrylic loose pieces are from Eye Spy Club)
Bowls (most from my kitchen, the eco friendly pie crust dishes are from Stars and Sensory)
Tools (pipettes, tongs, any other scoops or stirring sticks)

My Thoughts

Fun – High

The kids loved this tray. They found the frozen flowers very interesting and inviting and were very content making fizzy potions and flower soup for hours.

Engagement Time – 1 hour +

The tray stayed out for about half the day and the kids played with it on and off. I didn’t time every play session, but a conservative estimate of play time is 1 hour +.

Cost – Low

The ice flower block and DIY Fizzy Powder are inexpensive to make and you can add whatever loose parts or dried flowers you have on hand.

Effort – Medium

This activity has a fairly quick and easy set up. It doesn’t create much mess while the activity is happening – I love that about water and fizzy play. If a little water drips on the floor, it’s not a big deal. Most of the effort comes during the clean up. When the play was over, I separated all the loose parts, bowls and scoops and washed and dried them, Then I removed all the silks, rinsed them and set them aside to wash in the washing machine. Lastly, I threw the flowers in the compost and mopped up the water in the tray. All the mess stayed in the tray, so for me, the clean-up effort didn’t seem too bad.

Final Thoughts

I have discovered that ice play is great for leaving out for many hours. The ice melts and changes over time, revealing new discoveries for the kids. We left this tray out for about half the day. The kids loved tinkering with it and then being able to leave and return at will.

Fizzy Play with pipettes and tongs is always a great chance to practice fine motor skills. The pinching and squeezing is a great workout for tiny hands. By not including many ladles or tools that scoop water, it forced the kids to use the pipettes more and their skills improved throughout play.

The flowers froze beautifully and I loved being able to repurpose them into something new. I’m always a little sad when cut flowers die and this was a great way to give them a grand, final send-off. I will definitely use wilted flowers again in sensory play.

16 February 202416 February 2024

Extra Travel Activities for Kids

We traveled for my dad’s Celebration of Life last week and I knew it would be a difficult week for the kids, so packed some extra materials to help keep the kids occupied during the event and other appointments.

On-the-Go Activities

We will sometimes bring these activities to a restaurant, on the rare occasion that we go to one. But, they also worked great for travel. Once again, many of these ideas are inspired by Mini Jetsetter.

For each one of my kids (3 and 5), I put together a pouch with art materials, a sketch book, mini colouring book, mess-free painting, water ring game, and at least one animal figure.

I also gave them each a mini lego set in a pencil case.

Everything above is from Dollarama or was a gift from the hairdresser or came from friends’ goody bags. The water ring game is from Jean Coutu (a drug store in Quebec) and the mess free painting sheets are from Amazon. Nothing is precious. I include things in these kits expecting them to get dropped, left behind and gifted to other kids we meet.

On-the-Go Sensory Activity – Pluffle

I packed an extra sensory activity, in case we needed to occupy the kids for a while at my mom’s house. I brought a ziplock bag full of Pluffle because it’s very light weight and you can squeeze the air out in the bag so it packs up small.

At my mom’s house, I dumped the bag into a bin and brought out some of the play kitchen dishes – and voila, a Pluffle tea party. It kept the kids busy for 2 hours. To me, that counts as a success. The only drawback to Pluffle is that it can be messy. We needed to do some sweeping and vacuuming after the activity.

15 February 2024

Kids Travel Activity Kits

I have mentioned before that we love Mini Jetsetter and their awesome travel tips and kit ideas. Using their ideas for inspiration, here are 2 kits I put together for a recent trip. We traveled to see family, so I went with a slight Valentine’s theme.

When gathering activities and toys to pack, I try to cover 7 main themes: art, fidget toys, sensory materials, building, small world play, puzzles & games and stories. Variety and novelty can be the key here. I keep most of these items separate from their regular toys, so they only see them while traveling, I will also try to rotate some items and activities within each category, so they are not the same activity every time. Most things listed below are from Dollarama, unless otherwise noted.

Travel Activity Kit for 5 Year Old

My daughter is more entertained by arts and crafts activities, so I tend to put more of those in her kit, while of course trying to maintain the balance of “same-ness” for siblings. If the differences between kits is too noticeable, there will be problems.

Art

blank sketch pad
stickers
stencils
note cards and envelopes for making valentines (white ones from Michaels)
pencil case with markers, pencil crayons, scissors, glue, washi tape, self inking stamp
Only Switch-eroo markers (Amazon)
Mini Etch-a-Sketch (Chapters)
pipe cleaner and beads for bracelet making
sewing heart craft
Spy pen (Zellers)

Fidget Toys

stretchy bracelets (these were a gift, but I think they are from Joe Fresh)
Tangle toy

Sensory Materials

Playdough jar with trinkets
playdough roller, knife and cutter
Wiki Stix – wax covered strings (Amazon)

Building

mini magnetic tiles (AliExpress)
Heart links (Michaels)
building flakes
suction toys

Small World Play (I was a little light on small world play this time)

pull-back vehicles

Puzzles & Games

Tin with dry-erase tic-tac-toe

Stories

Yoto mini and cards

Travel Activity Kit for 3 Year Old

My son is mostly entertained with vehicles and play dough, so his kit has a few less options.

Art

blank sketch pad
stickers
stencils
note cards and envelopes for making valentines (white ones from Michaels)
pencil case with markers, pencil crayons, scissors, glue, washi tape, self inking stamp
Only Switch-eroo markers (Amazon)
Mini Etch-a-Sketch (Chapters)
pipe cleaner and beads for bracelet making
Spy pen (Zellers)

Fidget Toys

Tangle toy

Sensory Materials

Playdough jar with trinkets
playdough roller, knife and cutter

Building

mini magnetic tiles (AliExpress)
Heart links (Michaels)
building flakes
suction toys

Small World Play

pull-back vehicle
airplane

Puzzles & Games

Tin with dry-erase tic-tac-toe

Stories

Yoto mini and cards

If you’re interested in more information on the travel kit bags and travel trays we use, see my other post here.

The kids dug into their kits as soon as we got to the gate at the airport and my daughter played with her kit during the flight (my son slept). We also brought these to an event while we were traveling and they helped keep the kids busy for a long time. Activity kits have become a must for us while traveling. We’re always looking for new ideas to add to the kits. What are some of your favourite travel activities?

15 February 202415 February 2024

Play Dough Love Bugs

Using the adorable Eye Spy Club wood love bug play pieces for inspiration, we made some love bug creations of our own. I quickly pulled together a selection of loose parts, diy heart stamps, play dough, cookie cutters and trays.

Loose Parts (all from Dollarama unless otherwise noted)

cupcake picks (wood picks from Homesense)
suction toys
pipe cleaners
googly eyes
wood hearts
heart gems
“O’s” from x’s and o’s game
paper heart straws

The kids came up with some very interesting creations. I’m sure there are many other fun loose parts we could have added. Any suggestions?

9 February 202415 February 2024

Loads of Love – Valentine’s Sensory Play Tray

My son has never met a vehicle he doesn’t love, so I thought I would set up a construction themed Valentine’s play tray for him and his sister. To give the activity a little more interest for his older sister, I set up 2 letter recognition/ matching activities. The first one had the letters for “love” written on garages and the individual letters on construction vehicles so the kids could park each vehicle in the garage with the corresponding letter. The other one was to write the alphabet out in the middle of the tray and cover it with popcorn kernels. The kids could dig in the popcorn to find the letters and then match them with wooden letter blocks.

valentines construction sensory activity

To set up the activity, I put our Tuff Tray on top of our Nugget foam play couches. I find if the tray is off the ground, it helps the kids keep the mess inside the tray. They are less tempted to scoop material into containers on the ground. I connected our IKEA Ravunge roads in a circle on the tray and wrote out the alphabet with a chalk marker in the centre of the circle. Then I set up a few magnetic tiles as “garages” and labeled them with “l”, “o”, “v”, “e” and then labeled four construction vehicles with the same letters. I poured the popcorn kernels on the tray to cover the letters, sprinkled some satin hearts, added a wooden dump truck tray, felt hearts and more vehicles. The last step was to add the wooden letter blocks, for matching with the letters hiding under the popcorn kernels.

Materials used in this activity

Tuff Tray
Popcorn Kernels (Bulk Barn)
IKEA Ravunge roads
Various construction vehicles
Magnetic Tiles
Chalk marker
Wooden Dump Truck Tray (AW and Collective)
Felt hearts (Sewing Seeds Play)
Satin hearts (Dollarama)
Wood letter blocks (Birch and Bark Natural Wood)

My thoughts

This activity turned out great on an entertainment and learning level. Here are my thoughts

Fun – High

The kids (3.5 yrs and 5.5 yrs old) had a great time with this activity. My son loved driving the vehicles through the popcorn, putting them in garages and everything vehicle related. While my daughter does not get as excited about vehicles, she loved the letter recognition aspect of it and found plenty to keep her attention.

Engagement Time – 45mins + 45mins + 30mins

We left this tray out for 3 days. The popcorn kernels didn’t make much of a mess and were big enough that I could pick them off the floor if a few stray ones made it off the tray. The first night the tray was out, the kids were most interested in driving vehicles, scooping popcorn and putting vehicles in the garages. The next day, they became more interested in the letter recognition part of the activity. On day 3, the kids started thinking of new ways to use the popcorn and it became feed for the farm animals. Once too much of the popcorn started getting out of the tray for my liking, I cleaned up the activity.

Cost – Medium

I used about $15 (cdn) worth of popcorn, and a small package of satin hearts from Dollarama. Everything else we had in our toy and sensory activity supplies. The roads from IKEA are very reasonably priced and construction vehicles are available in dollar stores.

Effort – Medium

The activity took me about 20 minutes to set up and after 3 days, I did have to pick up some popcorn off the floor, but otherwise I didn’t think this activity required too much effort.

Final thoughts

This tray worked well for multiple days of play. It offered enough variety to keep the kids attention and was clean enough for me to leave out in the playroom. It was great for catching my vehicle-loving-son’s attention and the different letter recognition activities were a draw for my daughter. I think it was a successful activity and would definitely repeat it or do something very similar again.

5 February 20245 February 2024

Valentine’s Pretend Play Sweet Shop

I like to refresh our play kitchen space by setting it up as different types of shops. For February and Valentine’s Day, we’re playing Sweet Shop.

We have lovingly collected a variety of adorable play food sweets. Most were gifts to my kids for previous Valentine’s Days. There are so many beautiful play sweets out there, here are a few of the ones we have.

Viga Wooden Macarons
Wooden Gem Block Hearts (handmade by a local shop – Highway to Railway)
Wooden Lollipops (Erzi and Goki)
Felt hearts (Sewing Seeds Play)
Resin chocolate bars (handmade by a small shop – The Creative Mix Shop)
Ice creams (Jellicat, Erzi, Melissa and Doug)
Crochet Strawberries (handmade by my mom)
Felt Donuts (Etsy Shops – Needle in a Craft Stack, Victorian Clara)
Resin Candies (Stars and Sensory, The Creative Mix Shop, Dollarama)
Chocolate Bonbons (Tenderleaf Toys)
Wooden Chocolate Cake (Amazon)
Plastic cupcakes (Green Toys)
Ice Cream Scoop and Serve (Melissa and Doug)
Felt fruit slices (Sewing Seeds Play)

In order to give the space more of a shop feel, I set up our Arches Magoo Slippery Wedges with a tablecloth overtop as a counter and used our Lovevery Easy Connect Fort with a silk on top to make a canopy for the shop. This is my answer to giving a Waldorf play stand feel without having one of those beautiful pieces.

felt fruit slices and valentines paper straws

This kids have been having a wonderful time buying and selling sweets. They particularly like bringing my husband and I treats in the morning with some play coffee. We are very supportive of them practicing this routine.

2 February 20242 February 2024

Valentine’s Day Cardboard Mailbox

For kids, Valentine’s Day is about sending love to family and friends – sometimes through the mail. Last year, my kids were very interested in the concept of mailing valentines. So, I used two cardboard boxes, some hot glue and red paint to make a mailbox for them. A pretty simple project that has received a lot of love from my kids.

If you’re interested in how it was made, here’s a link to the instructions I slightly adapted. I recommend reinforcing the floor, because if the box is big enough – your kids will climb inside.

I brought out the mailbox again this year and it has proved just as popular. Next to the mailbox I set out some of our favourite play letters and envelopes. The kids have so much fun mailing valentines and using the tins to create “packages”. The felt envelopes (from Sewing Seeds Play) have a felt letter inside and the kids enjoy putting all kinds of treasures in the envelope. The wood letters are from Eye Spy Club and make a very satisfying “plop” when put through the mail slot. The acrylic letters and velcro stamps are new to us this year (from Stars and Sensory). You can write with a dry erase marker on the acrylic and stick on the stamps and tokens with velcro. So fun! I also put out some paper, cards, envelopes and a pencil so they can create and write their own valentines.

Besides a traditional mailbox, the box has also been a bridge, a house and a moving truck. I love how creative kids are with cardboard boxes. The possibilities are endless. What are some of your kids’ favourite uses for cardboard boxes?

29 January 202415 February 2024

Cloud Dough Valentine’s Day Cupcakes

Have you ever played with Cloud Dough? It has a really fun texture. It can hold together like a dough when compressed, but then will crumble again easily under too much pressure. Cloud dough is one of my kids very favourite textures to play with and they love to pretend bake with it. It’s also very easy to make with ingredients you probably have in your cupboard.

Cloud Dough Recipe

8 cups flour
1 cup oil

Mix 2 ingredients together. That’s it!

The Activity

For the activity, I prepared a few quick recipe cards for “Valentine’s Day Cupcakes” and set the Cloud Dough out with some measuring cups, scoops, cupcake liners, and other small containers.

I included a bowl of pastel, mini styrofoam balls for the “frosting” (from AliExpress), some polymer clay slices for “sprinkles” (also from AliExpress) and some resin candies, chocolates and mini cupcakes (Stars and Sensory, The Creative Mix Shop, and Dollarama).

I also added some wood heart stamps that were a quick DIY. To make them I stacked 2 wooden hearts (from Dollarama) and hot glued them on a wood block.

I put all the materials out on our IKEA Flisat table with a plasticized table cloth underneath to attempt to catch some of the mess.

My Thoughts

Fun – High

My kids love Cloud Dough. They will request I bring it out if we haven’t played with it in a while. They also loved the added texture of the styrofoam balls. My 3 year old son was very content scooping material and adding decorations, while my 5 year old loved following the recipes and then inventing her own creations.

Engagement Time – 1 hr

My kids were very engaged in this activity so they played uninterrupted and mostly independently for over an hour.

Cost – Low

The cost to recreate this activity is low. The ingredients for Cloud Dough are inexpensive and may already be in your cupboard. I used some resin candies and chocolate from small shops that I already had, but you could easily just use the pink and red hearts from Dollarama as add-ins. The styrofoam balls are also inexpensive. I found them to be the best price on AliEpress, but you could also find them on Amazon (they are sometimes called “slime add-ins”).

Effort – High

For me, this is the only draw-back of this activity. It is messy – one of the messiest we do. For me, this means I only bring out Cloud Dough on weekends or days when I have lots of time to clean up afterward. Even though the table cloth on the ground does catch some mess, I ended up having to vacuum when the activity was done. The kids also needed to change clothes when they were done.

Is it worth doing? Yes! I think so. The kids love it and it’s inexpensive to make. Plus Cloud Dough keeps well for years. I’ve had mine for at least 2 years now.

It also has lots of learning benefits.

It’s a great activity for working on early math skills – number recognition, measurement, and an introduction to fractions;
Scooping the dough, frosting and sprinkles promotes hand-eye coordination; and
Measuring the materials and filling (and overfilling) the muffin cups is a great activity for the containment schema (when your child is learning about spacial awareness and how much of something fits inside a container).

Have you tried Cloud Dough? What did you think?