Tonnes - sorry - TINS of Fun!

What to do to engage and stimulate your baby when you draw a mental blank? Raid your pantry! That's what I did anyway, and discovered that Ava (1) rather likes it when I do.

I lay out a stainless steel bread box, a small tub, some utensils, a handful of magnets and an armful of tinned food. Who knew that such ordinary items would be such irresistible playthings to my daughter? Ava dove in straight away, first exploring all the items...

Whatcha doin' Mummy?

Then seeing what she could do with them, from playing object permanence games with the bread box...

To stacking cans...

Big Sister Eden had a go too...

The beauty of activities like these is that they are completely open-ended. I had absolutely no idea what Ava would do with the items I offered her, but she clearly knew exactly what she wanted to do! As a Mum, I was thrilled that so much of what she decided to do was actually great for her development!

I think that giving her tinned food to play with was a good move, as the cans were weightier than most of the toys or playthings that she would be used to handling - which is good for developing strength in those little hand muscles. She also seemed to enjoy sticking the magnets to the bread bin, and then scattering them in all directions and batting at them with the whisk - great for hand-eye co-ordination, almost like a baby version of hockey.

Eden (3) decided that it all looked like so much fun, she needed to join in too! She showed Ava how to stack the cans (co-ordination), and together they tried to fit all of the cans into the bread bin - which requires spatial reasoning and awareness. Best of all, they had a ball!

Why not raid your pantry and see what sort of things you can round up to offer your tots to play with.?

Thanks for reading! ~ L.