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I could go on and on about this type of play! In the last couple of months, my children have become masters at playing with their toys. Up to this point I feel like they were interested in anything BUT the toys we bought for them.

However, Object Play is more than just playing with toys. It is learning to manipulate, build and fix objects.

Along with other special patterns of play, the curiosity about and playing with “objects” is a pervasive innately fun pattern of play, and creates its own “states” of playfulness. Early on, toys take on highly personalized characteristics, and as skills in manipulating objects (i.e., banging on pans, skipping rocks, etc.) develop, the richer become the circuits in the brain. Hands playing with all types of objects help brains develop beyond strictly manipulative skills, with play as the driver of this development.

National Institute for Play

I will post links to my favorite toys that promote object play at the bottom of the post, but I want to share one of the BEST things I ever did with my kiddo!

We built some bunkbeds together, the kids helped me sand and paint them. But with all of that we had lots and lots of extra little blocks.

First, I let the kids paint the blocks. I only had ugly gray and black paint, but it turns out they didn’t really care! They had a great time painting and making a mess. I enjoyed watching them 🙂

After these blocks were all dry I thought it would be fun to do some string art. So I bought the little nails and pulled out the hammer we had. I put in a couple nails but something came up and I got distracted.

A little while later I came in to see my 3 year old daughter hammering away! She did a great job at hammering in the little nails. When she filled her own block she even started on her brother’s.

My first thoughts when I walked in on her were definitely all the ways she could hurt herself and that I had neglected her. But this experience taught me that kids are WAAAYYY more capable than we give them credit and if we give them the chance to learn they become so much more independent then if we do everything for them.

Semi-supervised, she hammered nails into that block for at least an hour. She was learning what would happen when she tilted the nail or missed it with the hammer. She was figuring out how much force was required to get the nail in. Her fine motor skills definitely improved after that experience.

In the end, she used the nails to wrap string around.

I love that all this took was some random, left over block.

Here are some toy-free object play ideas:

• Cups or a pitcher in water
• Pots and pans drum set
• Tupperware stacking
• Hammering nails
• Screwing screws (for the little bit older kids)
• Recycling- late them play with boxes!
• Scavenger Hunt- send the kids outside with a list of objects to look for! Then turn them into a craft.
• Crafts: This Box has been SO FUN at our house!

Here are my FAVORITE toys for object play:

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• LEGO Duplos are THE BEST. They are so great for imagination.
• Take apart Toy
• Hammer and Peg toy
• Magnetic Tiles. These are also SUPER FUN.
• Cars and car mat
• Blocks: Letter, Shaped
• For the babies: Stacking rings and shape
• Puzzles

There literally are ENDLESS fun toys for object play for any age! If you have favorites be sure to comment.