Playing games

[watervole]

 Owsin has several boxes of toys in our lounge, but they don't get used much.

The items that get far and away the most use are:

1.   A wooden spoon carved for me by Alex Holden

2.  A box of cheap plastic beads from a charity shop

3.  A couple of bowls from various sources (Tibetan singing bowl, glass bowl I won in a raffle, and a wooden bowl used for dice)

This combination allows beads to be spooned from one container to another, and is the raw ingredient (along with the lounge table) for playing Birdie House.

The plastic beads are birdseed, and are eaten by the bird family in large quantities, though they can also be worms, beetles, etc.

Yesterday, she discovered a dried up seahorse that I'd found in a box somewhere and left on the windowsill for her to find.

Off the back of that, we looked at pictures of seahorses online and a couple of videos.

So, we became a seahorse family for the rest of the day (and the beads became seaweed, which was duly served up and eaten)

I was told we had to get the finger puppet animals from the toy box, as they were going to be baby seahorses.  I got nominated as daddy seahorse (mummy seahorse got to give daddy seahorse the eggs to put into the pouch) and had to tuck them into the waistband of my trousers.  When her turn came around, she improvised a pouch from some left over Xmas wrapping paper. 

Later on she said she wanted mummy seahorse to have the pouch.  After a discussion about mummy seahorses not having pouches, a switch to kangaroos was agreed, and Grandad drew the short straw of being a kangaroo while I escaped to wash the dishes!

Comments

[suenicorn]

It goes to show that you don’t need expensive bought toys to amuse and entertain a child. I remember visiting a friend of mine whose little girl used a bowl of colourful pipe cleaners to exercise her creativity, mixing them and twisting them into all sorts of shapes. You sound like a wonderful nana!

[watervole]

I've stopped buying toys for now (and I was only getting ones from charity shops, apart from the best of the toys that I kept from our children).

I always feel sad when people guilt-trip themselves into spending money they can't afford, to buy gifts that aren't needed.

I have a lot of fun, but boy am I a knackered granny!

[suenicorn]

Your grandchild will always remember you as a truly cool nana. My own nephews love their childhood memories of me...

My mother used to pick up second hand soft toys, from charity shops or, occasionslly, find one in the street. She would wash it and dry it and put it in a display by her bedside, to be enjoyed by her or given to a child in her life. She always said she wanted a toy a child had loved, hence the second hand thing. Recently, she seems to have started up this hobby again, with a small teddy she bought for $2 from a charity shop. Not sure who will get it, as the youngest child in our family now is six and at school, but it’s a nice hobby.

[watervole]

I found a baby doll in the street, all filthy and muddy, so took it home and washed it for Oswin and she now plays at putting nappies (cut from an old pillow case) on it.