I have only known about the term ‘open-ended play’ lately. What lured me in to jump in the bandwagon is the promise that if I only acquire toys for Kimi that would encourage open-ended play then I would not have to buy as much toys as I initially think I would as these toys are usually applicable for a wide-range of age group and does unleash a child’s creativity and imagination.

This goes well with my mindset now about minimalism. It is not anymore about not acquiring toys but minimizing acquisition of toys by intentionally buying toys that would stand the test of time and would grow with him.

So the question now is what toys are the best for open-ended play?

We are constantly bombarded with a huge variety of options and I know that it can be overwhelming to sit in the middle of it all. I will try my best to give you some idea by sharing what worked for us so far.

Animals

Toy animals are so perfect for small-world play. I was initially considering to get wooden toy animals (eg. Ostheimer, Holztiger) for Kimi but ended up not pushing through with it as the details of the plastic counterpart are still unbeatable. It also made sense to just add on to Kimi’s first set of plastic toy animals which my gave dad to him. I am going back and forth among Schleich, Safari and CollectA but I would not mind trying other brands such as Papo, Mojo and Bullyland if our preferred animal is not available from our preferred brands.

Other than for playing, we also use it for learning purposes such as for identifying animal names and for matching them with the animals featured in our wall world map.

I am still in the process of completing our toy animals buy-list. Hopefully we would be able to complete them soon.

Balls

We love the versatility of a ball. We can use it either indoors or outdoors. Balls are so perfect for Kimi right now to release his overflowing energy. He kicks them, throws them and plays catch with me with them. Kimi has these types of balls: a few soccer balls, a rubber ball, a plastic ball, a globe stress ball and a few small balls that he usually use when doing ball runs. We are expecting to add more wooden balls (as he only have one) for Kimi to play with soon!

Vehicles

Kimi has only a few small wooden vehicles (train, car and bus) which came with his train track set and a few monster trucks but these are already enough to keep him busy. He usually wheels them around the room, wheeling them on top of our shelves, sofa and table. He sometimes make a ramp or slide so that he can let his toy vehicles fly or slide. He also puts his toy animals in his monster truck to act as passengers.

Train Tracks or Any Kind of Track

As much as Kimi loves to disconnect the pieces of his train tracks he also loves to put them back together and make his own. He usually wheels his wooden vehicles in the track first and then let them eventually move outside.

Lego/Duplo

Duplo is the first building set that Kimi had. He was initially gifted a Duplo set by a family friend which we later on expanded by buying him a bigger set. It was an instant hit for him. He was able to play with it for hours! He was building tall vehicles, playing with his creation for a little while and taking them down only to find him again building another vehicle that suited him. Nonetheless, his interest on it dwindled a bit lately possibly because of the presence of other activities that are getting more of his attention. With this, I recently took out the Duplo from the shelf and stored it hoping that if I present it again in the next few weeks he will gravitate towards it.

Playsilks

Playsilks are wonderful as they can be used for dress-ups, small-word play and pretend play. If I have to be honest, he did not use his playsilks (bought him green and blue) immediately after having them. I tried showing him small world play setups that use playsilks but I was not getting any interest from him still. It took some months before he warmed up to it. I did not do anything actually, I just left the playsilks in the shelf. One day, upon seeing superman in one of the videos he was watching, he asked my mom to put the blue playsilk on him as a cape. He has been using it more frequently ever since!

Balance Board

I wanted Kimi to have more opportunity to use and develop his gross motor skills. I initially wanted to buy a slide for him but then realised the impracticality and absurdness of it as we do not have a large space in the house to begin with. So when I discovered balance board I immediately researched more about it and found it perfect for our situation. Toddlers have a lot of energy. They crave for a variety of movement. My son likes to run, climb and jump a lot. The outdoors should have been a perfect stage for him to do all these but due to the pandemic, we are mostly stuck at home. And a home with not much moving space can be limiting for these types of movement.

Kimi is using the balance board to jump, balance, hop and slide on. He also uses it as a ramp for his vehicles and as a cave for his toy animals. I think there is still a lot more that he can do with it and I am so excited to see how this will grow with him in the coming years.

Wooden Blocks

I bought a wooden blocks set when Kimi was around 29 months old but he only showed some interest with it days ago (31 months old). I can see that he is not into building with wooden blocks yet but at least I can see that he is already playing with them and trying to stack them.

I also bought him a Grimms rainbow stacker but he also does not use it that much yet. I will give an update in a future blog post if I already saw him getting more interested in them.

Below are other types of open-ended toys that I wanted to get for Kimi soon:

Peg Dolls

I have lately seen Kimi playing with his printables. He sometimes play with them as if they are interacting and talking with one other. That is why instead of forbidding him to not play with his printables and constantly reminding him that printables are not for playing but for learning, I decided to get him some peg dolls to play with. The reason I got the peg dolls instead of dolls or movie character toys is so that he is not limited to what they are made to be. Peg dolls can be anything he wants them to be which are perfect for role playing. Role playing encourages a child to use his imagination and develop his creativity.

Loose Parts

A tray filled with loose parts is something I want to build-up for Kimi as well. I love the idea that loose parts can let him create endless patterns and designs and build worlds to play with. It can also let him plan, set an agenda of his play and explore his own ideas which all foster independence and risk-taking.

I know that this list will be a dynamic one but for now I think these are enough for Kimi’s needs. For now, I will just let him play with the toys he has at the moment, allow him to be creative and practice resourcefulness if the situation demands it and just continue to observe and adjust his materials as I (and our budget) see fit.