Our top 5 Open Ended Play toys
Our Top 5 Open Ended Play Toys.
So, you've discovered Open Ended Play and you can see the benefits of open ended toys on your child's imagination, creativity and independence. You've allowed them to exhaust your cupboards of saucepans, cardboard tubes from the recycling and bedsheets from the airing cupboard but you think it's time to invest in some key pieces that can grow alongside them and build the foundations of an open ended play kit.
Being able to invest in dedicated toys for this type of play is a wonderful privilege but you can compliment these toys with a huge array of items from your home or nature to, so never feel like buying toys is essential.
Our favourite open ended play brand?
One of my all time favourite brands for Open Ended play is Raduga Grez, their building blocks in particular are one of our most used sets at home so I do not hesitate to recommend them. My current favourite is the Elements Set for is soothing colour scheme and the different sizes of blocks that present a number of ways to play.
If you already have a good selection of building blocks a lovely addition (and a brand new open ended play toy for S/S22) is the Fantasy Building Set. I love the simple wood finish which gives a clean, calming feel to the set. The pieces can be combined together or used independently to create trees, structures of characters to paly with.
When it comes to creating towns and cities one of my favourite starting points is the Lubulona LuBu Town sets. The well designed set includes two stackable houses, two cars and two people as well as four ladders which can also function as ramps and gates. The versatility of the set makes it a really good investment for me and it works wonderfully alongside a train track.
Finally one of my all time favourite open ended play toys, and what that is often overlooked...The Cash Register! It such a versatile piece that has been used in so many different shops in our home, despite it feeling quite one dimensional I think the opportunities to learn, encourage role play and allow children to interact with their peers or adults (and even imaginary friends) make it one of the hardest working open ended toys on the market...and when it looks this good, how can you resist?
The benefits of open ended toys are not just in the way they offer your child a number of ways to play, it is also that they allow you to have a smaller more curated selection of toys; meaning less expensive and less clutter!