Once again the topic of play and play objects has been coming up a lot in our conversations. Both of us have little boys around 3, and little girls, who are in their first year of this big adventure called life (and in case you want to ask – no, we did not plan this!). Once again we are reliving the first moments and observing the first discoveries our little girls make daily. As our daughters are slowly becoming more and more interested in the world around them (and inevitably also their brothers’ cars!!!), we are again wondering about toys, or rather as Magda Gerber called them ‘play objects’, that are suitable for our little people.
We believe in Free Play. Observing our kids every day, we have grown to believe that self-initiated, self-paced and child-led activities is what children ‘need to do, to learn and to grow’. So how do we make sure their environment encourages this kind of play?
More and more research hints at simple, open-ended objects as ones that are most likely to be used continuously, over and over, and stimulate the imagination of children regardless of the age. Since we repeatedly have conversations about play and toys with friends and strangers (believe it or not), we noticed this question comes up a lot: But what exactly are open-ended toys?
That’s one of those seemingly easy questions, which when asked generate this kind of answer (in us at least): ‘Oh, well, you know’. So we have been thinking. How do you define open-ended toys? Here are our thoughts:
- Don’t play by themselves
- Can be used in 101 different ways
- Are not age-specific
“Active toys make passive babies”
Open-ended toys don’t do anything. They don’t ring; they don’t light up when a button is pressed. In other words, they don’t play for the child – the child is free to do all the playing by himself! Even though they might seem ‘boring’ to some, to us they contain endless play possibilities – the more passive the toy, the more active the playing. How empowering for a child to know that what happens in his play is entirely up to him :)
Open-ended toys don’t come with a set of instructions, so they don’t have a ‘right’ way in which they ‘should’ be used. This way they not only stimulate the imagination, but also allow self-initiated play, simply because children don’t need any help or explanation to use them. And while they engage all the senses, and stimulate development in all possible areas, their use in imaginative play can also have positive impact on the development of executive functions, specifically self-regulation skills.
Open-ended toys are suitable for any age
With safety considerations in mind, of course, these kinds of objects can be used by any child, at any age or any stage of development. Why? Because they do not need to be used in a specific way, that requires a specific stage of development. And why else? Because these kinds of toys get a new life every time a child picks them up – they start out as perfect mouthing objects, move on to being something that is fun to bang on the floor, and end up being… coffee grinders (have a look at the photos – that face that A is making, he is actually making ‘coffee-grinder noise’).
So, what are some examples?
Blocks, Sticks, Balls, Scarves, Boxes, Rings, Bowls. We have talked about those in one of our previous posts (“Age appropriate toys“)
So when thinking about toys for your baby, maybe you don’t need to head into the overstuffed and jammed toy stores. Just look around. Most of them you can find in nature or in your house anyway. When looking through kitchen drawers you might find tons of things you could consider toys – well, your children will!
Have you ever wondered why babies are so attracted to shoes or toes, to the pegs you use when doing laundry or the sock you just dropped? Because our children are not asking for anything fancy. They can have fun with EVERYTHING in reach. And even better: they naturally know how to do so. We don’t need to teach them. But that again is a whole other topic.
What are your children’s favourite open-ended toys? We LOVE to hear your thoughts!
Anna & Nadine