Where’s Wally
Need a quick half an hours peace? Or something to keep the noise levels down on a long car ride? Where’s Wally is an often overlooked but brilliant resource for little ones.
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Magna Tiles
If you can get these second hand, do it. They’re expensive, but they’ve lasted us for around 7 years and they’re still going strong.
They are not played with constantly, but come out every now and again for various uses, whether it’s to build a little car park, or a rocket, or just to make patterns with.
They’re a great open-ended toy that kids will keep coming back to.
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Something huge from Amazon
Depending on what the huge thing is that you’ve bought from Amazon, the cost here could be in the thousands. But that doesn’t matter, because you get a cardboard box.
Not just any cardboard box. It’s a race car by day, rocket ship by night, post office on Tuesdays. Throw in some glue and some crayons into the box, and you’ve got yourself hours of uninterrupted time to yourself.
Note that this product gets a low parent rating, because you’re then forced to live with whatever monstrosity the cardboard box became, and you can never throw it out.
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Something fragile from Amazon
Had your eye on that imperial Ming vase but had various excuses not to pull the trigger? Need to occupy young children for 15 minutes whilst you sit on the toilet?
Well wait no longer, buy that imperial Ming vase and for absolutely free, revel in the glorious time you’ll get back from having kids entertained by popping the hundreds of bubbles on the wrap.
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Disney’s Eye Found It
This is such a good game for younger children. It’s a co-operative game, and it’s everyone (ie, no losers!) against the clock. At various points on the board, you have to find as many of a particular item as you can in 60 seconds. The more items you find, the quicker you jump up the board.
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Connect 4
Really simple to learn and play - this is a great game to introduce young children to game strategy and thinking ahead.
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Orchard Toys Jigsaws
Orchard Toys have a brilliant range of Jigsaw puzzles that cover all the age ranges, from 2 piece jigsaws to up to 100+
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Orchard Toys Games
Sticking with Orchard Toys, they also provide an excellent range of games suitable from toddler onwards. You can’t really go wrong with any of them - They’re well priced and have always gone down well in our house.
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Julia Donaldson Books
Every single one of our Julia Donaldson books are completely dog-eared, with missing pages and rips, having been re-read hundreds of times.
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CD Player + AudioBooks
We’re keeping it retro here. No bluetooth, no wifi, no online subscriptions, no adverts. The advantages of keeping it retro are that cds can be bought from charity shops, or on ebay, for ridiculously low prices. And it also means that the kids are in full control of what they put on.
Your kids don’t need to pester you to put on a different audio book and won’t be in a grumble when you accidentally change tracks on Spotify whilst they were mid audiobook.
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