Nursery removes toys from children!!

Such a good idea,so many things can be made from a box or a large tin little ones can imagine allsorts of things to play.
Mine loved the pots & pans and tins from the store cupboard for many happy hours of play.

After watching and helping me plant bulbs in the garden, my then 3 year old son, spent hours and hours with a bag of onions and a trowel, 'planting' his 'bulbs' in a patch of earth.

Wow sounds fab - am going to suggest it to my daughter for her nursery. It must be doing wonders for the children’s imagination

Marvelous idea.

Remember when ny twins were just crawling, the loved chasing empty yoghurt pots on the floor. They seemed to just touch them and they rolled again. GD has some of my old kitchen pots, utensils, cake tins etc in a heap in the front of the playhouse. Lives playing with them in spite of having a "proper" play kitchen inside with all the bits and bobs.

My 22 month GS loves nothing more than emptying a drawer. We have one in the lounge that contains pens, notebooks, purses, etc., He studies each thing then chucks it on the floor. His mum used to let him empty the sock drawer in her bedroom.

When I was a playgroup leader back in the 80s we did this for a week. The children lived it. We had boxes of all sizes....local electrical shop were brilliant....giving some giant ones. At the end of the week we put them all in the middle of the room for the children to flatten by jumping on them. Feedback from parents was brilliant. The children were living it.

A saucepan and a wooden spoon were all my DSs needed to give me a shattering headache!
GD1 was still making motor cars and houses out of boxes when she was 10. Some years ago now, when we were caravanning in France, younger DG and DS (about 7 and 8) went and collected empty cartons from the bar and filled the awning with them. I can't remember what they did with them, but they were there for most of the holiday!

There is value in some toys. Lego, especially, is very good for brain development if kids are actually building and not just playing with "playsets". I'm also quite keen on old-fashioned wooden toys. DS's train set and tractor are wooden, not plastic. They'll probably still be around for his grandchildren!

However, kids really do need to use their imagination, and many mass-produced plastic toys do not allow for that. My DS loves to garden, but in his imagination the garden is peopled with every kind of fantasy creature you can imagine, as well as all his favourite story book characters. One day he's making a toadstool house for Big Ears, and the next he's making a tree house for the Berenstain Bears. And yes, he sees fairies at the bottom of the garden!

Fantastic. Well done that nursery, and how lovely that the children love it too.

When I was about 3 years old and spent the day with a single young aunt, to keep me amused, she would turn the old fashioned kitchen cupboard into a bus. She opened the two drawers that opened half way down the unit and put a saucepan lid inside, so that it stood upright like a steering wheel. Then she put 2 kitchen chairs in front for the seats. one for me the driver and the other for a passenger. I would play with it for hours on end.

Really? I work in a nursery and we've taken loads of toys away and experimented likewise but have left some toys in baskets might give this a go!

What a brilliant idea to stimulate imaginative play. My children loved having old bedpsreads or blankets thrown over the washing line, which became a tent. the hours of happy entertainment from this very simple device was remarkable.

What a brilliant thing to do. We played with "things" more than"toys" and my girls loved playing with "things to make into other things".

DGD loves nothing more than a good cardboard box or boxes. SIL bought her some "Cardboard Screws" on line somewhere and they are great. Dowel to make a hole screwdriver to fit the screw and away she goes.

She makes rockets, castles, boats etc and the other week she whipped up an extra coffee table because there were a few of us and she wanted us to have her Birthday cake in the living room. She'd never have been able to do that if she hadn't had years of making things from bits.

Mind you DD does find it difficult getting DGD to part with her made treasures when they are wearing out. I think I'll tell her about the nursery's idea of getting the children to jump on them when they are finished with, DGD will like that . I suppose if they are squashed it makes the boxes easier to recycle too.

I also used to have fun with my Mum’s clothes horse and a blanket.Quite common for very young children to prefer playing with the box whatever toy was in,,rather than the toy itself -more fun.

Brilliant idea - and no batteries or Wifi needed!

When our GC visit us they sometimes bemoan that fact that we don't have lots of toys for them. I supply board games, garden games and things that they have to play together, and art and craft supplies. They all bring electronic devices and other favourite toys but after a day or so these are forgotten in favour of Monopoly, Swingball, Draughts and crafting projects. DIL says they interact much better with each other and adults when they are at our house.

Last time the GC were here we had been delivered a cupboard in a big box. In no time it became a television set and we were treated to the news, weather forecast and story time. They were hilarious and spent many happy hours in it!

An excellent idea. Being allowed to use their imagination is worth more than any plastic toy

I have a couple of large wicker boxes full of craft paraphernalia. We put a large oilcloth over the kitchen table and both DGDs have had hours of fun creating. We have bought cheap frames and then the girls paint them before a drawing or some artwork is done to put in the frames which are hung in the garage. An interesting art gallery?

Dens and large cardboard boxes have always been a hit.

Clothes horse and blankets ....that makes tents..pirate ships... shops... bandits hideaways...schools....spaceships...and everything else a bunch of 3 year-olds can think off. Great idea.

Whenever I know my GC are coming I collect cardboard boxes from the local supermarket. They have endless fun in the garden. They now seek them out the minute they arrive.

I spent hours as a littlie playing in my grandma`s button tin, health and safety probably wouldn`t allow it now.

Being a 'war-baby', toys were very difficult to get hold of. I remember playing 'houses' for hours inside a chalked shape on the pavement. We used leaves, pebbles, etc as plates and food, and took turns being Mummy, Daddy and Baby. We spent most of the summer holidays preparing and rehearsing concerts for our long-suffering parents to watch. Children need to use their imaginations.

I remember playing like this as a child, we had a sort of alcove cupboard in our kitchen at low level which went under the dining room floor (the kitchen was down 3 steps) and everything was stored under there including the cat bed and a space left for me to play in.
As a childminder now I have some of these things and am thinking of doing more, if you google Loose Parts Play that is what it is known as now!

This has been recommended for years, it’s not new. I left teaching in the Early Years department of the school where I worked some 6/7 years ago, and Early Years Advisors were advocating this type of approach then. They were not advising taking away all toys, but were advising the provision of these types of materials for the children to play with alongside other toys and educational equipment.

It’s a joy to see some of the things that capture a child’s imagination. At the age of three, we used to take GS for walks at a Peak District beauty spot where a tree had been cut down and trimmed to leave just the trunk, with pieces cute out to form seats. This became “his train” and every time he made a beeline for it, we had the devils own job to move him again and we all had to be passengers (goodness knows what other walkers thought of us)! The last time we passed the spot, it had, naturally, rotted away almost to nothing, but I always remember what a lot of fun we had on it! The whole place was such a natural playground.