Simple Toys – CD Cases

It’s always the way that even when surrounded by toys of all different shapes and sizes, it is the everyday thing like CD cases that will grab your child’s attention!

We have been busy sorting out things in our house, like many people we seem to have accumulated all sorts of bits and pieces over the past few years. We had a clear out of stuff and we had left a few empty CD cases on the sofa one evening.

The next morning, after breakfast Daniel was really very interested in them and spent over an hour playing with them! Opening and closing, lining them up against each other, putting them on top of each other. I was genuinely amazed at how long they kept him engaged.

He has since gone back to them a few times so I plan to save a few more cases as and when I come across them and to put different pictures in them. The plan being that I can ask him to find various things and talk about them.

 

Over the past week he has gone back to these cases time and time again so my next plan is to put some pictures in of animals and ask him to find the horse, the cow etc. I then plan to do it with colours and the such.

It’s one of those things I would never have thought to give him to play with, but I can see the wealth of opportunities they present.

Some ideas I have to do with them includes:

• Animal pictures
• colours
• shapes
• numbers (asking him to find the case with 4 butterflies in etc)
• decorate our own covers (when he is a little older)
• Expressions – so a happy face, sad face etc and ask him to recreate it
• Actions – so clap hands, sing a song, dance, jump up and down

Have you come across any other everyday items that can be used to prompt learning activities?