Hello everyone, now that we’ve officially said goodbye to 2017 with a video snapshot of our PLAYful year (see it here), I thought we’ll belatedly say hello to the new year with a fresh playshelf in our playroom as it’s been a long while since I last shared one.
If you saw the previous post of our playroom setup here, you’d realise with this post that we no longer have a separate play mat/area for baby which we used to have. Ever since bubs could crawl at 5 months, she never stays in one spot. This 8 mo is quick and she’s constantly on the go 😅. Now that she’s also pulling herself to stand, nothing is safe from her prying hands and I have to make sure that what is constantly out on the shelves is baby appropriate and not a potential choking hazard.
That said I still want to ensure baby friendly doesn’t mean the toddler miss out on having some of her favourite items out so in consultation with her, in which she told me what she absolutely wanted to have out, I then decided and filled the other cubicles with other baby-friendly yet open-ended materials so that both girls could enjoy all the items.
The Playshelf
So the toddler chose magnatiles, patterned wooden blocks, babies, some loose parts and our DIY peg dolls. She role plays with her babies and builds with both the magnatiles and the blocks everyday, adding loose parts and peg dolls to her creations so I totally wasn’t surprised at her choice.
I then added some sensory scarves and Sarah’s Silks which we use in so many different ways. The toddler uses them as blankets, change mats and a carrier/wrap for her baby role play, I’ve used them stuffed in an empty tissue box for bubs to pull out since she never leaves our actual tissues alone 🙄 and we’ve all enjoyed dancing with them. I also added nesting boxes which the toddler has enjoyed stacking up for bubs to destroy (best 2-in-1 toddler/baby activity I tell you!), our natural stacking house and rainbow pebbles from The Creative Toy Shop (I only left out the bigger pieces so it’s totally baby-safe 😉).
Also, loose parts are placed on top of the shelf where bubs can’t reach even while standing. Finally we always have one cubicle dedicated to books so I simply swapped out our books with some new titles. The books on this shelf are always board books so it’s baby proof (and then there’s a stack of toddler friendly paperbacks in a basket on our couch) ✌🏼 And that’s it for this current shelf 🙂
Magnatiles: Sweet Elephants (gifted)
Coloured Blocks and Babies: Kmart
Grimms Rainbow, Grimms Natural Stacking House, Rainbow pebbles: The Creative Toy Shop
Crochet Loose Parts: The Yawning Yarn
Rainbow Peg Dolls: DIY
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