ML Interest Tag: simple-play

New IKEA Toys and Decor to Snag on Your Next Trip

by Gabby Cullen

There’s a ton of new stuff to pick up on your next IKEA run

When it comes to creating a family home, you love the sleek designs and affordable prices of IKEA (even if you dread the instructions). We know it can be hard to resist their unique decor and furniture, especially when you’re looking to give your kids’ room a makeover, so we went on a treasure hunt and found new IKEA products that are not only fun but within your budget, too. 

SNÖDJUP LED Light

new IKEA products for kids

Say it with a speech bubble. LED statement lights are still all the rage in 2023, and this fun version changes color (to maybe change with your kiddo's mood?).

Buy it here, $30

BLÅVINGAD Duvet Cover and Pillowcase

Make waves in your kids' room with this cool ocean-inspired duvet and pillowcase. Made from a cotton-viscose blend, they're reversible, so you can change it up whenever the mood strikes. 

Buy it here, $25. 

RÄVUNGE Car Track

this race car track is a new IKEA product for kids

Put this 23-piece puzzle-like race track together for easy fun using their massive toy car collection. We love that it's a smaller set that can go from one place to another (like to the grandparents) without much fuss. 

Buy it here, $9

Related: Surprising IKEA Hacks to Transform Your Kid’s Room

TIGERFINK Storage

IKEA products for 2023

Is it a toy? Is it a storage container? It's both! Kids can use this two-tiered mesh storage container as a "home" for all their stuffies, and when it's time to clean up, you can tuck it away in the corner or a closet. 

Buy it here, $18

UPPSTÅ Toddler Walker

toddler walker is a new IKEA product in 2023

Toddlers are busy folks, and this fun walker will help them (and their most treasured toys) get to where they need to go. The handle and the wheels can be adjusted depending on your kiddo's confidence and ability. 

Buy it here, $30

BLÅVINGAD Coral Cushion

this coral cushion is a new ikea product

Tweens love to lounge, and this turquoise cushion is as cool as it is comfy. This new IKEA product is one of our favorites for 2023. 

Buy it here, $15

BLÅVINGAD Submarine Toy

new submarine toy is a popular IKEA product for 2023

This adorable playset is like a 3-D submarine puzzle. With detailed illustrations and five characters, kids will have plenty of underwater adventures. 

Buy it here, $17

Related: 17 IKEA Organization Hacks You Can Easily Do Yourself

TROFAST Wall Storage

IKEA products - TROFAST wall storage

If you need another storage solution for your kids, but run out of ground space, consider installing some new TROFAST wall shelves. You can choose the basket color, the top acts like a display case, and you can hang them straight across or at a diagonal. 

Buy it here, $32

BLÅVINGAD Fishing Game

Kids can learn about respecting aquatic creatures and cleaning up the ocean with this fun new game. Magnetic fishing poles allow players to move things that don't belong in the water into compartments for waste and then move animals into the water.

Buy it here,$15

BRUMMIG Fox Towel

Your clean kiddo is ready to head into the woods in this fox bath towel. Made from 100% sustainably sourced cotton for extra comfort, that hood gives kids extra warmth when they get out of the water. 

Buy it here, $20

BLÅVINGAD Coloring Roll

Ikea products new in 2023

One IKEA product kids love is the iconic paper roll that's perfect for hours of artistic expression. This new ocean-themed roll is filled with marine life; kids can use markers and crayons to color the scenes. 

Buy it here, $8

If you buy something from the links in this article, we may earn affiliate commission or compensation.

All images courtesy IKEA

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How to Create Simple Play Centers That Will Keep Kids Happily Engaged

By Meghan Fitzgerald

Photo: Tinkergarten

Play centers turn an ordinary corner of your home or yard into a unique space designed to inspire and make open-ended play possible. This gives kids a starting place and the ability to iterate. Plus, once the centers are set up, kids can play independently without any effort or even involvement on our parts!

PRO TIP: RELEASE NEW INGREDIENTS OVER TIME

Leave a few items out when you “launch” each play center. Hold back a few art supplies when you open up your art center. Or, keep a spice or a special kind of pie pan out of the mud kitchen for the first week. This gives you something to introduce to keep the centers dynamic and exciting. Plus, remember that objects from nature (sticks, tree fruits, bark, pebbles, etc) can become spoons to stir with, stamps to stamp with and ingredients for all kinds of play!

The Mud Kitchen 

Play with food and cooking is, quite possibly, the most universally appealing and accessible pretend play theme at any age. Toddlers can emulate us making meals, and older children can use mud kitchens to cook up grand feasts or to make concoctions and science experiments. Really, all you need is a set up that allows kids to play with water, house their bowls, scoops and other containers, and some surfaces on which to mix, mash, stir and “cook.” 

Mud kitchens can range from the simple (nesting bowls and some scoops) to the Pinterest-worthy. If you do not have green space attached to your home, grab a reusable shopping bag and fill it with bowls, scoops and a kitchen item or two that can take some muddy love and— voila—a portable mud kitchen!

PRO-TIP: MANAGE THE WATER SUPPLY

The key ingredient in any mud kitchen is actually water. Not everyone has a hose, and even if you do, you don’t want kids to let it run endlessly as they play (and hoses have a way of doing that once placed in kids’ hands). Plus, it’s never too early to teach kids to conserve and to manage a limited supply of resources. For each play session, give kids a 3-gallon bucket of water or a portable 2-gallon water carrier designed for camping. Let them know that’s all the water for this play session. Kids will quickly start to learn how to make that amount of water stretch—and you can get hours of play out of just a few gallons. 

Materials for the “no nails” Mud Kitchen:

  • Recycling bins (2)
  • around 6 foot lengths of 2’x4’ wood (2)
  • Milkcrate 
  • Small trash can 
  • Nesting bowls
  • Duct tape 
  • Garden stakes, twine and pipe cleaners
  • Various, non-precious kitchen items (old muffin tin, cookie sheet, measuring cups, mortar and pestle, etc.)

The Art Center

Making art supports so many aspects of learning—creativity, self-expression, sensory integration, motor skills—and creating art is joyful for humans of all ages. And, it can be really easy to set up an art center that makes materials readily available to kids and gives them even more opportunity and inspiration to create.

Pick a corner of your home where you can set out containers of art supplies and where there is space on the floor or on a table for kids to use the materials. If it helps, lay down a tablecloth or sheet so kids can create and make messes freely without risking damage to furniture or your peace of mind. You can also cover the table with a large piece of paper. Leave it there for a week and—voila—you have a piece of abstract art that documents your child’s creativity that week!  

If you want to make art outdoors, or you don’t have space to dedicate to an art “center,” fill a bin or wagon with art supplies for an art center on-the-go. 

Whatever materials you include in your art center, make sure they are visible—merchandising can help inspire kids to use them. Put each kind of material in its own container so they are easy for kids to find and keep organized.

Materials for a simple art center:

  • Crayons
  • Markers
  • Colored pencils
  • Watercolors, water bottle, and bowl
  • Paintbrushes
  • School glue/glue sticks
  • Tape
  • Age-appropriate scissors
  • Colorful spices (e.g. turmeric)
  • Paper
  • Bits of fabric, ribbon, yarn, pipe cleaners, etc. 
  • Old magazines, holiday cards or papers of interesting colors or textures

The Water “Playground”

’Tis the season for soothing, stimulating WATER play—and you don’t need an in-ground pool or the beach to support hours of it. 

To a small human, a bowl of water and a measuring cup can qualify as a water playground, so make yours as simple or elaborate as you like. Each week you can offer a new “surprise” tool and wonder aloud: “I wonder how we could use this in our water playground?” Whether or not you already have a setup, here are some ideas to help make water play extra special this week:

Find a spot where kids can comfortably and easily play with water. If you have outdoor space, do you have a water source? If not, where, in the space, can you easily transport bins or buckets of water? What can contain the water for play? Kiddy pools, bins, and even large cooking pots work well. Feeling crafty? Wrap a tarp around a few pool noodles to form a pond.

Doing your water play indoors? Try the bathtub, the shower, or the sink. Or, lay towels on the floor and place a plastic bin or cooking pot in the middle.

Gather tools that can be used again and again to enhance water play. Some ideas:

  • Cups and containers of all shapes and sizes
  • Fun kitchen gear (funnels, basters, measuring scoops, etc.)
  • Washcloths, sponges, or other absorbent items
  • Rocks or household items that kids can “wash” and use to explore sinking and floating
  • Pool noodles, drain pipes, or other items that can be used as water channels
  • A smock (could be a raincoat or just a change of clothes) if your child prefers to stay dry during play
This post originally appeared on Tinkergarten.

After 18 years as an educator, curriculum developer and school leader, Meghan has her dream gig—an entrepreneur/educator/mom who helps families everywhere, including hers, learn outside. Today, Meghan serves as co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of Tinkergarten, the national leader in outdoor play-based learning. 

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Why Are Educational Toys Crucial for Kids?

By Morgan Elliott

Many mundane things will enlighten a child’s imagination. For a toddler, the simplest thing like a key chain or colorful slippers can draw their attention, believe it or not. This happens because their little brains try to classify things that they can play with. Since it is not advisable, safe or hygienic to let your child play with household items, you need to embrace their curiosity with various stimulating educational toys. And while any old toy will do, when they play with toys that can affect their learning process, then there you subconsciously stimulating their intellect, motor skills, and cognitive development.  

Embrace Their Imagination: Toys like multicolored cushion balls or soft educational floor puzzles can trigger a child’s curiosity. 6-months-old babies can differentiate colors and shapes very easily. Floor puzzles are extremely effective for small kids because they come in various shapes, colors, numbers, and patterns that enhance their creativity and physical development. If you were to place them on a playing mat and put some fluffy soft toys in different shapes, the child will slowly grab the things that they want. This is how they learn to develop various motor and recognition skills that will help them later in life. Some of the most effective educational toys at this stage are those that promote the sensory play. Rattles, infant play gums, and soothers. As they grow, their preference will change, then you introduce interactive problem-solving toys like blocks or stackers.  

Toys Boost Physical Development: One of the most crucial moments in every child’s growth is their ability to differentiate and comprehend things. From the simple play, kids can enhance their muscle strength, get good hand-eye coordination, and become more mentally and physically active. If a child wishes to reach for a rattle or a ball, it needs to push itself, enabling him to be more flexible and agile. As they get older, the toys become more constructive, cognitively and logically engaging. Toys that boost physical and comprehensive development are various fun building sets, cubes, board puzzles, scientific kits, and playful toy robots. If you were to get quality and first-rate educational toys, you will undoubtedly nurture your child’s creativity and boost his physical development.

Enhance Creative Thinking and Develop Social Intelligence: Their little minds have a totally different world on its own. When you place educational toys in front of them, they will have a well-guided play experience. By using puzzles, match shape stackers or organize sorters and blocks, they develop something that is considered as mind-enhancing development. This enables them to enhance appropriate social interaction, learning how to share, learning about social values and sentiments, language skills and emotional development. With educational toys, children learn how to handle and accept certain social situations like losing a game, develop perception, intuition, and reasoning as they are concentrating on winning in the game. Toys help them gain mental strength as they work on developing empathy at a young age and overcome any challenges that may lie in front of them. 

Help Discover the World: Little do parents know, but toys are responsible for building a child’s confidence. As they play, they get acquainted with the problem-solving situation, and once they figure out how a toy works after trial and error comes elation. Not only excitement, but great toys can help them discover the world around them as they get excited by completing a task successfully. Toys that promote movement or crawling and use lights, sounds, and movement techniques to enhance their participation in the game make children wanting to do better, move faster, and complete a task more promptly. As the child gets more aware of the world around him, toys that help them develop recognition skills can be used. Interactive books with sounds or themed playsets that refine their language and motor skills, ride-on toys to boost coordination, and other problem-solving toys that reinforce imagination.

Impact on Their Future: Scientists have discovered that educational toys can make children smarter as they stimulate brain function with play. Any toy that beeps, crinkles or needs prodding and poking will shape up a child’s brain for the future by teaching them the way things work and the way to overcome obstacles to reach a goal. In the early stages of a child’s development, their little minds can be molded in multiple ways so that they can use that skilled picked up while playing with toys in later stages. For instance, if a toddler has learned the sound of a cow by pressing the toy, once he sees the animal in real life, the toddler will be able to mimic the sound, and so on. Toys simply provide the motivation that can have a significant impact on future learning.  

By integrating fun play with toys in your child’s childhood you will encourage their social and cognitive growth as well as physical development. Educational toys guide your child through learning stages in life, so they are definitely a fruitful investment.

 

Morgan Rose Elliott is an aromatherapist, yoga instructor, animal lover, a happily married mother of two. She enjoys reading biographies and writing poems, sunny days on the beach and any shape of vanilla. Crazy about the '80s, her favourite band is Duran Duran and she is obsessed with Stranger things.

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Sanity Savers: 12 Best Apps for Babies

by Julie Seguss

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated their screen time guidelines, no longer banning it for the under 2 set. Instead, they’re encouraging parents to set limits and be smart about tech use. While we’re not condoning apps instead of playing with, reading to and interacting with your baby, we also know that a few minutes with your phone or tablet can make or break your first longhaul flight, help tame squirmy diaper changes around the 10-month mark and calm a fussy 1-year-old while waiting for the doctor. In these moments, we say embrace technology and let your little one try swiping his tiny fingers through these simple and engaging apps.

Peekaboo Barn

Beloved by many babies, Peekaboo Barn (along with it's counterparts Peekaboo Fridge and Peekaboo Farm) wins kids over with vibrant graphics and simple play. Babies can touch and open barn doors to discover animals and here their names and the sounds they make.

Available at nightanddaystudios.com, $1.99.

 

What app is your sanity saver? Tell us in a Comment.

–Julie Seguss

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