I love it when family and friends are generous enough to give my child new toys to play with. Although I appreciate all of that, I don't usually ask for toys as presents for her birthdays or any special occasion. And whenever we're at the mall, I make sure to limit her play time inside toy stores.

Why?

Most toys available are just made for plain business purposes. They are marketing cartoon characters and not really thinking about how functional or educational their creations are. Whenever I chance upon educational toys that I would actually like to play with my child,  its obviously too expensive for me. So when I was creating her set of toys, I made it a point to keep it creative without burning a hole in our wallets. These are the items that we both enjoy using when she plays at home:

As you can see, these are common objects found at home or household items. Most of them were given to her and some are staples that I use to teach my students. I go to Pinterest for activities and so far, she's been enjoying simple and not-so structured activities that we do. Of course, I still let her play with her stuffed toys and battery-operated toys but it's really important that kids also learn to appreciate and use their imagination with just the simple things that are offered to them- not too expensive, not too techy.

I don't have time for inserting activities with my child due to work- Moms, you can do this! Activities can be done in 15-30 minutes and there's no need to do it daily. Make it a special bonding weekend activity that the whole family can enjoy and learn from.

I'll be posting some of my favorite activities with my child in my upcoming posts. In the meantime, I'd love to hear the common objects you've already tried out with your children. What are your favorites so far? :)