What toys/games have saved your sanity during lockdown?

[Fedupandpoor]

I get paid on Tuesday 🙌 and have £50 to spend for toys/games to keep my 3 and 5 year old occupied. We have a small garden. What toys would you recommend that they won't get bored of after 10 minutes? The 3 year old struggles with anything that requires patience, rules or sitting still so puzzles and board games are out of the question.

Pavement chalks have kept my two entertained.

Chalks definitely - draw on the fences/walls, clean it off again.

Any large plastic box (with a lid) that you can put sand in. Use any plastic spoons/cups/bowls to dig in the sand.

Another tub for water. Any bottles/cups etc for pouring. Toy submarines and/or fish/sharks.

Large container of concentrated bubble mix - don’t give it to them, they’ll spill it, but great to just sit and blow bubbles for them to pop.

Ball and basket to throw it into.

Giant bubbles.
Playdough (could make your own if you can find flour! )
Moonsand/kinetic sand (kept mine amused for hours)
Arts and crafts

Check out Pinterest OP great for ideas..

A large box for sand and water is a brilliant idea! I was looking at a sand and water table but I could reuse the large boxes once they have finished with them. Pavement chalks added to the list. We have a huge arts and crafts stash and loads of gardening tools.

Bubbles definitely at that age. Large bottle of bubble mix, and then a couple of small bottles so you have the wands to blow with. Don’t give to the children to spill, but blow lots for them to catch/pop/watch.

Play doh, if it won’t drive you too crazy! Lots can be done, and very good for fine motor skills too.

A small bowling set, or a knock-down-cans set and some beanbags. ELC used to do a pop up target with holes in for throwing practice which would be good. Beanbags are great anyway - throw/catch practice, can use for a variety of hide and seek, I used for helping learn left/right ( in a kind of variation of Simon Says - eg put it on your left shoulder/put it on mummy’s right foot/etc).

A cheap tennis set would be good to start getting used to racquets, if you could get a net as well then again can be used in a variety of ways.

Playdough - agreed! The humble Skipping Rope - hours of inexpensive fun. Tualoop - my new fave game, played alone / together / adults / kids - all get a go - can be played like hoop toss, played like frisbee, played like catch, (have seen sticks used like swords oops!) shoppompom.com/collections/outdoors/products/tualoop

Definitely chalk and I was going to say a sand and water table but DS spent longer playing with the toys in the large box of water after I had cleaned them, actually he spent a good half hour re washing them!

DS got one of these for his 4th birthday -AquaPlay LockBox

It has been a huge hit with loads of kids and it folds up (although needs a bit of patience to do it right) so everything does stay together. Expensive (I'm sure it wasn't that much when it was bought for us) and you can get different ones that connect apparently!

Shovels for the garden. You need metal ones, so they don’t break, and a modicum of supervision that they don’t brain each other with them. Mine used to spend ages digging for dinosaur bones.

Theres a role playing game called 'Auditions' where they get to act like there favourite characters and jump and move about. It's always a winner with our family and so funny to be part of. Heres a link -www.<a class="break-all" href="https://amazon.co.uk/Auditions-Family-Performance-Acting-Suitable/dp/B0777Q2VV1/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=1Q8WY68ZV6EJH&keywords=auditions%20game&sprefix=auditions%2Caps%2C146&qid=1586775284&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum--chat-3869722-What-toys-games-have-saved-your-sanity-during-lockdown" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amazon.co.uk/Auditions-Family-Performance-Acting-Suitable/dp/B0777Q2VV1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Q8WY68ZV6EJH&dchild=1&keywords=auditions+game&qid=1586775284&sprefix=auditions%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-1 its on sale too.