Imaginative toys

[blondie72]

I have a 3.5 year old girl and a 9 month old boy. I'm trying to encourage my daughter to do more imaginative play (so that she leaves my son alone!!). Can anyone recommend or had any success with certain toys? She has a few bits of Happyland which she played with about a year ago but now doesn't seem interested but perhaps I need to buy her some more to build up a set? The advantage of this I guess is that he can play with it too as there are no small bits to choke on. Or do I move on to the next stage for her - Playmobil or Rose Cottage from ELC but I think these have small bits so I will have to have eyes in the back of my head!
We have basic Duplo but she needs me to help her with it. I've bought lots of jigsaws and help her with those but she's not really interested and ideally I'd like something that she can 'lose herself' in with imaginative play. We have lots of dressing up outfits but she's only really interested in them when a friend comes to play.
Any advice at all would be really welcome from more experienced NetMums!
Thanks

I mean Mumsnetters!

Lots of great ideas here at the imagination tree.

The sensory and small world ideas are great.

My dc (3 & nearly 2) are currently playing outside with a long shallow plastic box filled with dry pasta, rice, sand and small stones and a couple of small diggers/tractors.

You could have the tub on the dining room table for your dd and have your son on the floor with a treasure basket/Discovery box (also on the above site)

Plenty of other things on there that both of them can do together too.

Thank you so much!! The imagination tree website looks fantastic!! Are there any other websites that I don't know about? I can't wait to use the ideas on my 2 DC!

Many thanks again!

Have a look at "Growing a jewelled Rose" & "Play at home mom". Both on FB.

are there are any characters she's interested in? because with mine when they have characters like thomas who they are obsessed with, then they do get quite imaginative with it and keeps them busy for ages, so it might work?

Thank you all for your comments. She's not particularly crazy about any characters. I might try Peppa Pig or Ben and Holly. Thanks again!

The peppa figures and sets are pretty flimsy tbh. Does she have a tea set? Picnics with dolls are brilliant fun. We have a cheap plastic set then it can go in the garden, bath etc with no worries. Elc play food for shops and picnic games.
Dd loved her doctor's set and used to play that with her dolls. We borrowed Pre school's elc fairies and fairy boot house the other day and dd played with it all afternoon.

if we get any sun you could try a sandbox or paddling pool with lots of pouring toys, mine will play with a bucket, some stacking cups and a mini watering can in the sun for ages, just loves the idea that he can get messy for once! he also will very seriously 'help' me water the garden. mine also loves any drawing toys, from crayons and paper to etchasketch to paints to chalk and a big piece of blackboard paper which he can do in the garden as well as indoors... he can literally do drawing activities for ages :), this week says he's drawing numbers and 'daddy' (a big head, 2 noses, a hat and 4 legs right now!!), he's 2 and 8m.

My DDs are 4 and 2 and spend hours a day on imaginative play. Both have loved playmobil from about 18 months old- probably a good idea to start with a little playground or zoo and spend some time yourself showing her how to play with it.

www.makedoandfriend.com has lots of ideas too - and if you follow links from there & the Imagination Tree, there are loads of other good blogs you can find.

The Imagination Tree FB page is good for less complex play ideas ('invitations to play')

Ds is 3.1 and loves playmobil and real Lego. Last Sunday he played with his Lego for 4 hours!! I felt guilty about that, but it's what he wanted to do!!

My DD spends hours with the Peppa pig stuff. I think if you get something they are really into they will go for it. We have lots of the figures, the supermarket, the playground, the supermarket, the train- some bought by grandparents etc. She got into it from the books rather than the TV, but have since bought a DVD that has been watched rather a lot!