Surprising things that babies like to play with?

[Hevava]

Hi All,

I have a beautiful DD who is 5 months old and is getting bored of her toys.

Yesterday she played happily with some scrunched up newspaper for a good 15 minutes! Have you discovered any other mundane household bits that babies like to play with?

Coke cans (be careful!), remote controls, wooden spoons, my iPhone!

My DS is 7 months old and utterly obsessed with them!

4.5 month old DD loves touching the transparent plastic cover on our dinner table. Useful because I can sit her on my lap while eating and she'll happily play with it until I finish.

She also likes to touch the metal sink in the kitchen, presumably because it's cold and interesting!

Jewellery, make up bag, fur

The drawer we used to have below the oven, my son loved it and would take everything out of it and climb in! Any other kitchen cupboards were good too, even though they are now 8 and 6, I still keep all the tupperware in the accessible cupboards

Wooden spoons, packets of baby wipes, DS loved opening my purse and getting out my credit cards (which once got posted into the gap at the back of the skirting board ) , those silver crinkly wraps they give out at the end of marathons. The shiny surface and crackling noise is a winner.

Ds loves my make up bag (the pattern), mobile to chew, paper cups, a muslin. Dd used to love keys.

Laminated menus and colourful wrapping paper.

My 7mo daughter's favourite toy at the moment is a cheap set of stacking cups. She doesn't even know how to stack them yet, she just loves waving them around.

Make a little heuristic toy box for her to play with - everyday objects made from natural materials. I think in mine there was:
Some smooth metal curtain rings tied onto a ribbon
A child size wooden spoon
A hair doughnut (not natural but an interesting texture)
A wooden dolly-peg
A large smooth pebble
A small silk scarf
Some wooden cotton reels
A rubber bottle stopper
A large shell
A key ring with some old keys
A small natural sponge
A granny square I'd knitted with soft wool
A larger leather tag from a new handbag

A lot of children's toys are plastic, exploring textures is really interesting for them. Everything in mine was just collected from around the house and sterilised before the children played with them. Google heuristic play ideas and it will give you lots of inspiration.

Mine is a bit older and past the putting-in-mouth stage, but she loves a Tupperware full of assorted buttons that I got from the craft shop.

Ds(14yrs) used to love to play with empty handbags (he hates me reminding him of this, especially in front of his friends... I'm mean) and removing all pots and pans from the cupboard to play "drums". He also went through a phase of playing with hoover attachments on the floor pretending to be the hoover!!!

Dd(17months) loves to play with anything she shouldn't. Today's "toys" so far have been shoes, a bottle of squash, remotes, kitchen roll (rolled out Andrex puppy style), the living room blinds AND best of all a bag of potatoes!

Another vote for those silver survival blankets (from camping shops) Ds loved them!

Swimming goggles! These have been DDs favourite thing to chew on, nice and rubbery I guess for five months now. She's 9.5 months btw.

Tv remote, phone, anything with a label, dvd case, my glasses (whilst on my face!), piece of paper or magazine. He also loves anything with a label on (the ones that have the washing instructions on) so soft toys, blankets, clothes - he'll seek out the label and play with it.

My husband's stupid hipster mustache!

I on e got stick unexpectedly in a long queue in the chemists and discovered that keys, a mirror and a comb are all very interesting!

Bottles of water
Price tags on items
Cloth wipes, dampened
Saucepans for drums
Bin bags waiting to go to the rubbish room :( we take them promptly now!

Another vote for pots and pans. My mum used to let me and my brother empty kitchen cupboards, those without anything dangerous in obviously. We were happy as long as there were plenty of things to bang together.

You could also do sonething sensory. Materials are cheap on eBay. You could get a few different textures, colours, sparkly fabric would be good, and let dd explore that. Also there's the paint on the bag thing. Heavy duty food bag with blobs of paint in, taped up and attached to a patio door for me free paint fun.

Try looking at pinterest - lots of ideas on there.

Those bouncy textured light up balls you get on amazon for about a quid!

Or get her a ball pit!

Anything she shouldn't have...

Anything that can be emptied out! Nappy drawer, CD rack, book shelf and a tube of bepanthen is particularly fascinating at the moment (12 months old)

The plastic tub of hundreds and thousands. This was great until she threw it hard enough to break it. They are called hundreds and sodding thousands for a reason.

A whisk
A cd
Loo roll tube
Socks

Pastry brush - recommended on MN and much appreciated by my niece!