Tell Fairy Non Bio about your experience of play with your baby - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

As part of our partnership with Fairy Non Bio, we’ve produced the Mumsnet Babies Podcast. There are ten episodes in the series, and episode six is about play - you can listen to it here. Whenever you get the chance, Fairy Non Bio would like you to have a listen to the podcast and join the discussion on this thread.

As babies grow and develop, their experience of play is constantly changing thanks to their still-developing perceptions of colour and sound and awareness of the world around them.

Fairy Non Bio would like you to share your experiences of playing with your baby, whether you can’t get enough of role playing games, or you force yourself into fancy dress with gritted teeth. Perhaps your baby can easily amuse her/himself with everyday household items such as wooden spoons, or maybe you invest in elaborate mobiles and brightly coloured floor mats, in the hope to keep them occupied while you have some ‘me time’.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

If you’d like to rate the Mumsnet Babies Podcast, please go to the iTunes store to add a review.

Thanks, and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Playing with water, cups and bubbles keeps them happy for hours

our little chap loves to build things so very happy to pile anything, blocks, books, plastic beakers etc. I love playing with him, precious times making memories.

My DD from a very early age just loved role play and it was a lot of fun if a little tiring... When she was a baby she would love banging things together to make a lot of noise! :)

Our favourite game is hunting for treasure (seashells and pinecones)

Mine has boxes full of toys, but prefers empty baby formula tins, spoons, pots, metal jars, cardboard boxes, keys, phones and anything else that isn't a toy.
When we're outside, as soon as she's out of the buggy, she manages to find a leaf or a stick and is always filthy within about 0.2 seconds.
When I want me time (or more realistically, time to do dishes, washing, housework) I settle her with a wooden spoon, a few noisy things for her to bang on, an old remote and some background music... she's happy to be rid of me when she's got those things, she's in heaven when she's actually allowed a remote to play with so I keep it aside for times when I need a moment so it's more of a novelty.

I'm very sporty so i encourage my little ones to be active as possible. keeping them and me fit!!!!

The great thing about young kids is that they are so eager to be entertained that they love most fun based activities.

We like to dance and sing together and usually play with little dolls.

My GDs have inherited their Dad's love of puzzles, they have enjoyed age appropriate ones since they were tiny, they are 11 and 14 now and still relish a good challenge. I think it's because they get concentrated positive 1:1 attention from me as we work together to complete it, and we've had some delightful chats!

My little ones loved playing with water and especially watering the all the many plants

Cardboard boxes are a big favourite here. Climbing in them, drawing on them, putting stickers on them, pulling the kids around in them. My eldest had just got into board games which I'm quite enjoying.

We have to march round the house to The Ants Go Marching, everyone has to join in

From an early age mine both liked sensory play type stuff, an easy favourite was dried pasta, different sized Tupperware pots and the set of plastic measuring cups we have - pop the whole lot on a tray to contain mess and let them scoop from one thing to another. (This was actually more popular with dry red lentils, but while that was fun to play with, was a fucking nightmare to clean up!)

When little posting boxes, simple puzzles, lots and lots of talking and books, as they have grown plying shop, cooking, making dens, simple board games, lego, brio, trains, dolls, puzzles, reading, reading and more reading and lots of crafts. We also go on lots of nature walks and to the playground. Sometimes I love it, and I always love seeing them happy and engaged but sometimes I have to admit it is boring and repetitive and if I have things which I need to get on with it can feel stressful.

My baby ds currently loves to chase a little ball around like a puppy! I find baby toys don't interest him in the slightest. Anything he shouldn't have he loves.

My one loved putting things in her mouth so I had to watch her like a hawk but we used to enjoy messing with playdoh and plasticine together

We love sitting on the floor across from one another and we pass a table tennis ball across to one another, by little boy loves this game, it helps his concentration, and had eye co ordination, and he laughs so much when we play, they are precious times x #simplepleasures

our dgd is just 1 but is fascinated looking at books - won't let me read the story - just likes looking at the pictures

For us it was colorful items as long as it was vibrant and colurful hes happy.

Pegs wooden spoons the washing basket Tupperware etc... all makes for good play pretend

I quite liked playing 'babies' with my grandaughter by joining her as she lay on the floor and demonstrating how to roll over which she was trying to figure out! She seemed to find my efforts quite entertaining! It felt good to get totally into roll (role) play haha!

Water! Mine love to just get a stool and play with a sink of water! OK, bit messy - just it ios just water and get easily be mopped up - always makes them laugh and smile

I am the queen of role play. I pretend that we are in a rocket going into space(sitting in a big cardboard box). I zoom him around the room pretending that he is a spaceman. he absolutley loves it. he also gets to be a bus driver, a fireman, a racing driver.

I alawys found it very difficult to play endless games of pretend. I didnt mind for a few minutes, but got so bored so quickly, and then felt guilty. Couldnt wait until they were old enoough to "do" things like playing board games, or I could read to them

My daughter had a Mcdonalds kitchen which was fun at first but after the umpteen time of ordering hamburger or nuggets it was really annoying. She was obsessed with playing cafes and used to make menus and go around taking orders from people.