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

Like many kids, the most exciting things to play with are the ones put out of reach for safety reasons!

My little man had lots of toys but the thing he played with for about 90% of the time were his colourful stacking cups. He never tired of them and I have saved them as I can't bear to give them away.

My son is 13 months old and he loves eating my nose and pretending kissing me. I love it too :). He also likes feeding me but his favourite is to play with boxes - putting the lids on.

Cardboard boxes with cats in attendance sneaking in boxes and hunting for each other. Cats that is. . Non stop laughter and chaos.

Reading and acting out the characters is always a laugh!

I've noticed my 1year old gets bored of his toys if he's been playing with the same ones for a few days. Anything new he pounces on so I rotate them and put some away so he doesn't always have the same toys out.
His favourite games are throwing and climbing at the moment! Also loves opening and closing doors and the washing machine 😀

My DS best game, is opening and closing drawers/doors and hiding things that shouldn't be in them. He knows it's cheeky. His favorite toys (cars) are usually the first to be hid.

Our little one plays with a mix of 'proper' toys and everyday household items - we set them up along the couch and windowsill etc as a bit of a challenge for her to get to and reach, as she's recently started crawling and pulling herself up to standing.

My 3 month old has just learned to hit the toys on his bouncy chair. He grins every time he does it he's so pleased with himself.

My DD never wanted toys as a baby. Her favourite "toy" for months was a black plastic spaghetti stirrer!

Lots of baby-led play!

A set of stacking cups provided hours and hours of fun when my two were tiny

My babies, especially the eldest, loved books from a very young age. I couldn't believe how excited she got the first time she looked at a book (that's not my monster). She's now a book loving 12 year old!

Gloop- a cornflour and water mix with a little added colour- provided hours of entertainment for my preschoolers while I wrote my dissertation. They had it all over the kitchen but when it dries out you can just hoover the mess up/
:)

DS loves a bunch of keys, screwed up newspaper or an empty box. We have bought him all sorts of 'proper' toys, but nothing makes him grin like a cardboard box!

Since they were quite tiny both my DC loved playing with water. At bath time it was just the joy of slapping the water, as they got older it was pouring water from one container into another, and now water squirters are their favourite toy.

My little boy loves playing with toys that have labels!? He likes to pull at them and suck on them (teething!)

Mine always loved playing with treasure baskets. A wicket basket filled with different textures and household stuff. A pastry brush was a firm favourite!

We did the usual, banging plastic cups together, singing and action songs but the thing I remember most was when I had to destroy a load of paperwork and me and my daughter had great fun ripping up loads of papers and scattering themlike snow around the sitting room, she was in absolute heaven that day!

Mine have always liked their play kitchen - I like it as it encourages their interest in food and cooking, and my role can be to sit down for a couple of minutes peace and quiet and eat the food they bring over. My 5 year old now produces beautiful looking trays of plastic food/cake whenever we watch MasterChef!

I have two girls so thankfully I've never been truly pushed out of my comfort zone, my husband however once went through a phase of being made over and dressed up every other day for almost a month! I swear he's still washing glitter out of his hair to this day!!

I like to make my baby laugh so we play peekabo, tickling and other fun games. He likes a spoon and a cup, and he pretends to eat out of it. He will happily amuse himself with his car!

I always thought I would enjoy playing with my children more than I do. I always feel a bit embarrassed and I don't know why. I mostly enjoy role play games with them.

The classic game of Peek a boo has been DDs favourite game. Never fails to make her giggle.

So does me pulling silly faces or putting on silly voices!

I always loved in when DD just joined in with cooking or cleaning or shopping and copied me with her role play games. And I loved and still do love messy play.