A toy is a great addition when it has multiple uses! Toys that promote movement for kids, last multiple seasons, can be ridden, used as tunnels or roads, and are sturdy enough to grow with us throughout a few years are even better. Since moving to Nebraska, it’s been even more important to me to have things she can move with indoors on those bitterly cold days (like today). So, today I’m sharing six of our favorite toys that allow kids to move indoors, still get their wiggles out, and don’t break the bank or drive us too crazy.
I’ll start by saying our house isn’t huge by any means, but it’s plenty big for the three of us. Because our house isn’t too big, and because we only have one child I find myself doing a sort of toy rotation. I have a sun room where I put toys that I want put away for a while. There is no real rhyme or reason or system that I have. But on a weekly basis I hide things away in the sunroom and bring old things back out.
A combination of me researching, learning from other mamas, and knowing what my parents never bought me as a kid led me to pick certain things for Mackenzie. Plus, most of these things could also be taken outside to play with on the warm days too cause they are easy to clean as well as easy to move.
1. Wobble Disc—This one I randomly found while on Instagram one day. We spin her in it. She spins herself in it. We turn it over and make it part of our obstacle course through the house. And sometimes she uses it as a bathtub for her babies or a pond for her fish. The imagination is endless.
2. Balance Beam—Simple and yet fun. We use it to balance of course, but we also make it into part of the obstacle course that sometimes gets set up in the house.
3. Sit and Spin—This is the one I had grandma buy her because they never bought me one as a kid. The joke’s on me though. If I tried to use it now I’d probably puke. I do not have the same stamina to endure those spins like I use to as a kid.
4. Balance Board—I love this one! For a while I used it while I was working at my stand up desk. I can rock back and forth while on the computer.
5. Large truck they can ride on—My mom bought Mackenzie a giant Paw Patrol Fire Truck when she turned two. Jonathan and I were completely convinced from the day she got it that she’d never play with it. Boy were we wrong! She rides on it like its a seated scooter. Back and forth across the house. Loves to run into things. Falls over. Laughs. Does it all again.
6. Tube to crawl in—This one is super easy to store and fun to use in multiple ways. She can crawl through it or lay in it and roll sideways. Or sometimes we stand up in the middle of it and hide from each other.
So much of our indoor movement is dependent on how much space we have available. When I was growing up our basements were always unfinished, and I loved roller skating. So, I’d head to the basement with my skates whenever I was bored. We don’t have an unfinished space, but if I did here are the other things just waiting on my Amazon Wishlist.
Indoor Things I Wish We Had (one of these days)…
Pull-Up Bar/Doorway Jungle Gym
Indoor Trampoline
Bounce House (Jonathan’s been trying to get me to agree to this one for a while.)
Slide
Ball Pit
Bouncy Animals to Ride
Roller Coaster
