Do your kids play with toys? (forum)

There was a forum post asking if and how our kids played with toys still, and at what age etc. There is a wide array of responses - from 'never, s/he wants to be with me all day' to 'anything is a toy! who needs toys?' etc. Esme falls closer to the latter end of that spectrum. She loves her toys - but anything can be a toy. The original poster (op) did not consider board games, puzzles or workbooks toys, but more educational materials.

my response: (posted here for keeps)

Esme plays with her toys, mostly figures of people/animals, blocks, play food etc... But I have to say - board games are a BIG favorite as well - definitely toys - she makes anything a toy! Letter tiles and "Memory" cards and handmade shapes/counting tokens/ paper dolls & animals are often a HUGE part of her day. Chess pieces get yelled at for sitting on each other's heads and 'making go ow - get off - good boy horse(knight)'. She personifies a lot of whatever becomes a toy, as well, it has feelings and goals and needs etc.

There is a lot of imaginary play, as well -- with imaginary mice and birds from her 'Cinderella' pretends. She really likes to pretend to have little imaginary friends like that to feed and protect. The other day a 'bunny rabbit' travelled with us to town and had to eat carrots along the way.

And then there are also the 'made-up' toys she spends half the day with - balloons on strings can be dogs on leashes or 'catch a big fish', gears from K'nex on sticks stuck in paper-towel tubes, the light stick in the test tube (still a fave), five superballs and four dice in a bucket... carabiners and plastic chain and paper towel tubes and a mail crate etc. She makes a lot of her own fun during the day - and some of it we never do understand. One day I got rug tiles on clearance (just a few) and she was hopping back and forth between them for more than a half hour, counting 'approximately' under her breath 'this a one, and that a one, and two, and three, and that one'.

So - I answered 'yes' because she will play with anything, toys included. But, she has such a wide idea of what is a toy.

Cylinder blocks last night were mumums and daddys and a baby all learning to use the potty.... and she told me all about how the baby would get a lollipop and go tell the mommy and daddy YAY it used the potty and one of them would open the lollipop and the baby would be happy. But all that was a pretend game for her, more about the roles than the figures.

And she still loves her pear letter toy - and an "Upwords" game we got at a garage sale etc... those are 'fun' for her, and maybe wouldn't be for other kids. She called the "Upwords" board 'dog's letter pit' and laughed at herself about it. She read the word 'moon' last night, which I didn't know she knew... and I keep discovering new words she knows because she wants to play with those toys. The rules of 'pick up put away' for each game is part of her fun, too... which I know is not usual. When she is ready to put it away that is a big part of the process of having gotten to play with it at all.