When I found out I was having twins (babies #2 and #3) it became my mission to set up play spaces around our house to keep my daughter happily occupied and engaged while I was busy caring for my twin babies. My daughter was 2.75 years old when her brothers were born. At the time of writing this blog post, my daughter just turned 4 (now officially a preschooler) and she still uses her play area on a daily basis.
My daughter actually has 3 “baby free” play spaces in our house – her room, the basement, and a contained area on our main floor. For this blog post, I am writing specifically about her contained play space on our main floor. Having a contained space for her to play in, on our main floor, has been a game changer. We spend the majority of our day on the main floor of our house and having this play area set up for my daughter allows her to still be apart of the main living area, but at the same time, gives her a place to go and play if she needs space from her brothers. It also gives us a secure spot to keep all of her toys out that she wants to have access to, but that we need to keep away from her brothers.
Plastic Play Fence
I was hesitant in purchasing a big bulky plastic play fence, but I am so glad I decided to do it, it was the best decision for our family! I actually purchased 2 of these plastic play fences and connected them together because I knew I wanted/needed a larger space to be fenced off. At first, I used the fences to section off a play area for the babies so I knew that the babies had a safe space to explore as they were learning to crawl. But once they started to walk I knew they couldn’t be contained anymore in one play spot so this is when I decided to move the plastic play fences over to my daughter’s play space.
I know there are other play fence/playpen options that are a bit more aesthetically pleasing but I went with this specific plastic play fence because I knew I could attach 2 together to create a bigger contained space. I also love that the door locks so my twins can’t open the door and with this strong plastic option, it is quite sturdy! My twins (who are now full on toddlers, weighing 25 lbs each) will both pull and shake the fence at the same time (basically trying to pull it down to get into their sister’s play area lol), but it has held steady and strong!
Art Easel – Washable Paint – Giant Colouring Books
I set up a paint station in one of the corners in my daughter’s play area. Whenever there are times that I can tell my daughter is getting bored and needs a new activity, I will ask her if she wants to paint. She always answers yes, it has yet to fail!
This paint station is so easy to set up. I purchased a kids art easel. One side can be used as a whiteboard and the other side can be used for chalk. I hang her pictures to be painted on the whiteboard side because it doesn’t matter if any gets paint on the whiteboard, it easily washes off with water. Then I put washable paint in a muffin tray (again washes out super easily!), set up a few paint brushes, a container with some water, and grab a picture from one of our giant colouring books. Bam! Paint station is ready and my daughter is occupied for a good 20 minutes.
Tip! Throw on some tunes or an audio story while your child is painting (or doing any kind of art). I find this helps my daughter stay engaged for longer.
Craft Table
I find having a couple available surfaces for my daughter to play on is important for the success of her play area. She needs to have at least one surface to hold her art supplies or a place to play with her kinetic sand, etc. I love this foldable craft table and foldable chair, so the table and/or chair can easily fold down and be stored away if needed.
Bookshelf
I believe another necessary piece of furniture to have in a toddler’s play area is a bookshelf. I use the bookshelf in my daughter’s play area to store books, obviously, but also as a place to put bins of other sorted items, such as colouring books, activity books, her doodle boards, etc.
Sensory Table – Kinetic Sand
I think a sensory table is a must-have item for a toddler play area. My daughter will play at her sensory table for a solid 30 minutes or more. I purposely put the sensory table with kinetic sand, beside the play kitchen. My daughter quite often uses her kinetic sand as apart of her kitchen play. I also purposely have the craft table on the other side of the sensory table because then my daughter has a surface to use to create and build using her kinetic sand.
We absolutely love kinetic sand in our house. It never dries out and is so easy to clean up, I literally just throw the big clumps back into the sensory table and vacuum up the rest. I find 2 of the 2 lbs bags is the perfect amount for a sensory table. I just replace the sand when I feel like it is getting pretty dirty.
