Raising our family in a compact space demands us to keep our toddler’s toys to a minimum. While we can always maximize storage space, we also consider if the amount of toys actually help her develop the motor skills, creativity, and imagination expected of her age.

One evening at home confirmed that we don’t need a lot of store-bought toys. Our then 13-month old daughter found a way to remove the cardboard sheet that sits at the bottom of her fabric storage box. She laid it flat on the floor, stepped on it, and began singing, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” using her very own lyrics. I was so amazed that I thought: if that unknowing box made my daughter think she was inside a boat, then I’m all for giving her items that can make her imagination run that wild!

Here are more non-toy toys we love seeing her play and learn from:

Our humble neighborhood is conducive for walking and playing, and we go out with our daughter in the morning and afternoon if the weather permits. There was a time she was so into collecting flowers, much to her and our delight. She would stop by flowering bushes and ask us to get flowers for her, and she won’t stop until her hands can no longer hold all of them!

As soon as we get home, she places them on a chair, counts them, and pretends to sauté them. She tears them down one by one – a signal that her pretend play is over. This happened everyday for a few weeks until she outgrew the habit.

Her fine motor skills, her sense of appreciation, and her language were all heightened, thanks to the sensory experience flowers brought her.

I’ve heard toddlers love packaging, but I didn’t have an idea just how much until I experienced it first-hand with my toddler.

Every time we’ll unpack a new toy in front of her, she’ll reach out for, guess what – the box. I think it fascinates her not only because of its colors, but more importantly because of the many things she can do with it.

She can examine it, fold it, throw it, all without making us worry about it hurting her or something breaking. She also learned how to pack away her toys using empty boxes. Of these things she does with boxes, one that I absolutely love is seeing her transform it to her toys’ home.

No need for a fancy dollhouse soon, yes?

Colors and prints are things that make her go for cups, plates, and bowls may it be paper or plastic. But the one thing that really holds her attention is the multitude of ways she can use these things.

She stacks them to a tower that I jokingly call “bonfire.” It looks to me like a mishmash of things on top of the other, but for her, it’s a work of her mind – a masterpiece! I see her frustration when one item falls, but she picks it up again and tries to put it back. Sometimes, she deliberately knocks them down, with matching, “uh-oh!” at the end.

She also uses them to hide her toys, and she does a cute “peek-a-boo” with each of them.

My husband and I marvel at how there’s just no limit when it comes to kids’ imaginations. There’s a significant amount of boldness and freedom they exhibit when they play with the right items at the right time, and we believe there’s so much we adults can learn from our kids.

To date, our daughter still don’t have any experience with remote-controlled toys, nor does she see remote controls lying around the house. Our portable air-conditioning unit’s remote control is tuck neatly in a container, which she discovered one afternoon.

She kept pushing the buttons and watching the display in the small monitor in it. While she does this repeatedly, she also puts the remote control on her ear as if it were a phone, and she also puts her toys on it and decides it as their boat.

There are just too many “boats” in our small home, we might as well turn it into a dock soon!

I still remember the very first time I put her muslin blanket over our heads. It was almost bedtime then and I said we need to sleep “in our house.” My daughter shrieked with amusement, and ever since, she asked me to do that activity we labeled, “house.”

When she can already walk and transport things from one place to another, she would hand me my blanket and ask me to do the “house” for us. She also uses her own blanket to put over her stuffed animals “for warmth,” or under them “for comfort.”

She also follows my lead whenever she sees me folding clothes in our bedroom. She “folds” her blanket too, in a way that looks to me like she’s spinning it in a washing machine.

Amazing how this piece of cloth takes her to places and encourages her to assume roles.

Since we buy her distilled water in plastic bottles, our daughter sees a good amount of it here at home. She particularly enjoys the water bottles when it’s half full, because she can see the water move inside when she shakes it.

She also loves the sound the bottle makes when she beats it on the floor. While she has piano and xylophones for toys, she also enjoys this DIY musical instrument along with the sealed vitamins containers that instantly became her maracas.

Who says resourcefulness can only be observed with kids in school? Our home is truly a space for nurturing creative imagination, only if we allow it to!

We used to go to her monthly immunizations with a small bag of toys and books in tow. Now, we don’t bring as much since everyday objects – her food containers included – started to hold her attention!

She enjoyed containers with lids ever since she discovered that there are detachable parts. At first, she just asks us to remove the lid, then put it back. One day, just by observing how we do it, she did it on her own! She “talks” while she does this and I could hear how her tone mimics Ms. Rachel‘s sing-song “Put it on, put it on, put it… on!”

She also loves this cylindrical tin can that used to house chocolate wafers. Since it’s a lot taller than her food containers, she can put more things in it. It was also one of the first items in our home that taught her the concept of sizes – because not everything can fit in it. Through it, we remind her that only small things can be placed inside, and bigger things must be placed in bigger containers instead.

Our home may be small and compact, but our toddler’s imagination is so much bigger than the physical space she moves in everyday. Through the objects we allow her to play, and with our interaction and supervision, she learns to be more creative, conversant, and analytical through open-ended play.