I’m always looking for fun, screen-free ways to encourage my children to play. My youngest child especially needs a lot of encouragement to play on his own. He loves board games and football cards, but getting him to play anything else is a bit of a struggle. One thing he does enjoy, though, is reading and listening to audiobooks. Our Toniebox has been a fantastic source of entertainment during the day and for him to listen to as he falls asleep.
Combining toys like building blocks with a Toniebox has really helped bring creative learning and play back into our playtime. The best part is that this type of play doesn’t require lots of preparation or create mess. With just a Toniebox and toys you already have around the house, you can create imaginative, engaging activities for all ages.
Here are five easy ideas to try at home!
1. Build a Story with Your Toniebox
One of the easiest ways to combine listening and play is to use the characters and toys from the story to inspire play.
Choose a story, Tonie, and encourage your little one to listen carefully. As the story unfolds, invite them to use the toys to build the places, characters or objects they hear about. Don’t worry if you don’t have the actual toys, basic blocks can be used to build houses or represent characters.
Listening to a story about a farm? Build a barn, animal pens and a little farmhouse. Enjoying a fairy tale? Create a castle with towers, a bridge and a secret doorway.
For older children you could combine a Pokemon Tonie with Pokemon cards.
Another idea is to pause the story and use the toys to create an alternative ending.
Ask questions like:
- What do you think will happen next?
- Can you build the place where the story takes place?
- Which character would you like to build a home for?
This activity encourages children to think creatively while enjoying a story.
Top Tip – After the story finishes, ask your child to tell you what happened using their block creations as props. It’s a lovely way to practise recalling events and developing storytelling skills.
Perfect for: Language development, imagination and storytelling
2. Count, Sort and Stack
Use a collection of wooden building blocks and music from a Toniebox to inspire a counting, sorting and stacking activity.
Put on a favourite counting song or nursery rhyme and encourage your child to build along.
Try these simple activities:
- Count as you stack: Add one block at a time, counting aloud together.
- Sort by colour: Make separate piles of blocks in different colours.
- Build number towers: Create a tower with two blocks, another with four and another with six.
- Compare sizes: Build two towers and ask which is taller or shorter.
For younger children, keep it simple by counting to three or five and building small towers. Older children might be able to do basic addition.
You can also use a number-themed Tonie to encourage children to listen for numbers and then represent them with their blocks. If you have any Numberblocks toys, these are perfect with a Numberblocks Tonie! Children will love acting out the stories with the Numberblocks.
Top Tip – Let your child make mistakes and experiment. If they build a tower and it falls over, try to build another one with a bigger base.
Perfect for: Basic maths skills, sorting
3. Music and Block Challenges
Turn your living room into a wonderful musical space with a music Tonie featuring children’s songs. One idea is for children to play while the music plays, and then stop when it stops. Or, create a different task or challenge for them to do in between songs.
Easy challenge ideas
- Build the tallest tower you can before the song ends.
- Build a bridge – perhaps add some pieces of card to this activity.
- Build something using only square blocks.
- Build a tower taller than a favourite toy, or add a ruler and specify its height.
For younger children, keep the challenges short and achievable. For older children, try two or more step instructions, such as finding four blocks and using them to build a house.
Perfect for: Listening skills, coordination and following instructions
4. A Magical World of Imaginative Play
Use wooden blocks to inspire imaginative storytelling inspired by a Tonie Story. Melissa and Doug themed Blockables are perfect for this. Use a story that’s related to the blocks and watch imaginative play unfold in front of you.
For example, children could build a farm or zoo while listening to an animal story, or create a map with toys when listening to an adventure story.
Encourage imaginative thinking with simple open ended questions:
- Who lives in this house?
- Where does this road lead?
- What might happen next?
If siblings or friends are joining in, encourage them to work together on one big creation. They can take turns adding buildings, inventing characters and deciding what happens next.
Top tips – Try to keep play open ended to allow the child’s imagination to run run free and combine with other sensory toys.
Combine the story with a fun outdoor sensory activity, like making witches potions or building mini dens with sticks.
Perfect for: Creativity, social skills and storytelling
5. Listen, Build and Retell
Choose a story on your Toniebox and ask your child to listen carefully. Once the story finishes, challenge them to recreate three important moments using their blocks. This is great for encouraging children to remember the sequence of events in the story.
Younger children might simply recreate their favourite part. Older children could try putting the events in the correct order and explaining what happened first, next and last.
You can make the activity more challenging by asking your child to:
- Build a setting from memory without listening again.
- Explain why a character went somewhere.
- Add a new ending to the story.
- Invent their own story using the buildings they have created.
This is a great way to encourage children to actively listen and really think about the story being told.
Top Tip – Don’t worry if your child’s version of the story is different from the original. The idea behind this activity is to go beyond the story.
Perfect for: Memory, comprehension and sequencing
Top Tips for Learning Through Play
Don’t feel like you need to schedule hours of learning into each day, just a short amount of time when you can is helpful and encourages more of the same type of play going forward.
The Toniebox makes stories and songs very accessible without a screen, while Melissa & Doug blocks and Numberblocks toys provide a hands-on way to explore beyond the story. Together they provide everything a child needs to practice listening, counting, problem solving and imaginative thinking while having fun. All three are great Christmas toys too!
Together, they can help make everyday playtime an opportunity to practise listening, counting, problem-solving, language and creative thinking.
Sometimes, the best learning happens when you simply put on a favourite Tonie, tip out a basket of blocks and see where your child’s imagination takes them.
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