Playing with Trinkets!

Remember those little bracelets from yeaaaars ago that we used to be proud of having made? Nylon strings, plastic hearts and letter cubes and those sequences!

Unfortunately they end up in some miniature drawer with tons of other unfinished projects and voila! You have trinkets!

But WAIT! Don't Throw Them Out Just Yet!

While minimalism and organization helps to maintain a clean home you might find one more use for those trinkets, that's if you have a toddler at home.

Trinkets = Instant Sensory Bin

Sensory bins are awesome time killers for toddlers; this has helped me delve deeper into my work, undisturbed, for more than 2 hours. My kid gets really hooked on these bins, especially when it involves water.

He loved ice sensory bin so much and cloud dough that he willingly puts away all of his other toys for it. It's really attention-grabbing, see how we did on our first homemade clay.

Improves Sorting Skills

It's inevitable that toddlers will go into sorting their trinkets sometime during their sensory play. They'll soon realize that there are buttons and there are pebbles and that a lot of them are colored the same way or shaped the same way.

They soon feel obligated to sort them out and this is good because:

1. It practices their fine motor skills. Give them a small tong or hair puller (for small beads) and your toddlers will unknowingly practice how to hold a pencil.

2. It boosts brain development. Sorting triggers brain development as well as matching and counting. See here.

3. It helps toddlers understand same and different and that every object can be the same and different from each other at the same time.

Teaches Counting

Trinkets can be used to practice counting too. You may have to initiate the counting and play with your kid when he's sorting and that's the perfect time to incorporate counting. When an activity is fun and engaging kids learn much faster and remember their numbers better.

Teachers use trinkets too, in fact, in playgroups for toddlers. Read about our experience here.

You may not have seen this coming but letting your kids play with trinkets, and make a mess out of them, is an opportunity to teach them cleaning up after themselves. Amazing right?

If your trinkets include beads and tiny little buttons you can give your kid a small hand broom and dust pan to put things back in place. I know it sounds like giving yourself extra work, but if you can spare a bit of time it will pay off in the long run.

It won't just teach your kid cleanliness it will also practice their gross motor skills. Working up those muscly little arms will make up for being indoors too long.

So the next time you find more trinkets at home, put them all in a box and let your kids play with them during some of your busiest days. Throw in a cute pair of tongs, tiny cupcake containers or a muffin pan and scoopers.

You'll see what imaginative things a mere toddler can do with simple "toys" like this and you'll never have to buy another stuffed animal again!