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Lucy's store

My almost two-and-a half year old, Lucy, has had this play kitchen since November but has not played with it as much as I thought she would. I decided to re-purpose part of it as her "store." Instead of throwing away packaging, I put it into her store. She now anticipates this and when she sees that I have used up the last of something, she asks for it for her store. If it's a box, I usually tape the open end with masking tape so that the box keeps its structure better as she plays with it. With juice bottles, I try to keep the lids on so that she can play with taking them off and putting them back on. We play "store" games -- for example, I will sit in the other room and ask her to bring me certain items from the store. Sometimes, she will wheel her doll in the toy stroller and say that she is going to the store to buy some things. My parents have even gotten in on the action by saving cool packages for her.

I think the store is great because it:

• Re-uses packaging rather than throwing it away
• Is fun for her to play with (lots of different colors and textures)
• Eventually may be used to help her with math and counting skills if we can incorporate in some money "transactions"