Good Friday was forecast heavy rain so I was pondering activities that I could set up for J to keep him entertained inside. Recently, I have created a few small worlds for him but I quickly learnt that if cars aren’t involved somehow in the play then the small world won’t hold J’s interest. So rather than trying to fight his love of cars and encourage him to have a wider range of interests, I fully embraced J’s car obsession and decided to create a whole play town for him that centred around a masking tape road.
I used masking tape (almost an entire roll) to make a road system on the floor of J’s playroom. I have used it before for a variety of activities so I know that it comes off our carpet without any damage or trace (our wooden floor has lost some varnish though in the past, so please do a small test prior to using masking tape). I planned out the town in my head as I went using his toys.
To begin with I incorporated J’s car garage into one section of the town, so that his new break down truck can take broken down cars there to be fixed. Cars can also visit the garage to refill with petrol and it has a small car park on the top which J likes driving cars up and down to so this was an obvious toy to choose to have in the town.
Next, I decided to use J’s dollhouse. He loves playing with the figures and they represent our family with a few additions. J enjoyed placing the furniture where he wanted it and dollhouse J played football with daddy while mummy and nana got to sit in the sunshine (it never rains in J’s play town) and eat cake – I like this idea 🙂
Initially, we had a Blaze racetrack and spectator viewing section but J then decided that he wanted to have some countryside so that the family in the doll’s house could walk their dog (just like we do). We used J’s Happyland farm and Duplo farm for a countryside segment. Here J took exception to the character which he calls “ME” being stood next to a girl character! When I indignantly asked him why he couldn’t stand next to a girl, he thought about it and then replied that she was holding a teddy bear and so she couldn’t help him feed the animals. I suggested she put her teddy down. J shook his head adamantly. “No mummy. Then it would get dirty and muddy.” Logic according to a three year old!
Once the farm was in place, we added an airport and a port. The airport had a runway and a car park and then several planes ready to take off. J received a Sainsburys airport play kit for Christmas which has a flight of stairs and a baggage carrier so they got to play too. The port had a crane to load and unload cargo between a truck and a boat. The police helicopter also joined in with the port play and enjoyed escorting the precious cargo from our airport on the truck to the port.
Next, we added a construction area where the vehicles were working at a Bob the Builder site. They were rather useful as every hour or so the road developed a water or gas leak and they were rushed to save the day. I also gave the construction site some Cheerios, Shreddies and uncooked pasta to use as house building materials, which J (and our Labrador puppy, Orion) loved.
Finally, we added the Happyland vets set, a Duplo play school and a Playmobil park to the town and hours of fun were guaranteed.
J played with his town all afternoon on Friday, most of Saturday, Sunday morning and on and off on Monday and Tuesday. Then I absolutely had to hoover so it all got pulled up. 😉 J is most displeased and is asking for a racetrack now! What would you put in your child’s play town?
If you have enjoyed our Play Town Play please share it on Pinterest and comment below to let me know. Thanks!
I’ve linked up with Mummy in a Tutu, Mumzilla and Reflections from Me at #ablogginggoodtime
28 comments
This looks so much fun- what a great way to get children playing creatively. It can be hard work getting my two boys interested in playing sometimes, but I think they’d love this #sharingthebloglove x
You should definitely have a go. It will keep them happy for days!
That looks so much fun! We used to the same when the Tubblet was the age for Lego battles 🙂
Oh it was. I look forward to J playing with Lego as it has so many possibilities 🙂
This is such a wonderful idea – I know Max would absolutely love this! He loves his cars and can spend ages just driving them around. Filling up with petrol is a favourite activity – I have no idea why, I find it quite a tedious activity myself! I love that you can just keep extending it and adding bits (although I would also dread the moment it all had to be tidied away!) Thanks for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
Ha ha! I hate filling up my car as it is just something that gets in the way of what I actually want to be doing. 🙂
Yes, it took me half an hour to pull up all the masking tape which was not such fun! I have promised to redo it for him in the future but not this week!
This is a great idea! A little town to spend the day in! He must have loved it! #pocolo
Oh he did. He keeps asking me to rebuild it! I have promised that I will do but not this week.
This would be a big hit with my boys, they love pretending to cause traffic jams etc X #pocolo
What is it with loving to make traffic jams?! It is almost an obsession at the moment for J 🙂
This is an amazing idea! So simple, yet so brilliant. My youngest daughter loves cars and would be in heaven with it. Thank you for joining us at #SharingtheBlogLove
Ooh yes it would be perfect for her then 🙂
This looks great, what a good idea! #ablogginggoodtime
Thanks!
Thank you! 🙂
This is such a good idea, I might try with my little two one weekend! #FamilyFunLinky
Let me know how you get on 🙂
This is so much fun! You’ve inspired me to try to be more creative with how I play with my daughter beyond just getting out the Duplos again. #familyfunlinky
Ha ha! I love the Duplo. It is such a great way to play creatively all the time anyway.
This looks amazing- such a great idea to use the masking tape and play with it in different ways on consecutive days. Thank you for sharing. #familyfunlinky
This is a lovely idea and I’m sure you both had lots of fun imagining different scenarios. It takes me back to my favourite Fabuland. #ablogginggoodtime
this is fantastic. We’ve done the same from time to time with racetracks and railroad tracks. It always seems like such a shame to take it all down I wish we could have a dedicated room just for this sort of nonsense. How great would that be? #dreamteam
oh I love this idea and think my kids would too. thanks for sharing. #sharingthebloglove
Can I come over and play? This looks like so much fun! #DreamTeam
This is a fantastic idea. What a lovely little world you have created there.
#FamilyFun
Oh Laura, I love this. Did I ever tell you about the time I tried to do it? You told me about it ages ago and I couldn’t find any masking tape so in my wisdom I used double sided tape! I have no idea what I was thinking. I spent hours frantically washing and steaming my wooden floors to get it off! This is why I am not a crafty Mama. Thanks for joining us lovey #familyfun
That sounds like a fantastic play town and what a brilliant idea to use masking tape to make roads on the floor. Sounds like J had a wonderful time playing with it.
Thanks Louise. J had so much fun with it that we made another one the following week. 🙂