Play with Me ~ Stacking Pegs

For our very first Play with Me toy we are featuring one of my all time favorite open ended toys, which comes in 2 different versions. We had this version for years, before adding this version to our collection. If you can afford the bigger set, just skip the smaller set. If money is tight, get the smaller set, which comes with one board and a set of pegs, it is definitely enough! You’ll see both products featured here in this post, but mainly just the smaller set. You can get both sets on Amazon, by clicking on the images above. Amazon does have the best price that I have found!

Here’s a few play ideas using this great toy. Remember with young tots, EXPOSURE is the key word, not MASTRY. Don’t feel like you need to drill facts into your little one, just have fun exploring together!

The most obvious way to play, is to let your tot freely explore how the pegs fit into the holes…

Popping the pegs back out from the other side is something your tot might enjoy, although you might have to show him/her the first time!

Encourage your tot to build them as high as s/he can! Use language like tall, big, high, top, etc while building. Some tots will get very upset when it falls, this is a good lesson in “try-try-again”!

Sorting by color is a wonderful activity, although some tots who are younger will reject sorting until they are truly ready. This was the case with Krash, I tried many times with him before he would gladly sort ;-).

Making stairs and bringing in another toy (we used Little People) is fun. Expose vocabulary, counting, colors and more!

• “The man is going up, up, up, down, down, down..”
• “The man is standing on the green tower, can you put him on the yellow tower?”
• “Oooh the man is on the shortest tower, can you move him to the tallest tower?”
• “Let’s count with the man, 1-2-3-4-5…” (as he moves up and down the stairs).

Make a mini zoo, with cages for animals…

Investigate the tiny circles when you flip the board over. Have your tot find different colors!

Make a car garage out of the bigger set…

Practice shapes using the bigger set…

A lesson in perseverance and patience will happen as your young tot works to fill in the entire board on either the small set or the big set (especially the big one!)

See if your tot can balance on the board with all of the pegs in it (be close by just in case!!!)…

One of the boys’ favorite activities is to make a birthday cake out of it, with candles that are taller. Then they take the “cake” to the birthday boy/girl and sing Happy Birthday and have him/her blow out the candles!

Make patterns with the different colored pegs. Either on the board, or simply on the floor.

Add some straws, or stirring sticks to the mix and challenge your tot to place them in the tiny holes in the tops of the pegs. Here is matching the specific colors too!

Sort the shape pieces that come with the bigger set…

An idea straight from Krash-make a trampoline! Other ideas…

• Show your tot how to put the pegs onto his/her fingers.
• Lay the pegs in a straight line and practice counting.
• Make different letters using the pegs laid out on the floor.

The opportunities are truly endless and this is by far one of the most popular toys we have in our home. Krash is now almost 4 and has loved this toy since he was 2. My oldest son is almost 8 and still LOVES to play with it.

Happy Playing!

You can see this and other toys we feature here on our website all on one page. We will add all of the toys we feature with links back to the blog posts!