My #1 Always-in-my-Handbag Waiting Game

doodlepro2

Do you have a playful backup for times when you get caught waiting unexpectedly? This mini Fisher-Price Magna Doodle, the Doodle Pro, has been my go-to waiting game on shopping trips, in aeroplanes, at restaurants and doctors surgeries since Immy was about 16 months old. It takes up no space in my handbag and prevents me scrabbling around the bottom of my bag (amongst the squashed strawberries and spilled sultanas) for a scrap of paper and a pen.

Of course, using the Doodle Pro for drawing is one way of having fun but we have a number of favourite games that we like to play that make waiting time pass much more quickly!

1. What animal is this?
I have played this game with Immy since she was small, even juggling a shopping list, throwing grocery items into the trolley and playing on the Doodle Pro as we went  When she was small, I would narrate as I drew, “This animal has a head and a body and four legs. It has a long, long neck and is very tall…” And she would guess what I was drawing. This is a fun way of introducing the idea of giving ‘clues’ and what a clue is. Clues like where the animal lives or what sound it makes become very important once your child is having a turn of drawing themselves, especially when their drawing isn’t yet representative of what you might perceive as the actual animal (see above).  Nowadays, I don’t tell Immy what I am drawing, instead showing her after I have drawn each body part or feature to see how early she can guess which animal I am creating.

2. Your turn, my turn
For this drawing game we each take turns to add one item to the image at a time. So I might start with a circle, and Immy adds another shape, and then I add a feature or another shape, and so on and so forth, until you may just end up with a collaboratively created drawing like the one below.

3. Find the…
Depending upon the age and developmental stage of your toddler or preschooler, shapes, numbers or letters will work with this game. Draw a variety of simple shapes (or numbers or letters) on the board and ask your toddler to find and cross out each one that you name.

4. For Bigger Kids
For older preschoolers and primary aged children try classic games like noughts and crosses or hangman.

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34 Comments

  1. We have my husband’s car garage from when he was a child and our son loves it!

  2. We had lots of the old style little people. I loved the hospital and the tree house! Wish we still had them!

  3. My son got a travel sized one as a gift one Christmas from a casual acquaintance and it stays i his back pack permanently. If we aren’t taking his bag then it goes in my purse. He has a larger one that he plays with at home but the travel size goes with us everywhere. I took him out the other day and forgot to have him grab a car and I was so happy to have the writing board handy. I quiz him on word recognition, or he can just draw. Life saver.

  4. Michelle DennisEvans (@MichelleDEvans) says:

    I’m feeling somewhat deprived now… we didn’t have any fisher price toys … But I do remember playing with my cousins double screen TV – I too had forgotten about that one til you mentioned it and I went and check it out on their fb page. I loved it!

  5. Mine is definitely the ViewMaster. We had a heap of them in our library at primary school and boxes of the picture wheels that went inside. I remember spending hours in there with my friends going through them all and bugging my Mum and Dad until I finally got one of my own!

  6. My most remembered toy is the viewmaster! I still have it but will wait until the kids are a bt older to show them, I’m sure they’ll love it as much as I did 🙂

  7. Nicole Beveridge says:

    I didn’t have a ViewMaster as a child but it was always the first toy I was drawn to whenever we visited a family friend. I also loved the souble screen tv and recently found one at a garage sale so now my two daughters can enjoy it too

  8. I loved my fp camera, with zoo photos, but every kid in my family put my eldest cousin’s dollhouse (/footstool etc) through its paces. It’s still standing I believe.

  9. I had the brown Cassette Tape Player which I just loved to bits. My brother had the Play Family Airport which mum still has at her place and my 2 daughters absolutely love playing with it now! Just goes to show their toys do stand the test of time!

  10. bubble936 says:

    I had a Fisher – price laptop. me and my brother use to fight to get turns…

  11. Oh wow, what a trip down memory lane seeing all those toys. i had a music box & remember playing with it over & over again.

  12. Wow, I really enjoyed looking at all the old FP toys just now. Some of the images even gave me goose bumps, bizarre! I certainly remember playing with and absolutely loving the FisherPrice double screen TV at our doctor’s office, how very high tech..

  13. My favourite toy as a child was the View Master. I actually think I still have it packed away in my box of treasured childhood goodies along with some slides 🙂 That brings back so many memories. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

  14. Michelle Suckling says:

    I remember my ‘change a record music player’ my sisters and I had so much fun with it especially pretending to be big people with our own music

  15. I still remember playing with the pull-along phone

  16. I loved my brother’s air port toy, I think it had a little petrol bowser? So cute!

    Love the magnadoodle idea, will be keeping that one up my sleeve.

  17. Lucy Moore says:

    My favourite toy was the school house, with flip up lid, it was my sisters and I always wished it was mine. We keep the magnadoodle in the car for long trips.

    We were caught waiting unexpectedly for 1 hr in radiology yesterday. The pad of paper and pen came in handy for my 4 year old (who’s arm wasn’t broken), but not long enough for Mr.2. Luckily I also had a tape measure – oh what awesome fun. It was a soft sewing tape so not too dangerous, except he used it as a dancing ribbon. I would recommend a small pencil case with a pads of paper, pens and pencils, a tap measure, dice and pack of kids cards. Entertainment wherever you go!

  18. Wendy Turner says:

    I remember playing with my Fisher Price farmhouse with all the animals for hours and hours. I used to dream about being a farmer one day and taking care of all the animals! Wish we still had it…but the new Little People farmhouse that my children now play with is pretty awesome too and great for little hands. 🙂

  19. Mine would have to be the Family Action Garage – fabulous, hours spent playing with it. We have just given Bear the modern version and I look forward to watching many more hours spent with such a fabulous toy. I do love F&P for plastic toys – they just really seem to know what kids will enjoy.

  20. I always coveted those toy tvs that others had but i never did! My younger brother had the xylophone and it was a much loved toy. He didn’t have many toys as he grew up in Darwin and played outside most of the time but the xylophone was a constant and is still much loved by the 12 grandchildren that frequent Grandmas house now.

  21. That used to be our favourite, too. No mess drawing. It broke and I haven’t replaced it yet.

  22. Would have to the good old plastic music box! Loved it!

  23. sarah greenwood says:

    There were a few fave’s; the airplane, the village that folded up and you could carry it around, the little people, the view master but the No 1 Memory is the Change A Record Music Player- all our toys were shared as kids and the music player was one we could all take turns with!!! It was given to us after Cyclone Tracey (we had lost everything) and our Gran had bought it for us a Christmas gift (as we had lost all of ours)!! It made is somehow super special – it lives with my sister now!!

  24. Cash register – I remember spending hours and hours playing shops with my brother and sister – what fun we had! My little one is starting to show an interest in playing shops – was just thinking the other day that I’ll have to get her one!

  25. We had the Magna Doodle which I played with from the time a could hold a pen right up to my teens (even then it was built to last!). I remember sitting in the backseat with my brother on our long car rides playing hangman, tic tac toe…

  26. I loved the Chatter Phone – when I saw it as a character in “Toy Story 3”, I almost squealed out loud in the packed cinema! (I hope the Chatter Phone wasn’t punished too much for warning Woody 🙁 )

  27. Oh yes, yes, yes! I discovered the mini magnet doodler when I recently took the girls on a long car trip. Now, each girl keep one next to her car seat. There’s a lot less boredom in the car nowadays!

  28. The Viewmaster. I remember having a whole bunch of discs about mickey mouse, even though I wasn’t actually in to Mickey. Perhaps the discs came in cereal boxes?

    I’m tempted to get a modern Viewmaster for my kids, but don’t think they’ll appreciate it as much as I would!

  29. Michelle V says:

    I remember having a Timmy Turtle; I got it just after my brother passed away, when I was four.. I loved that toy so much. Timmy helped dance me through the days of my childhood, even when it wasn’t a party.

  30. Feeling very old right now or just deprived, didn’t have any fisher price as a child. My son’s favorite by far is the gum ball machine still plays it now.

  31. I loved the chatter telephone – but don’t all kid love a phone!
    Love those little Doodle Pro’s too.

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