Originally published in 2022, updated yearly.
But first!
Read Our Monthly Themes for Play:
for our full list of themes
and to learn why we loveeee monthly themes.
February’s themes:
Valentines-y
love, kindness, family, hearts, tea parties, mail
Toys:
Here are our favorite toys we keep out 24/7.
We keep our toys the same, and rotate monthly books and a few activities!
See a quick tour of our playroom (and how we store our toys) in this reel.
Here’s how we store monthly activity items the rest of the year.
Books:
Here's the three ways we store our toddler’s books.
We have a little bookshelf in our den, where we do a monthly book rotation. See a quick reel here!
And a gentle reminder that we love to ask for books for holiday/birthday gifts. Here’s the five gifts we love to ask from loved ones.
And we love these PaperPie books. Any time you purchase through my PaperPie links, I earn free books for our home library - KK and I send you the biggest hug of gratitude!
Art supplies + activities:
Here’s how we store our art supplies + activity books in our home.
a Valentine’s-y Magic Painting Book - KK’s favorite activity
this Valentine’s Day coloring book - we love these coloring books!
this set of Valentine’s Day fine motor work + art activities
and this and this craft set to make little photo frames - we love putting a recent photo in these frames, decorating the frame with the kit’s materials, and sending them to loved ones as a keepsake! we also love our blank post cards for this reason, too.
We also love to work on these as apart of our beloved Evening Quiet Family Time ritual.
We only offer our Valentines-themed art supplies during February, our Valentines-themed month - so we reuse these things year after year. Here’s how we store monthly art items the rest of the year.
A gentle reminder that we love to ask for these things for holiday/birthday gifts. Here’s the five gifts we love to ask from loved ones.
Play dough activity:
play dough
heart play dough stamps from this small shop
and/or craft store Valentine’s trinkets
various cookie cutters from Target, like these cookie cutters and this heart stamp
I also love these Valentine’s Day play dough mats
Also:
Here’s how we store our art supplies and our play dough tools.
Here’s how we store these monthly play dough items the rest of the year.
Here's a post on our favorite play dough, our favorite tools, and when we use play dough.
Sensory Bins:
KK loves her two sensory tables! For this month’s sensory bin, I added:
We set out a tea set and cup set that was made as a sensory table insert - the company unfortunately no longer makes them.
See a quick tour of our playroom with KK’s two sensory tables in this reel.
Here’s how we store these monthly sensory bin items the rest of the year.
We have a separate, simple rice bin - like this Busy Toddler post! - that KK LOVES.
KK loves scooping and pouring rice, so let’s use add some Valentines-y cups and bowls.
linked similar items here!
Here’s how we store these monthly rice bin items the rest of the year.
Play Kitchen:
Here’s a quick reel on the 13 things we keep in our play kitchen. And then each month we rotate 2-3 “new” food or cooking toys. This rotation works really well for us!
So in February, we’ll set out:
Also:
Here’s how we store these monthly kitchen toy items the rest of the year.
See a quick tour of our playroom with our play kitchen in this reel.
Here’s a blogpost on our DIY-ish Play Kitchen with a Phone and Mailbox.
Resources + Other Ideas:
Reasons We Love a Gym With Childcare In This Season
Like Reason 6 - We loveeee using the indoor pool to play this time of year!
Whew!
Want to see photos? Follow me on Instagram - I’m always sharing peeks into our home and our daily life on my stories. I’m always tweaking our home and our routines and our systems to best meet our current needs in our current season, so my Instagram has the most up-to-date photos.
Loved this post? I highly recommend the “play area” highlight on my Instagram!
Read Our Monthly Themes for Play for our full year of play themes.
I created these monthly play themes as part of my baby prep for Baby #2. See the full list of other things I’m SO happy I did to make Joey’s arrival easier here!
And see my Amazon storefront for more of our favorite things.
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