What’s it like trying to get anything done at home when you have children to entertain?

They’re bored of their toys, you’re too busy to sit and do crafts and you really, really don’t want to give them screens.

It has to be quick and easy. Not even Jeff Bezos with his ‘Same Day by 10pm’ promise is going to save you.

No, it’s just you and the contents of your craft trolley and kitchen cupboard.

So what’s the answer?

I could put some activities on the Play with Purpose blog but by now you know that I think they’re pointless (or, rather, it’s very hard to get them right).

No. The best thing to do is to help our children to think more creatively so they learn to make their own fun.

But that won’t work today. Today is an emergency. You need something right now. They really, truly have run out of ideas. If you could wait it out, you know they’d come up with something eventually, but it’s not worth the moaning and the misery.

Sometimes you just want to give them something to do.

But rather than trawl the web, why not roll the dice? Why not pick a few objects at random from your home and see what you can come up with.

But first, because I love a quick digression, and I respect my readers’ time…

A story

​My second son is wonderfully inventive. He’s the man behind SourStrike, the drink I told you about recently in the Screen-Free Saturdays email.

Once, on a long, potentially-boring day trip, he produced the following items from his pocket.

A sand timer, a marble and a die.

My hero. We played games all day.

Three seemingly-unrelated objects. Thousands of possibilities.

What games could you play? Here are a few:

• Time races
• Play games of chance
• Roll the die to determine how many attempts you get to flick the marble at the target
• Time how long it takes you to get to the top of the hill and back
• Pretend the marble is the hidden treasure
• Try to roll a six before the timer runs out
• Try to roll a ‘4’ and a ‘2’ consecutively. That’s the code for the secret door.

No toys. Just a whole day’s fun.

Creativity is a muscle. It grows with practice.

And we don’t always feel at our imaginative best. Sometimes we need a helping hand.

And that’s why I created The Endless Play Generator.

The Endless Play Generator

It’s an ugly duckling that only a father could love. A web app with a clunky interface.

But don’t worry, the final version won’t be pink - or look like it escaped from a web page circa 1998. It will be sleek and smart.

Once we’re happy, I’ll put it on a swish new website endlessplaygenerator.com (currently under construction)! and I’ll turn it into a mobile app.

But for now, it looks like this:

See? I told you it was ugly.

And notice the new name. It's no longer the Endless Idea Generator. It's the Endless Play Generator

What’s the big idea?

The Endless Play Generator gives you ideas. You tell it what you have to play with and it offers a fully-formed activity.

• What games can I play with a wooden spoon, some twine and a cork?
• How can I use a ball, a sock and a ladle?
• I’ve only got paper clips, a tape measure and a coat hanger. Can you think of something?

And The Endless Play Generator will think. And it will invent a game. A never-before-seen game that’s just for you.

Sound fun?

I think so, too.

It’s Version 1. I need your help

As I said, it’s a work in progress. Play with it, see what it comes up with, and tell me your thoughts.

It asks you four questions:

1. How old is your child?
2. What materials do you have to hand? (it assumes only everyday household objects)
3. How much time do you have for setup?
4. Are there any skills you want to focus on?

And then it gets to work, suggesting activities.

Here’s an example:

1. My son is 4.
2. I have cardboard, pencils and string.
3. I want activities that take less than a minute to set up.
4. I want activities with a fine-motor focus.

Here’s the output, generated instantly. This is the first activity it suggested. I didn’t roll ten times and show you the best one.

Activity: Yarn-wrapped cardboard shapes

You will need:

• A small cardboard box (or pieces of cardboard)
• String or yarn (various colours if possible)
• Scissors

The set-up (1 Minute)

1. Preparation: Cut the cardboard box into several small shapes (circles, squares, triangles, etc.). Ensure the shapes are big enough for your child to handle easily.
2. String: Cut pieces of yarn or string to manageable lengths (about 30 cm each), ensuring you have multiple pieces for various shapes.

The activity

1. Start Wrapping: Show your child how to start wrapping the string or yarn around the cardboard shape. Begin by holding one end of the string at the back of the shape and using the other hand to wrap it around.
2. Continue Wrapping: Encourage your child to continue wrapping the string around the cardboard shape in various directions until the entire shape is covered.

Gamify it

• Colour Challenge: Challenge your child to use different colours of yarn for different shapes or portions of shapes.
• Speed Wrap: Set a timer and see how quickly they can wrap a shape completely.

Tips and common problems

• Slippery Yarn: If the yarn keeps slipping, show your child how to tuck the loose end under the wrapped yarn to secure it.
• Frustration: If your child gets frustrated, take a short break and encourage them to try again, offering gentle guidance.

Take it further

• More Shapes: Once your child masters the basic shapes, introduce more complex shapes like stars or letters.
• Decorate: Provide stickers or markers to decorate the yarn-wrapped shapes.

Classic activities to try with individual materials

• Cardboard Boxes: Create a sensory tunnel by cutting holes in a large cardboard box.
• String/Yarn: Make a simple string art project or practice lacing by threading the yarn through holes punched in cardboard.

Enjoy this simple yet engaging activity that supports fine motor skill development for your 4-year-old!

Obviously, there’s room for improvement. But I hope you can see the potential. A bit of tweaking from me and some feedback from you and we’ll get there.

You can hit ‘Generate Activity’ as many times you like until you get something you’re happy with but I’d rather the first one worked out straight away and that’s why I need your help.

Below are a few screenshots followed by the kinds of questions I’d like your help with. Some are basic, about the interface, and others are about how we can make it work better:

• Do you prefer a drop-down for the ages, or a slider?
• Does it help to have checkbox suggestions or would you rather just tell it which materials you’d like to use? Listing common materials is a quick way to get you started but it gets unwieldy. Maybe you just need a text box?
• Is Question 3 redundant? Will you always pick ‘1 minute’?
• Which skills are important to you? Which should I feature?
• What did the generator get right? What did it get wrong?
• Should it ask more detailed questions?

Play with it. See what it does. And look for ways to improve it. With your help, I can train it to be smarter and to return more relevant results.

I think it could be fun.

Endless Play Generator, Version 2

OK, I haven’t finished version 1, yet, but here’s what’s coming next, once the final version goes live:

1. Publish the best activities. Generated a great activity? Email it to me and I’ll post it on a dedicated site, playexamples.com. If you use the Endless Play Generator and it suggests something that your child loves, please email it to me (along with a picture of you doing the activity, if you’re happy for it to be published) and I’ll put it on the site.
2. Publish from the app. Once the mobile app goes live, I’m investigating ways for you to publish the best activities straight to the website. Visitors will be able to rate, rank and download them. You will have to option to organise and keep your favourites. It will become a readymade library of activities on your phone, that you can dip into whenever you want. And because you made them, you’ll know that they were just right for your child.

This is what I mean when I say that I’m not interested in being a source of activities any more. I think the Endless Play Generator is a great way to get our children thinking more creatively, more laterally. And once they have learnt the trick, they will become their very own Endless Play Generator.

The goal is ideas not activities

This is what 100 Toys was building towards.

No, not an app.

A desire to show you that you don’t need toys. You don’t need activities.

You simply have to believe in the power of your imagination.

And if you’re feeling uninspired, The Endless Play Generator will ride to the rescue. It might not get it right (although I think it usually does) but that’s not the point. It gives you a jumping off point, a nudge to open the kitchen cupboard, pull out a few bits and pieces - and make your own fun.

Are you in?

Final word

See you tomorrow for the last email in this launch sequence, where I’ll show you around The Play Circle, the Play with Purpose community.

After that, I’ll leave you alone. Apart from a couple of emails to remind you that the early bird offer is ending, I’ll resort to a less inbox-cluttering weekly cadence. Through The Scrapbook, the newsletter you are reading now, I’ll share all my new thinking on play and development. I hope you enjoy it.

Happy playing!

Alexis

P.S. If you haven’t signed up to Breaking the screen-time habit, the free companion mini-series to Screen-Free Saturdays, you can read the most recently-published email here:
​
​Day 2 | Going cold turkey is the only way.

In case you missed it, here’s Day 1.

​And here’s a link to sign up to the whole series (5 days plus a few, really quite fun - if I say so myself - bonus modules).

P.P.S. The Endless Play Generator is part of a wider project I’m working on to create a little constellation of resources to help you and your child enjoy screen-free fun.

Here’s what’s included:

• Breaking the Screen-Time Habit An email mini-series to get you ready for…
• Screen-Free Saturdays, Start with the Child and Patterns in Play, three weekly newsletters to keep you inspired and ready to play.
• The Play Tools. A collection of quick-to-implement tools to get your child back on track when independent play falls apart.
• The Play Circle. Meet like-minded parents and enjoy exclusive content like videos, podcasts and webinars in this FREE community.
• The Endless Play Generator. Never run out of ideas again. Become your own idea-generating machine.
• The Play with Purpose Guides. A series of free guides you’ll find in The Play Circle and the via the new website.

​Get all of the above for early bird price of £29 by joining Co-Conspirators, the highest membership tier. The Play with Purpose projects launch on October 30th, at which point membership rises to £49.