The cash register (a hack)

 Quinn has been wanting/needing (developmentally) a cash register.  Except that you know I hate all the plasticy ones that make noises and beep and light up.  Because that means my kids would spend all their time pushing buttons to make it light up and beep and ZERO time actually playing with it doing cash-register related tasks.  So I wanted something that isolated the one skill of cash-register-using.  I'd had it on my mind for a while--to be looking for something that worked out as a simple cash register.  I'd even searched for plans to make a cardboard one online and came up with nothing.  Last week when I was putting something in our playroom cabinet I spotted this guy--Beck's wooden shape sorter.  It has a drawer that pulls out.  PERFECT!  I put some play bills (just a few) and some coins--I used the largest foreign money coins I could round up from our junk drawers, thinking they'd be least likely to go in Beck's mouth or get lost in the carpet.  I also found a play credit card from some junkmail.  I made a construction paper sign that I taped on, and voila!  Quinn adores it and plays with it often, selling all sorts of stuff!  Beck likes to drop the coins through the holes in the back and then open the drawer.   So, I encourage you, as always, to be creative with your toys and look for other uses for them to fill a need that your child may have, developmentally.  :)