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With Saint Nicolas just past and Christmas still to come I am dreading even more toys coming into the house! They are everywhere!
Over the weekend the Littlins and I made a stealth effort at sorting some of their toys, books, games in the playroom. They have IKEA Expedit bookcase – the HUGE 5 by 5 compartment one- and it groaning under the weight of all the paraphernalia. Unfortunately they have inherited or learnt my hoarding qualities. Each piece of paper is very valuable and cannot be thrown out.
We made huge improvements though…ok, there was cajoling, threats, tears, rewards, punishment… (almost) all possible methods in a parent’s arsenal were deployed.
At one point, when the Littlins were having an unauthorised play intermission in the tidy up and I stepped on a duplo piece with bare feet, I flipped… comes with the territory of being Mum on the brink, and I chucked a load of the toys, papers, whatever was in front of me on the floor into the paper bin. The tears and heart-breaking sobs would melt the polar ice caps, let alone my hormonal heart. So I calmed down and we carried on. Now the playroom is much more presentable. Still far from perfect…but it is their fun room afterall!
During tidying up we talked about sorting the toys and giving away lots of them to poor children who won’t get presents for Christmas. After lots of questions the children, especially Little Miss, was sort of amenable to the idea. I don’t think Little Man, at 3, gets the social differences yet, as a second child he is also more possessive of “his” toys. So I have parked that idea for the time being and will do a clear out just before Christmas, when they will be too busy to notice.
After our massive effort came St Nicolas day:
The Littlins woke up, quickly woke me and we came down to check if Santa had been. He had been: Both Littlins got some small toys, besides the sweets and chocolates- Little Miss got some small dolls with little dogs and Little Man a Lego and a Playmobile figurine and a Matchbox. The small toys got taken from their boxes and wrapping, the Lego and Playmobile figurines were put together.
… and I found it fascinating what I observed- Little Miss had to go to school, so she didn’t get much chance to play, but Little Man could not be prised away from his 3 small new toys. The Playmobile figurine was a bit of a pot luck, as it turned out to be a princess. However, he embraced this figure, just the same as he did the Lego soldier and the matchbox. (For once the car wasn’t called Lightning McQueen either!) The whole day, he did not even glimpse at any of his other toys (which could now easily be found in their organised boxes). He came up with different roleplay scenarios for just these three characters, he wanted very little intervention or interaction from me. My Little Man, who often skips from toy to toy, was just really happy to play in his own world of imagination.
It was Little Man’s behavious, which I observed with awe, that made me question whether we are actually doing our children a disservice by getting them so many toys? …and it’s not like mine get toys at any other times than birthdays, Easter, St Nicolas and Christmas, the odd one from guests coming! However, it still adds up!
Do we need to simplify their lives, instead of bombarding their senses?
I have thought about rotating toys. However, I’ve not been able to come up with or come across any sort of systematic way to do this, so the idea has stayed that- an idea.
What do you think? Is less really more? Do you rotate toys? Do you have a system for which toys are out?
Would really welcome views or links to posts with some solutions to toy fatigue.
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I remember this problem very well. I used to rotate toys when my boys were smaller. I also used to ask people to add to collections of toys, so for example to buy duplo / lego bricks, railway track, all to help build the availability of play.
I used to take toys out when I felt that they were getting bored and hide them. then reintroduce them about 2 months later. It is like getting new toys.
I also found that the same worked with books. We had loads (and I mean loads) of books. I did recycle them on a weekly basis in the book box.
As they got older it was easier to get rid of toys, if they were in good condition we sold them and the boys got the money to buy other stuff with.
I try and rotate toys but due to being in a full house renovation I do not have much storage space. I do believe that less is more but I feel like toys can help in a child having fun. My daughter is 22 months old and is starting to really enjoy her toys now.
My fiancé definitely thinks that less is more and our daughter doesn’t need toys, she needs our time. I agree but toys help make that time fun!
Can’t wait for the renovations to be done so that I can just put the toys away!
I guess only having one child helps, but I am fierce, we have a toy cull before Christmas and before birthday. We don’t have a playroom, so we have to be careful, otherwise we are over run. I tend to rotate, I have three toy boxes, one downstairs, one in spare room and one in bedroom and just keep rotating every week or so. Some faves stay perenially downstairs.
Well done on organising your toys – I know what a mammoth job that is! I love the idea of rotating toys. When I worked in nurseries this worked out excellent as it give children free choice but much more focus on what they were playing with. The trick in to have toys available from each learning outcome – Communication Language and Literacy (paper, pens, colours, books, musical instruments etc) problem solving, reasoning and numbers (puzzles, blocks, microscopes etc) Knowledge and understanding of the world (globe, microscopes, animals, planets) Creative development (messy play!) Personal, social and emotional (dolls, action figures) lots of books on topics!
Last summer we had a big clean up and put a lot of toys aside to give to the school for this year’s Christmas Fair. They were all toys that the kids had not played with in a long, long time. When the time came to donate the toys, I took them out of the cupboard and… the children wouldn’t let me give the toys – they played with the toys for hours and hours (though they have no reverted again to their old favourites) :-/
Children have so many toys, there are so many great ones to chose from. I have the main ones out in the living room, mainly the big ones then I have storage boxes with them stored in groups like all one type of toy eg. Little People. I bring these out every so often and then they get packed away again. Otherwise everywhere looked like one big toyshop x
I have toys sorted into various categories and put into big lidded tubs – cars, Duplo, Brio, farm animals, musical instruments, puzzles, soft toys etc. Everyday we start with a different box. After a few hours, or when the boy gets bored, we tidy up and move to a different box. It is a good way of keeping the house tidy, and making sure all the toys have at least a fighting chance of being played with!
Thanks, that’s a very good idea! I will try to implement that.
I did a toy sort out a few months ago and just stuffed them in bin bags ready to go to old nursery or to charity shop, but we are in middle of renovation too, so they got lost amongst the other ‘stuff’ in boxes. They found them the other week and played with them for hours, but i was heartbroken as I had to re-sort. We only have boxes to keep their current toys in I don’t have any tidy cupboards yet, but we have just sorted them out with a playroom, so any mess can be left now without it being in our living room – phew. Sometimes the toys at the bottom of the box get a new lease of life too when the box is ‘tipped completely over’, blows my mind when they do it, but they do play with them all again, especially when the telly is off, sometimes I hate all that childrens tv noise. But the final thing i wanted to say was one of my 2yo sons favourite games is being a robot, where he puts empty toilet rolls over his hands and feet and walks around like one ‘for ages’ saying I-Am-A-Robot a hundred times, getting me to join in, ironically it’s his favourite game, free and very imaginative… Hope your foot is better!
OMG you wanna see our toy room its stupid …. but I just cant throw any away. We do however box them up and rotate them every few weeks we swap boxes and its like they have been given new toys x