2.01.2009
Ditch the Toys?
How many toys do you really think a child needs? Lately I am thinking 2 toys + a stuffed animal might be PERFECT. This is due to my utter hatred toward picking up and putting away and picking up and putting away and so on and so forth. So ... I want to know your thoughts ... do we really need toys? What are the best kind of toys? I am reminded of Laura Rhodes (missionary in Kenya) explaining that they didn't have toys (for their 4 children), and whatever "toys" they had were handmade. So ... let the discussing begin.
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11 comments:
That's a great discussion!! My opinion.... no, toys are not a need. We don't need toys, and we are all guilty of having much more than we need as well (adults too!) But there are toys that have great creative value. So many toys today can do more things than a child can do!! They beep, sing, move, flash lights, etc. A general rule that I have heard is that the best toys are things made before 1950 (or 1970, I can't remember!!) I like building toys (like Legos or Lincoln Logs, they also serve as great manipulatives for math!), train tracks have served us well, and dress-up. Toys that require imagination!! I don't think toys are bad, I do think we have too many, and I try to be choosy about what we keep. But, it is a great discussion and I will be so interested to read the responses!!
I've recently come to the conclusion that the best toys in our entire house are the dollhouse (for the girls) and the medieval castle (for Jonah). I wish we'd gotten them sooner. They have to cooperate and imagine and plan and interact. . . Plus, since they were secondhand purchases, they cost way less than the stupid high tech stuff we got them for Christmas. I'm starting to think that the dollhouses, a set of family-type dolls (or knights in Jonah's case), and a comfort doll or stuffed animal is really more than enough. Although it's different for Jonah, I suppose. He really enjoys his little army men too, and superhero figures. And I also agree with Lisa that dress up and building toys are awesome. But even if we kept all those, there's SO MUCH we could get rid of right now. I just feel bad tossing it all, because they seem kind of attached to a lot of that stuff.
Isn't this just something that we figure out throughout our lives? How much is enough? And is the amount detrimental to our daily walk with Jesus Christ?
I try to always think of material things in the Being a Good Steward light.
There is organizing and their is purging. Organizing is helpful but purging requires decisions to let go or not too. It is so entirely difficult for us to let go of anything isn't?
This has given me a good motivation to get going on my own toy wharehouse. I give the toys to our Church Nursery.
One thing one can not have too many of is Good Books for the kids and have a place that keeps them in good condition and accesible.
Most kids definitely have too many toys. We go through the girls toy cabinet and clean it out every few months. Abby has become a part of it and even every once in a while will bring us a toy and says "I don't really play with this anymore so I want to give it to a little kid who doesn't have toys." Our best toys are the kitchen and their little kid table. They will play with the kitchen or sit can color for so long at the table. I guess we have craft cabinet and that is Abby's favorite right now. One shelf is all coloring books, markers, crayons, stickers, etc. The other shelf is games, puzzles and such. The dress up is also a hit but sometimes it starts battles with Lila's age being young but i can see how soon it will be wonderful.
You know, I think for the most part kids can be so flexible that they will become contented with whatever they have. Nintendo ds? Awesome! Geotrax? Hurray! Cardboard boxes? Sweet!
I get frustrated when they are totally happy and content with that box and someone introduces them to something bigger and better. I like seeing that innocence of being happy with whatever the circumstances. I often want to get rid of most of the toys. Then I start justifying things in my head. They really like the blocks, legos, and lincoln logs at different times. Which one would I weed out? The cars totally get raced around the house. And their geotrax collection can keep them and friends engrossed for DAYS before cycling on to the next thing.
I am sure that there is too much. I am sure that we have too much. I like seeing their imagination and cooperation grow while using everything, though.
Great discussion!
About the picking up after them, I say don't do it. I say let them pick it up themselves. But then again I pick up after my girls sometimes. For the most part, though, they clean it up themselves. I give them a lot of storage bins and they are good about doing it. Otherwise they don't get to watch a video or have a snack or get allowance.
As for the amount of toys, kids have way too much. But they are also willing to give away toys if we give them a chance. You'd be surprised how much kids will give away if we encourage them to and lead by example ourselves. We "make" the girls give away toys before major holidays and birthdays in prep for them getting more toys. And we discourage cheap happy meal toys and ask the grandparents to scale down on giving them stuff all of the time. I want them to love their grammas and aunties, etc. NOT for the stuff they give.
There's my .02.
I too must admit that I am the one who is attached to most of the toys. I did go through all the toys last week and did a major clean-sweep. (And I threw away all of those random happy meal toys too!)
And it does seem that the girls are content with WHATEVER. Right now they are playing with these alphabet letters that we painted today which have sticker backings ... the W is the mom ... the S is the baby ... I mean seriously, I could give them a bucket of rocks and they would role-play for 2 hrs. Their imagination blows me away.
I realized the big problem of the clean-up was not enough clean-up bins (as you suggested Christine). So, I freed up some bins (by giving lots of stuff away) and now the kids have bins they can take around the house and collect their things. This is working wonderfully.
Still ... I think we could get leaner...do they really need a MLP Castle AND a Dora Castle? (both gifts, of course). Well ... thanks for conversing ladies. I love all the insight.
Does anyone keep "extras" of things just in case friends come over?? I always hear that little voice in the back of my head saying, "But if a friend comes over you want to have enough for everyone ..." Hmmm ...more contemplating.
Could you clarify the "extras." Do you mean extra toys stashed away to bring out when other kids come over? If that's what you mean, we don't keep extras. It's good for them to learn to share, just like Amber Shea and Sage did last week with the timer. It worked well.
David wants to clean up and get rid of those things that Peter is too big for...Of courser Natalie is coming along but I like to keep the stuff becuase all the kids that come over play with everything. We have quite a few people with Kids over and this is really a big draw with the kids themselves...As my house is a place that is fun for kids. I like that. I remember Aunt Jerries house as the most boring house in the world and hated going there becuase they had "not" a single toy.
Again, I have the space,and I also have it pretty well organized.
Don't ditch the toys!!! Someday your grandkids will be playing with them...legos...
OH...and keep extras for EVERYONE!
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