Back in February I reorganised the children’s toy shelf that we have in the family living area. I had noticed how over the last week or so, the majority of the toys were remaining untouched and the preschooler and toddler were looking for other things to play with.

I try to rotate the toys on a quarterly basis, so today’s rotation was a little over due. The main changes I made were to cater for the new interests of the children.

For the preschooler this meant including:

- Preschool Writing Box - for easy access to encourage use.

- Fruit Counters - for playing shops and explaining basic mathematical concepts like one to one matching and patterns.

- Dinosaur Dominoes Game - Possum is very into multi player games at the moment, but this is also one that she has made up her own little games to play.

For the toddler I included:

- Wooden Blocks - he is obsessed with building towers!

- Cotton Reels - perfect for practising fine motor skills with threading and of course can be stacked as a tower.

- New Puzzles - changed over the puzzles to dinosaurs and firemen, which will hopefully stimulate his interest in puzzles again.

How do you manage the children’s toy’s at your house?

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Last Christmas I tried to buy for my nephew a wooden garage, like the one in the photo. I looked in all sorts of toy stores and was unable to locate exactly what I wanted. With time running out, I took the desperate step of entering Toys R Us to see if they would on some random chance stock such a product.

I hunted around the area where all the cars were and couldn’t find anything of the wooden variety. Luckily for me a young staff member came to tidy in the area that I was working in and I asked her if they stocked the wooden garage. She gave me a very puzzled look and then stated:

“Oh no, we don’t stock anything wooden.”

Her honesty made me laugh and I left the store immediately.

I was intrigued then to see, how the power of popular opinion can make large chain stores alter the products they stock.

As reported in the Environmental Leader:

Toys R Us has launched a line of environmentally friendly toys. The first toys in the collection include natural wooden toys, natural cotton plush animals and organic cotton dolls - will be available nationwide and online by Earth Day.

Earth Day is Tuesday April 22nd 2008 and I am presuming that this will be the launch for the US and I couldn’t find any information on when and if this range will come to Australia.

The new range will be easily identifiable as:

The toys come packaged in earth-tone colored boxes that bear a green reversed “R” logo with a green leaf, encircled by the words “Recycle, Renew, Reuse, Re-think.”

I think that any move in the green direction is a good one, but I would be interested to know what percentage of its product range these environmentally friendly toys will make up. Their stores are massive and full of so much plastic.

But for change to happen, we need the large retailers to lead in the right direction and at least this is a start.

When buying toys for your children do you consider the environmental impact which is a result of the creation of the toy?

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Now that we are fully into the swing of term 1, I have set myself a plan of reorganising or de-cluttering, spots in the house that have been bothering me. Having the kids things organised provides a solid foundation to work from with the kids and sets an example of how I expect their belongings to be maintained. However well I plan this though, it always needs a refresher every couple of months to get rid of any build up that has occurred. This week I tackled the toy shelf.

Due to the floor plan of our house, we don’t have a specific play room in our house. Toys are located in cupboards in the children’s bedrooms and we have a toy shelf in the family room. For the two smaller children the toy shelf is the key source of their toys/activities. The older two can easily access the cupboards and choose the activity they want and then (hopefully) return it. Over the last few years, whilst we have had little ones I have found the toy shelf has worked well for us in managing the kids toys for the following reasons:

There is a finite amount of toys on the shelf.
Too much choice is often difficult for younger children to manage. They are more likely to want to have a go at everything and this generally just adds up to additional mess, without any real value for the kids. When I keep an eye on what toys the kids are playing with, their is generally a few key ones that they really are playing with at different phases of their development.

They can choose the toy themselves.
When I sit down with them to play or if they are playing by themselves, they can easily make a decision on what they want to do and easily find it.

A place for everything.
Although I do not expect the toy to go on the exact spot that I put it (but that would be very nice!), it is easy for the little kids to remember where they got the toy from and where they should put it back. If it is an activity with small parts, they know that they need to pick up all the pieces and put it back in the right container and place that back on the shelf.

Rotation.
Like I did today, when I realised that the kids are not really playing with what is on the shelf and are seeking alternative stimulation, I can draw from the stocks in the cupboards and rotate the toys. The new toys out have quite a novelty factor with even the older children, if they haven’t been out for a while. And for Babaganouski, some of these toys are completely new to him.

How do you try and contain toys at your house?

Next week my task is to reorganise the kids drawers, I have some ideas in my head about how to sort out the “socks and jocks” mess that has been occurring in the kids drawers.

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