Monday, May 16, 2011
On toys.
I'm writing this post in response to Stella's post about her 'Toy Philosophy'. Sarah has been on this topic too lately. In our house, we've got a mix of toys...but they do have one thing in common, pretty much none of them have been bought by me!! My girl has been very lucky to have been given a lot of gifts by a lot of generous friends and family members. We have an abundance of toys, so much so, that this huge array is only about half of them, the other half are in the wardrobe, and we rotate them.
I must say, like Stella, I lean towards toys that are handmade or thrifted, and I love wooden toys. The current favourites are the stacking circles, her puppy dog hot water bottle cover, play dough, and her bike/car - particularly for taking the teddy's for a ride.
Of course you can never go past the things that aren't even 'toys' as well. Kitchen utensils, pots, pans, wool, leaves, the watering can, the mop, the vacuum cleaner...these are all firm favourites too. She also has a tonne of books, which we keep in the story corner. I need a huge toy box to keep it all in...it does drive me a little crazy sometimes having to pick all the same stuff up night after night. She'll pack up after herself one day right?
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3 comments:
Like you - very very few of Isla's toys have been bought by us. Soft toys in particularly seem to breed - I had a little clear out and gave half of her soft toys to charity just before Christmas last year, but she received so many as Christmas gifts we have just as many as we ever did. For all those toys Lala's favourite thing to do is sit on the bench and watch me working in the kitchen with our aprons on.
You mentioned about clearing up the toys - I have a miniture washing basket that lives in the corner of the livingroom and I try and get her to help me load all the toys into it at bedtime - I'm still doing it 90% of the time, but one day she might do it all my herself. I live in hope.
I agree with Nin, people do love to give soft toys!! And though some of them may be my least favourite of Eleanor's toys, generally they stick around because we really love the folk that gift them... I do have a gigantic tickle me Elmo that stays hidden out of sight. I don't know what I will ever do with it...
My main belief when it comes to toys is that they should encourage the children to think, be creative and use their imagination. It just so happens that a lot of natural and every day items provide this opportunity, often more so than the bought, plastic variety that can 'do' stuff for themselves or at the push of a button.
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