Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free printable toy rotation kit including a step-by-step guide, toy inventory log, and a toy organization cheat sheet. What should I do with old toys my kids dont play with anymore? I generally know if I need to rotate based on how often she's requesting screen time. For now, just familiarize yourself with the categories* youll be using: * Thanks to Playful Learning and Green Child magazine for the category inspiration! This ties back to what I said earlier about toy rotation not actually being a concept from Dr. Montessori. Its kind of like if you started 10 different books all at once and took turns reading a couple pages from each one. Go ahead and include the kids in this step because its actually pretty fun to root out all the toys hiding throughout the house. Sounded totally wrong, but totally worked! With four different kids at different developmental stages and with different tastes, preferences, and personalities, we had a healthy mix of toys. practical life every day life, so things that focus on fine and gross motor skills, practical things rooting the child in reality like a kitchen (more on that in a minute), cleaning supplies, etc. Uhwrong. This can be a fun activity in organizing/re-organizing too and they'll learn the practical life skill of storing items/cleaning out their space. You can keep your toy rotation system simple and informal, or you can go for a more structured toy checkout system kind of like a toy library at home. Starting from the beginning gives you the chance to set up a toy storage and organization system early on. That wasnt a good fit for us. ), Other parents like to get the current set of toys out of the container and place them thoughtfully around the childs bedroom or playroom. As the holidays and my daughter's first birthday approached, since family hadn't really spent money on toys, I felt comfortable asking for some large ticket items that aligned with her development (gross motor skills) like a scooter, pikler triangle and a non-toxic play mat for under it. Hi! When my little one is old enough to have a bunch of toys, I am definitely going to try this out!! So glad to hear you found it helpful, Deanna! You'll ideally want some sort of display bench or shelf where the toys your child has access to are currently displayed. We realized that we do four of Rorys five daily feedings downstairs in the living room, so it made sense to move it down here. Now, it holds some bigger items that we like to have on hand. Really anything that I've used for an activity in the past or just collected and is small goes in here. For example, you can put the miniature dolls for the dollhouse or the play food for the play kitchen in a toy rotation box. In terms of toys, Finns mom got us two kits from Lovevery for 0-12 weeks and then 3-4 months. (Thats me! Toys are arranged on a child size shelf meaning the child can access all the items without the help of an adult. Personally, I try to stick to a weekly toy rotation where I swap anything out she hasn't touched in the last 5-7 days. Living Room Reveal & Sources // Shop the Living Room. Again, this is where those free printable toy inventory sheets at the end of this post will be super useful. Someone had suggested that I should just hide all the toys while my kids were sleeping, leave a few out, and they would be none the wiser. Instead, if you'd like to have montessori inspired toys, look for wooden objects that control for error, focus on a single skill, encourage open ended play, etc. How do I know if its time to rotate toys? I have the same question about books! Generally I think about what skills she's been working on or interested in. I spend at least 1 hour in bed after I wake up every day. This form collects information I will use to send you free printables and other resources. Get 4 containers as a starting point, and you can always add or subtract later. Mommy, I cant find the Lincoln Logs! When everything is put away and hidden, they may not realize whats available to play with and then have trouble playing independently. Note, Finn and I are both neat freaks (Finn even more than me). Any ideas? I do wonder what your thoughts are on books. How often you rotate toys may vary, generally every 7-12 days is a good timeframe. This is where labeling your containers can be helpful because rounding up the current toys will go faster if you have a list for yourself. Having stuff all over the place stresses me out. Your goal will be to end up with several mini-collections of toys. Is this toy broken and un-fixable? What age to start doing toy rotation really depends on your situation. Below, Ive tried to cover all the possible gotchas, so it looks like a lot but you can actually get the whole toy rotation system set up in less than a couple hours maybe even an hour if you hustle. All Rights Reserved. I tried to take a deep breath, but my nostrils stayed flared and I forgot to exhale. Then we learned Daniel Tigers clean-up song and sang it together.
The toy rotation thing has been hard for us because we dont have anywhere for them to go. Or you can do what I do: I just rotate toys when the kids seem to be bored with the current set or when they ask for different toys. Looking for something in particular? When I asked them to clean up, their brains were stewing in a stress hormone bath. remodelaholic But after reading about the benefits of toy rotation, I decided to give it a go. We quickly realized that the girl likes to poop while eating (ha! Related: How to Stop Being an Angry Mom NowUsing 5 Hair Ties {Printable}. Your goal is to give your child a well-curated collection of a. So the animal matching card game, flashcards, lacing kits, etc. Curiouswhat do you do about toys in different rooms? Hi Kelly, That will depend on a lot of factors: how many toys youre starting with, how often you plan to rotate toys, whether your kids play with the same toys or are at wildly different stages, and so on. My preschooler peppered me with questions every day afterwards: Wheres my horsey? I love the themes, my kids do too. We have a few books on her hutch in her playroom, a few books in my nightstand, a few in the nursery, and I just got a montessori style bookcase that is in her playroom, but not as easily accessible as the hutch. The house becomes insane after they all visit with toys spread everywhere and something always ends up missing for a few weeks. Required fields are marked *. We did this in my family growing up, and it was great for us! These toys are great because theyre age-appropriate and the Lovevery kit comes with tips on how to use each item when you play with your baby. We wash the mat once a week or so and its a great place for her to play and wiggle all around. Now before any new toy enters our house, we really think long and hard. When I saw that he didnt play with it for a few days, I then rotated it with something else, but later when he saw us opening the door with key, or when he heard the word key in our conversation, he would run to his shelf and want to take it, but he was puzzled when its no longer found at its original location / home. No worries! Save yourself the trouble and find a few empty containers ahead of time. Lovevery Playkit Subscription Review: Worth It? But if you get the feeling your child is just anxious to play with that toy now, you can do what feels right to you: swap the toy out with a similar toy in the current toy collection, swap the whole toy rotation box now, or tell your child to wait until the next day youll be rotating toys. You can also make a note to suggest toys in a certain category when grandparents and extended family ask for Christmas and birthday ideas. You might hide the toy containers in a closet, garage, basement, attic, or even under the bed. Put it in, Has my child outgrown this toy? Most parents start implementing toy rotation when their child is entering the toddler stage around 1 or 2 years old. Heres the ultimate step-by-step guide to starting a toy rotation that will make your kids happier + support healthy development. Because when kids have too many toys, they feel overwhelmed. :-). Instead she provided unending access to the students with the same set of materials. Still, its not like we had a bunch of junky old toys in our home that we just needed to get rid of. But aside from that, the older kids play together well with the same toys. I'm thrilled you're here! Your child comes up to you more often to announce, Im bored, Your child starts playing with a toy but loses interest quickly, Your child asks for television or other screen time more frequently, Your child gets into things they know theyre not supposed to play with. As another option, you can look for a local toy rental service. Childrens shelters and other nonprofits like the Boys and Girls Club will sometimes accept donated toys. I promise to keep your personal information safe. Whew! I love that this secret spot has lots of baby storage and you wouldnt even know it! Playing with this is the only way she tolerates tummy time these days and I swear we can thank this toy for her rolling over! All that helped a tiny bit, but the big problem remained: Toys ending up everywhere, me nagging the kids to clean it up, and me needing to supervise the whole process to make sure they didnt get distracted or shove everything in a corner and call it done. Honestly, I kind of forgot that this was even a storage ottoman because before Rory we never ever used it! Ha! The sight of your Official Toy Rotation Headquarters right now might make you hyperventilate, so its time to fix that. Okay, before we dive into the details of the space, here are some things that help us. For example, suppose you have a toy rotation box that contains a jump rope (moving), puppets (pretending), a puzzle (thinking), and a xylophone (creating). I LOVE the idea about sorting into categories. And I realized thats why my preschooler and toddler would just stand there, waiting for me to tell them what to do next. No kids in sight, but every single toy sure was. We also keep all of our toys in the console in a little organized bin. This is important because if you put the rest of the not in rotation containers somewhere your kids can see them, theyre going to bug you incessantly to get more toys out. Youd never get fully immersed in any of the books, and youd struggle to pull any significant life lessons or new knowledge from the reading. Log in. Instead we have multiple play areas and use what's available. As for your currently featured toy collection, you can handle that a couple different ways: Depending on the frequency you chose in step 6, you may want to set yourself a reminder on your phone or whatever calendar you use so you dont forget to rotate the toys when the time comes. First, I tried approaching my kids with the patience of June Cleaver and asking them to clean up their mess. Other times, it's just about getting those montessori categories I mentioned earlier met. I love that youve given a specific plan and even printable! It has straws, pipe cleaners, water guns, Dollar Tree toys, sponges, etc. Personally, I'd bring all the toy storage bins to the playroom or montessori shelf area, and let them explore that way. I realized I was not going to be able to store the toys in there pretty quickly. At that point, I moved all the toys to shelves in that room, but the shelves were open and my daughter would always ask for the items in there. Currently we use a set of clear plastic bins I found at Costco a few years ago on clearance. It can be taxing on the parent and it's actually really beneficial for children to see the same toy over and over. We also have this toy piano (it actually comes with a playmat, but we just use the piano) that is Rorys current obsession. Would you bring out an extra rotation box when there are more kids? Ad Disclosure, WATCH: Toy Rotation System, Tutorial, + FAQ Video. But with that said, big kids get overwhelmed too and can definitely benefit from toy rotation. I found this large piece at Restoration Hardware Outlet for a steal. Its time to clean up!. If you suspect medical problems or need professional advice, please consult a physician. The fact that you broke it all down into steps with specifics makes it sound more doable. Plus some fine motor skills that'd grow with her (wooden doll house). I dont enjoy asking you to clean up your toys, and I know you dont like having to clean up a huge mess of toys everywhere. So we realize we may be a teeeeny bit over the top, but this works for us! I think because the items felt overwhelming in the bin, she never really engaged with them. This is where the free printable toy inventory list will save you a ton of time. Because if you speed through this, youll still end up with too many toys, and toy rotation will just be a Band-Aid for a little while. Your child may also go through an adjustment period, wondering where all their toys went. See my privacy policy. With a baby on my hip, Id bend over and pick up a couple toys. Hi Kelly, great article! Note: All information on this site is for educational purposes only. That way, you never have a huge mess to clean up, and you get to play with different toys all the time. For those items I focus more on rotating them between rooms, versus in formal toy storage. If she's touched it in the last week, it stays. Its completely up to you, so check out the steps below and do what resonates with you. We currently have four of them where I've grouped like items together. After I explained what Id done, I felt silly for not including the kids from the start, so we went back to square one and went through the process together as a family. I showed you this caddy when I gave you a tour ofRorys nursery last month. The adults get a spot to relax at the end of the day, while Rory has a nice little play area in between nap times. But try to resist that urge so you can be intentional and deliberate. Some parents may choose to rotate everything at once, while others may leave a toy on their child's toy shelf if it's still being utilized quite often. This kept everything very limited and easy to create a system/storage. Ideally, youll want to end up with 10-12 toys in each toy collection. You'll join my newsletter, plus get the free printable as a bonus! Things in our house always seem to be changing, but as of now, this is the setup that works well for our little family of three. If your child is older than a toddler, youll likely want to talk to them up front about what youre about to do and why youre doing it. We do not have a basement, so initially toy rotation storage was in a guest room, which had just become storage for R's stuff and my work stuff as my office was small. I discovered that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 on a daily basis. Then visit every other room in the house and gather up any toys you find to bring them to Headquarters. How do you handle toy rotation if there are multiple play areas? Keep an eye on your inbox for updates. Lastly, as your child gets older, you may want to focus on a mix of toys and activities. My boppy pillow that I used for breastfeeding is in here. I didnt have time for another project. Kids arent dummies, and I should have known better. Kick the kids outside to play and lock the room so the kids cant wreak havoc before your toy rotation system is up and running, then move onto the next step. Im Kelly. Every afternoon, my living room floor used to look like someone dumped a toy store into a blender and pressed GO with the top off. Pick up one toy at a time and ask yourself these questions: Repeat this step one toy at a time until you have every single toy in a labeled box. This is the main hangout room in our house. Those were basically our ONLY toys the first year. If you happen to have a lot of one type of toy, like a gabazillion LEGO sets, you might want to divide them up a little so you have LEGOs in a couple different toy rotation boxes. If theyre not ready to let go, dont stress. Sell a bunch of toys as a lot on Craigslist, or hold a garage sale to find new homes for them. Oops. So I researched what the experts say about how to deal with toy clutter, and I realized that I had completely missed the root of the problem. We also go to the library once every week or two weeks and get about 10 books. Toy rotation is when you store a portion of your baby, toddler, or child's toys so they only have access to a limited quantity of their toys at a time. But if you dont have a shelf like that, you can easily designate a table, bench, or just a corner of a room to achieve the same effect. For example, you might put a puzzle out on the kids play table, set up. That is probably the reason why we have soooo many books geared towards kids. Or would you just see if they could make due with the one on rotation? I absolutely love this idea! To do this, it works best if you do it at the end of a toy rotation. Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free printable toy rotation kit including a step-by-step guide, toy inventory log, and a toy organization cheat sheet. What should I do with old toys my kids dont play with anymore? I generally know if I need to rotate based on how often she's requesting screen time. For now, just familiarize yourself with the categories* youll be using: * Thanks to Playful Learning and Green Child magazine for the category inspiration! This ties back to what I said earlier about toy rotation not actually being a concept from Dr. Montessori. Its kind of like if you started 10 different books all at once and took turns reading a couple pages from each one. Go ahead and include the kids in this step because its actually pretty fun to root out all the toys hiding throughout the house. Sounded totally wrong, but totally worked! With four different kids at different developmental stages and with different tastes, preferences, and personalities, we had a healthy mix of toys. practical life every day life, so things that focus on fine and gross motor skills, practical things rooting the child in reality like a kitchen (more on that in a minute), cleaning supplies, etc. Uhwrong. This can be a fun activity in organizing/re-organizing too and they'll learn the practical life skill of storing items/cleaning out their space. You can keep your toy rotation system simple and informal, or you can go for a more structured toy checkout system kind of like a toy library at home. Starting from the beginning gives you the chance to set up a toy storage and organization system early on. That wasnt a good fit for us. ), Other parents like to get the current set of toys out of the container and place them thoughtfully around the childs bedroom or playroom. As the holidays and my daughter's first birthday approached, since family hadn't really spent money on toys, I felt comfortable asking for some large ticket items that aligned with her development (gross motor skills) like a scooter, pikler triangle and a non-toxic play mat for under it. Hi! When my little one is old enough to have a bunch of toys, I am definitely going to try this out!! So glad to hear you found it helpful, Deanna! You'll ideally want some sort of display bench or shelf where the toys your child has access to are currently displayed. We realized that we do four of Rorys five daily feedings downstairs in the living room, so it made sense to move it down here. Now, it holds some bigger items that we like to have on hand. Really anything that I've used for an activity in the past or just collected and is small goes in here. For example, you can put the miniature dolls for the dollhouse or the play food for the play kitchen in a toy rotation box. In terms of toys, Finns mom got us two kits from Lovevery for 0-12 weeks and then 3-4 months. (Thats me! Toys are arranged on a child size shelf meaning the child can access all the items without the help of an adult. Personally, I try to stick to a weekly toy rotation where I swap anything out she hasn't touched in the last 5-7 days. Living Room Reveal & Sources // Shop the Living Room. Again, this is where those free printable toy inventory sheets at the end of this post will be super useful. Someone had suggested that I should just hide all the toys while my kids were sleeping, leave a few out, and they would be none the wiser. Instead, if you'd like to have montessori inspired toys, look for wooden objects that control for error, focus on a single skill, encourage open ended play, etc. How do I know if its time to rotate toys? I have the same question about books! Generally I think about what skills she's been working on or interested in. I spend at least 1 hour in bed after I wake up every day. This form collects information I will use to send you free printables and other resources. Get 4 containers as a starting point, and you can always add or subtract later. Mommy, I cant find the Lincoln Logs! When everything is put away and hidden, they may not realize whats available to play with and then have trouble playing independently. Note, Finn and I are both neat freaks (Finn even more than me). Any ideas? I do wonder what your thoughts are on books. How often you rotate toys may vary, generally every 7-12 days is a good timeframe. This is where labeling your containers can be helpful because rounding up the current toys will go faster if you have a list for yourself. Having stuff all over the place stresses me out. Your goal will be to end up with several mini-collections of toys. Is this toy broken and un-fixable? What age to start doing toy rotation really depends on your situation. Below, Ive tried to cover all the possible gotchas, so it looks like a lot but you can actually get the whole toy rotation system set up in less than a couple hours maybe even an hour if you hustle. All Rights Reserved. I tried to take a deep breath, but my nostrils stayed flared and I forgot to exhale. Then we learned Daniel Tigers clean-up song and sang it together.
Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get a free printable toy rotation kit including a step-by-step guide, toy inventory log, and a toy organization cheat sheet. What should I do with old toys my kids dont play with anymore? I generally know if I need to rotate based on how often she's requesting screen time. For now, just familiarize yourself with the categories* youll be using: * Thanks to Playful Learning and Green Child magazine for the category inspiration! This ties back to what I said earlier about toy rotation not actually being a concept from Dr. Montessori. Its kind of like if you started 10 different books all at once and took turns reading a couple pages from each one. Go ahead and include the kids in this step because its actually pretty fun to root out all the toys hiding throughout the house. Sounded totally wrong, but totally worked! With four different kids at different developmental stages and with different tastes, preferences, and personalities, we had a healthy mix of toys. practical life every day life, so things that focus on fine and gross motor skills, practical things rooting the child in reality like a kitchen (more on that in a minute), cleaning supplies, etc. Uhwrong. This can be a fun activity in organizing/re-organizing too and they'll learn the practical life skill of storing items/cleaning out their space. You can keep your toy rotation system simple and informal, or you can go for a more structured toy checkout system kind of like a toy library at home. Starting from the beginning gives you the chance to set up a toy storage and organization system early on. That wasnt a good fit for us. ), Other parents like to get the current set of toys out of the container and place them thoughtfully around the childs bedroom or playroom. As the holidays and my daughter's first birthday approached, since family hadn't really spent money on toys, I felt comfortable asking for some large ticket items that aligned with her development (gross motor skills) like a scooter, pikler triangle and a non-toxic play mat for under it. Hi! When my little one is old enough to have a bunch of toys, I am definitely going to try this out!! So glad to hear you found it helpful, Deanna! You'll ideally want some sort of display bench or shelf where the toys your child has access to are currently displayed. We realized that we do four of Rorys five daily feedings downstairs in the living room, so it made sense to move it down here. Now, it holds some bigger items that we like to have on hand. Really anything that I've used for an activity in the past or just collected and is small goes in here. For example, you can put the miniature dolls for the dollhouse or the play food for the play kitchen in a toy rotation box. In terms of toys, Finns mom got us two kits from Lovevery for 0-12 weeks and then 3-4 months. (Thats me! Toys are arranged on a child size shelf meaning the child can access all the items without the help of an adult. Personally, I try to stick to a weekly toy rotation where I swap anything out she hasn't touched in the last 5-7 days. Living Room Reveal & Sources // Shop the Living Room. Again, this is where those free printable toy inventory sheets at the end of this post will be super useful. Someone had suggested that I should just hide all the toys while my kids were sleeping, leave a few out, and they would be none the wiser. Instead, if you'd like to have montessori inspired toys, look for wooden objects that control for error, focus on a single skill, encourage open ended play, etc. How do I know if its time to rotate toys? I have the same question about books! Generally I think about what skills she's been working on or interested in. I spend at least 1 hour in bed after I wake up every day. This form collects information I will use to send you free printables and other resources. Get 4 containers as a starting point, and you can always add or subtract later. Mommy, I cant find the Lincoln Logs! When everything is put away and hidden, they may not realize whats available to play with and then have trouble playing independently. Note, Finn and I are both neat freaks (Finn even more than me). Any ideas? I do wonder what your thoughts are on books. How often you rotate toys may vary, generally every 7-12 days is a good timeframe. This is where labeling your containers can be helpful because rounding up the current toys will go faster if you have a list for yourself. Having stuff all over the place stresses me out. Your goal will be to end up with several mini-collections of toys. Is this toy broken and un-fixable? What age to start doing toy rotation really depends on your situation. Below, Ive tried to cover all the possible gotchas, so it looks like a lot but you can actually get the whole toy rotation system set up in less than a couple hours maybe even an hour if you hustle. All Rights Reserved. I tried to take a deep breath, but my nostrils stayed flared and I forgot to exhale. Then we learned Daniel Tigers clean-up song and sang it together.