6 replies to this topic

[Nomadic]

I have decided that we need to have a set range of toys in our house, otherwise there just ends up being too many bits. So this is what I have decided on:

Play food - we have a good starting range of both wooden and plastic foods, plus a tea set that ds keeps at my mum's house and plays with aalll the time. I also just got him a play kitchen that he just loves.

Megablocks - we have loads of these and I just bought them a table to build things on and now looking for other bits. Both the kids (and I) can sit for ages building stuff and making all different games out of them. So far this week we have spent time (well, ds & I have, dd just destroys lol) counting, learning colours, working out how many blocks are needed to make a bigger block - it's been a lot of fun. We also have a few little people sets and other play sets that work well with the mega blocks sets, not necessarily to connect but as part of a wider game.

Puzzles - we are getting a good collection of puzzles, main wooden ones but also a few other types and those books of puzzles where each page has a puzzle.

Trains & tracks - I scored a good deal on a train table and over 100 plan city pieces, also managed to get some extra tracks and trains and ds absolutely loves it. We are sticking with the wooden stuff as he prefers them. I managed to get this great Chuggington bag at Big W today on clearance for $10 - zipped up it's a carrier bag for trains & tracks, unzipped and layed flat it's a track

And then there is just basic craft stuff like pencils, paper, colouring books, etc. I'm not a very crafty person and don't cope well with indoor mess. They are welcome to get as muddy as they like but not inside.

i think that's just about it, we were just accumulating too many bits! We have a few of the bigger toys like leapfrog balls & fisherprices things that I will hold onto but as dd grows out of them and shows less interest I will move them on.

[lediva]

I find that I'm always going through my kids toys & discarding! But they love pretend 'toys' atm such as costumes & playfood, mega blocks they can enjoy for quite awhile before arguing about not enough of them- they seem to want the same sz block! They also enjoy their DS nintendo games. and of course their bikes! But yep agree you do have to get rid of the toys that they have outgrown or just grown tired of. they move on so quickly,lol.
Oh & the trampoline- some toys are just good value as in they get alot of playtime! which is great particularly the outside toys.
Great for other kids to 'cause we just give them away on freecycle:) or else to Vinnies.

[Breezy]

We have wooden blocks, Lego, matchbox cars, sylvanian families and books. A baby doll for my youngest and play dough and stuff to go with it for the preschoolers. We have balls, bikes, skateboards and scooters. Then a huge supply of craft stuff. Years ago I worked in toyshops so I know what is junk and what is just a fad. We are hoping to buy kayaks this year for all of us.

[Jess]

Our boxes are:

1 - baby toys(inc little people, peek a blocks etc)
2 - dress ups(inc babies and their bits and bobs)
3 - puzzles and games
4 - kitchen
5 - Lego
6 - trains
7 - music
8 - mixed
And the craft table

[Merla]

We have:
Duplo (50L tub of it)
Doll house with furniture etc
Soft toys (live in the teepee)
Wooden blocks
Puzzles
Box of vehicles (mixed cars, construction trucks etc)
Dress-ups (slowing adding to this)
Musical instruments
Craft stuff (this is stored under the bed, she usually has basic drawing things out, but we also have playdoh stuff, paints, stamps etc)
and a small tub of "mixed toys" such as mr potato head, plastic things she was given and likes.

For her birthday this year were asking for friends to either not buy a gift or bring something to put in her dress-up box (such as an old hat, wig, scarf etc). For christmas I'm planning to get the girls a wooden kitchen and will be asking family to get (if they want to buy my kids a gift which they usually do) wooden or fabric playfood, or miniature metal pots, pyrex etc things to use with it.

DD is also horse obsessed at the moment, so she has a collection of "ponies", I recently bought her a wooden horse float and she will get a wooden foldup horse stable from DH and I for her birthday which she can play with and store her ponies in

[tashmcnaddict]

We have cubes that go in a shelve unit and they are all coloured, we have wooden blocks, matchbox cars/cars, littlest petshop, books, puzzles, one for pencils and crayons, a tub full of wooden playfood for the wooden kitchen, one with playdough and one with craft stuff , ones up in the cupboard themed that only come down every now and then are ponies ( we have too many so thinking of selling them) Thomas trains and tracks

[Nomadic]

Some great ideas there - and I love the range of toys

The kids are enjoying the new system where I pull out a tub each day, the blocks stay out all the time, as does the kitchen and the basic bits that go with it (the tub of all the bigger food & musical instruments only comes out if they ask, or just on a rotation basis).

As for the blocks.. well we have a massive 65 litre tub full of it, a mega blocks table and I have about 200 more blocks and some more bits coming this week lol Love those blocks!!