More about toys

I was thinking about my post about toys and decided to share a little more about what toys we've found to be worthwhile for our kids. In no particular order, here you go:

Legos. Fun, interesting, educational. Boys or girls, when they're old enough to not try to eat them, start buying them.

Lincoln Logs. You can get a good deal on these classics here.

Wooden Train. Again, boys and girls both will love these. Brio ones are highly recommended. They are nicer and don't break as easily as some of the others. However, we got our kids a very large wooden train set from Mellissa and Doug last year and they have enjoyed it. Yes, some of the pieces have broken, but we have so many now that we would rather save the money on the original purchase than worry about keeping every single item safe and sound.

Wooden Blocks. Plain or colors, it doesn't matter. We have both. Lots of good, fun play with these. And of course you can use all your blocks, trains, and lincoln logs together to make great towns for your trains to drive through. :)

Dress Up Clothes. Imaginative play is so fun and good for kids. You can start a little collection in a large Rubbermaid container or laundry basket. Add stuff that you're about to part with in the Goodwill bag, like jewelry, hats, scarves, old tote bags or purses, etc. At yard sales you can often find groovy suit coats, silky dresses or shirts, shoes, etc. Many thrift stores have bag sales where you can pack a zillion things into a bag and just pay $1. That's your day to go and get lots of fun things for dress up, plus if you or your children like to cut things up and sew their own costumes, this is a great way to get cool fabric. Once my daughter and I stopped at a local thrift store on a whim. We walked in and found out it was bag day, and that we only had 15 minutes before they were closing. Ha! The bags they were handing out were huge black garbage bags! We took one and just went crazy going through the hangers, tossing in anything that looked like it would provide good material, trim, or buttons for doll clothes, costumes, and other projects. We paid our dollar and giggled all the way home. Later after we had more time to sort through our finds, we did return some of those items to the thrift store in the form of a donation, and kept what things we could use. My kids love to use the sewing machine, plus they hand sew pretty well. They make lots of fun things. (You can make many costumes out of pillow cases, so grab those when you see them at yard sales too!)

My one complaint about dress up clothes is that they make a mess. Kids will change into and out of costumes all day long, so you can end up with items from the dress up box all over the house. Every now and then I confiscate the entire box and hide it for awhile to give the house and my sanity a break.

Play Kitchen. When my kids were younger they loved having a play kitchen, little plates and cups, play foods, shopping carts, etc. Those were a lot of fun and I highly recommend them. It's kind of sad that my kids are too old to appreciate those now. :)


As we've had more children, we realized that getting more and more toys for gifts and Christmas would end up with a mountain of toys in our house. So now we are very strategic about what we ask for. This year the five younger children agreed to ask their grandparents for a group gift of money for a new swingset. That works out good for the gift givers and the giftees, and there's no clutter from a gift like that!

We have received a lot of outdoor fun items over the years, such as our Easy Set Pool, sandbox, wagons, Big Wheels, bikes, etc. All of those keep the kids happy and playing, but don't add anything to the house.

Not that our house is perfect in this regard, but a long time ago we realized that the kids rooms got way too messy if they kept their toys in their rooms. We have some cabinets where all of our blocks, puzzles, games, and art supplies go. There are very few items that the kids keep in their own rooms. It helps keep things a little more under control. (This is the same reason why our kids don't keep their clothes in their bedrooms. We have all of their clothes in our laundry room.)