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10 Bright Stars
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 11:55am | IP Logged
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I was wondering what other moms of large families do as far as providing toys for the kids. Just to catch you up to my thoughts:
When I was little, there was just me with my girly toys and then my little brother, who was 4 years younger, with his boy toys. I played IN my room and ALL of my toys were organized, cared for and when I was finished with them, they stayed there waiting for me to play with them again.
Now that I am a mother of 8, I am having trouble figuring out the toy situation. When my three boys were younger, there were only a few of them, they were all boys, and I could take care of their things, and help THEM take care of their things, and frankly, they mainly played outside. Now I have 5 little girls 7 and under (aged 7, 5, 3, 3, and 1) My little girls tend to play inside more, and in the winter school months, it is a neccesity that they have things to occupy them on the play side of the basement so I can watch them etc. Here is the problem:
What IS with all the crazy little bits and pieces when it comes to children's toys these days? I don't think I could even keep up with all the little accessories, attachments etc. that come with toys now. People give the girls toys, and then lose them within a week. (I don't know where they end up since we never go anywhere.) I was thinking that with a large family, the dynamics will be a lot different than with a small family since A. I don't have TIME to organize and keep up with their toys, (although I do go through them from time to time and try to make sense of them) and B. They need games and toys that they can all sort of play with together since their play will be more interactive as mine was more isolated.
I have a little bit of Amazon points saved up that I would like to purchase toys with for the classroom for the next school year. What kind of toys are good for a large, active family with little kids who would lose small items? Do they even make decent toys anymore? I have searched the toy isles at Walmart and Target etc. and the toys all seem stupid and are just big pieces of plastic that do "one" thing.
Any ideas? I don't have a lot of money to invest, but I would like the toys to be something that would last and that won't get lost etc.
Thanks! 
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Kim married to Bob (22y)
Mom of 11 blessings:
Bobby 19, David 17, Noah 14,
Mary 12, Gracie 10,
Isabelle and Sophia 8,
Gabrielle 6,
William Anthony 4, Joseph 3 and Luisa Marie - born in M
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 12:14pm | IP Logged
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Little People seem to just work really well for all kids.. way more age range than they put on the box.. but because they do have them for pretty small kids they don't have teeny tiny pieces. And while they look one use.. a farm for instance, the kids seem to have endless possiblities of what happens on the farm.
building blocks
lego (we only have duplo so they're safe for EVERYONE)
dress up.. skip the toy stores.. hit the thrift stores.. anything that's bright colors and sparkles and "pretty" will do.. if you look for small women's sizes.. then all the girls can use them.. scarves and fancy shoes.. also watch for halloween costumes on clearance.. all those princess gowns and crowns and wands
oh yes, fewer categories and way more within each category is VERY helpful.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 1:20pm | IP Logged
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I don't do small pieces anymore. My kids are in the process right now of trying to put a bazillion game pieces back in their proper boxes because the game closet was so out of control!
Now, I shop for things on the basis of how many pieces they have. I agree with Jodie, blocks, legos, Kapla, doll house people (minus smaller accessories), kitchen sets (again larger pieces) balls, and cars. That is about it. No polly pockets, no playmobile, etc. It has gotten to the point that if I find pieces on the floor I throw them away instead of trying to get it back with its set.
My children have a large chess set and it serves as the basis to a dozen different make-believe games, so what more do they need!
I would say get your older boys maybe a cool race track or building set like Kapla and your girls some kitchen stuff (am I sexist or what!) and leave it at that.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 1:49pm | IP Logged
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JodieLyn wrote:
lego (we only have duplo so they're safe for EVERYONE) |
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This fascinates me.
We have a ton of Duplo and the boys play with it all the time. My oldest LOVES Lego when we visit cousins and whatnot, but I keep holding out on owning it because the mess and keeping it out of reach of my soon to be crawling baby makes me think it would be a pain to own.
I just assumed that it was inevitable that my boys would eventually "need" real Legos...
We do have some Playmobile, but I keep it put up and its for rainy days.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 1:56pm | IP Logged
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Lindsay, none of mine have been terribly interested in the smaller model type of building.. one of those wooden puzzle/model things periodically seems to satisfy any urge there (and the finished product is hung from the ceiling so out of reach) and what they all enjoy is making BIG things.. so duplo is great there.. I just had a 2 foot tall "staircase/pyramid" come through the house on wheels this morning.. and I believe it was all three of the older boys.. 10, 6 and 4.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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helene
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 4:30pm | IP Logged
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My boys who build really need the smaller size Lego. I keep it in a huge under-the-bed storage tub with no lid. It is in the boys room upstairs and so the baby is never in there (without someone's close supervision.) All our other toys which are kept in the finished basement or on the main level of the house are of a non-choking size. I agree most of today's toys "seem stupid." I really like our fancier parent-teacher store which carries only thoughtful educational toys, many made of wood or fabric. Maybe you have such a store near you? A lot of malls have them, too. I feel your pain, though, and will be watching for replies!
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SusanJ
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| Posted: May 06 2009 at 7:52pm | IP Logged
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I also select toys based on how many pieces it has and we don't do anything with small parts. As someone else said, I try to get MORE of something they really like rather than add new toys. We have Duplo (planning to stick with this as long as the kids will let me!) and Tinker Toys (some sets come with a choking-hazard sized piece but I just remove this as it isn't that useful anyway). My kids play with those two things pretty much non-stop all day long. If they aren't doing that they play some make-believe and they have a dress-up basket with various props and such for that.
Even with limited kinds of toys I still rotate what is out. The Duplos and Tinker Toys are not usually both out at the same time. We have a set of Kaplas as well that comes out once in awhile.
Susan
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: May 07 2009 at 12:09am | IP Logged
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For those of you that rotate toys, what's the best way to do this? We don't have a basement or family room, so toys are all over the house. I do have one under-the-stairs closet for the little kid toys, but right now they're in open buckets and things get all over.
We have more categories of toys than I can shake a stick at! Playmobil, Lego, Calico Critters, Polly Pocket, Barbie, little cars, big cars, Duplo..... I am pretty ruthless about getting rid of things, but my middle two (9 & 5) are dedicated "savers."
Really wish I had one more room in this house! :)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: May 07 2009 at 1:53am | IP Logged
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For a while I used draw string bags (older pillow cases are great for this) and hung them from hooks in the garage. It works pretty well.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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stellamaris
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| Posted: May 07 2009 at 4:31am | IP Logged
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A tip for Lego clean-up: Have the children spread out a large flat sheet and do Legos on that. My boys love to dump out the entire collection so they can find all the little specialty pieces, but cleaning up was painful until we started to use the sheet. Now, when they are finished building, we just gather up the sheet and pour the Legos into the bucket. Usually only a few pieces remain to be picked up by hand.
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Caroline
Wife to  dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: May 07 2009 at 11:59pm | IP Logged
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Reading this thread got me inspired--at 11 pm! I spent a good two hours cleaning up the downstairs toy closet and living room. Bagged up three kitchen-trash sized bags to give away. Especially helpful was getting rid of the four or five enormous toddler-sized trucks. I kept the gigantic, noisy and cheaply-made fire engine his godparents gave him though!  They always ask about it. But really my son prefers little cars, the matchbox/hot wheels. Those all fit in one basket now. I'd post a picture but I can never figure it out! Thanks for the inspiration, Kim!
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: toys in the large family
