Taking the Kid's Toys Away

     It happened. We reached that point in the parenthood thing where we were fed up. Done. The TOYS were never-ending and never put away. It's barely a month after Christmas and they just don't give a rip that their new stuff is upside down or stepped on. Forget that noise. We took EVERY last toy away about a week ago*. I think. I think it was a week ago. It's Wednesday, right?

    Yeah, I just went and scrolled through my personal facebook page to see which day it was because I knew I posted about it. Ha. It was a week ago exactly! They have only earned one thing back (the duplo legos). Those have been taken back from them multiple times too.

      The cabin fever is real. We are out of our minds. Sunday was a sweet reprieve with the random 60 degree temps. We spent 3 hours at the park playing. But, we're right back below freezing with more nasty precipitation this week. Mind you, we've been to Chick-fil-a, the library, and the art museum more than once this month. We go let them walk around through the store** just to get some of the spare endless energy out. At this rate, they'll get their toys back when they are in their twenties.

    There's plenty to complain about. I could go on about it for a while. I'll just be quick about it though. Feel free to skip this part. [The kids are crazy. The toys are taking up space in our room. Stomp stomp. Wah wah. They don't seem to care that their toys are gone. It's not working. Failing. Failure. Why why whyyy?]

    As all of this is going down something wonderful is happening. My girl's imaginations are growing tenfold! They are great little pretenders and story makers as it were. But now. Wow! The big bed is a mountain. The toddler bed is a boat. The plastic storage boxes are the treasures. Socks are crocodiles. The cubby bookshelf is a "giant, giant bird house" with all kinds of crazy birds living in them with their babies. The tall bookshelf is a ladder to the spaceship (although my sensible side tells them NOT to climb it!). Their hands are paddles and phones and brushes for the invisible "good" animals. The closet is a "bad cave". Hubby and I are the monsters half the time. Pants and long-sleeved shirts have become capes. This is only a compilation of their ideas for ONE of the pretend games they play! How awesome is this?! I love it! Their play with the legos is even more creative now, in my opinion.

      We won't get rid of all of their toys. Some were begging to be put out of their misery, donated, or sold anyway. I think we're going to get a cabinet of some kind and put them all away rather than having them out and available all the time. I feel kind of guilty because I'm a 90s kid and Toy Story ruined me. Still. I use logic. Logic tells me . . . the toys won't feel too bad and they'll enjoy listening to the girls pretend all day.

    I think this will do them almost as much good as when we ban them to "be bored" outside on gorgeous days like my own parents did. They'll have to do terrible things like run around, play hide and seek, and dig holes. I can't wait! (Well, I can and I will but you know what I mean.)
    

*I will say we aren't pure evil/their giant eyes break my mommy heart so they got to keep their lovey animals that they sleep with and carry around everywhere. Also, they have their books. Books aren't toys.

** With us. We walk with them. They hold our hands and all that good stuff. I promise.

Our Current Favorite Toys!

     What are your kiddos current favorite toys? Something they got for Christmas, maybe? An old beloved doll? Something colorful and plastic or handmade and wooden?

     I have to say, one of our favorites is the entirety of the local park playground! We don't have a yard. There's some grassy area around our home but there's nothing keeping the kids from the street. It's not very safe and our neighbors aren't always the most charming lot either. When we get a chance to go, it seems my kids are their happiest after playing at the park.

     It's been a long winter so far without it. All the nasty weather and our sweet new one has been keeping us mostly inside with the exception of errands and a few minutes here and there to see the sun or enjoy some snow. One day I hope we have a big yard with a climbing dome, tire swings, slides, sand boxes and zip lines galore. That said, this post will be focused on the sorts of toys we have inside.

     I try to keep things in rotation. I will admit . . . the musical instruments have been in the back of the closet toy box (it's just a big, transparent, sterilite box that the littles don't have access to) for quite a while. Although I do think the set we have (the B. Parum Pum Pum Drum) is adorable. We have many, many more toys and things than these I'll talk about.

     Right right now these are the ones that have kept the intrigue of Bitty Bug (3.5) and Sweet Pea (2). I think all of these toys are fantastic for their age group!

#1 - Fisher Price Little People
     These little people toy sets have taken over. We have several of the bigger sets now! They had some before Christmas but it's also the bulk of what they got this year (or .  . . last year, I guess). With a portion of their Christmas money we ordered the dollhouse and got the Disney princess castle. Personally, I don't put the batteries in the ones that make noise. The girls do all of the noise-making on their own. These make a perfect starter dollhouse set and they are awesome for pretending! I do like the old version of the people better than the new but they are all adorable. There are tons of options to match each kid's interest: the princesses, airplanes, a dump truck, zoo and farm animals, and a little family. My personal favorite is our nativity. There is also a Noah's Ark set we don't have yet that I think is too cute! The bigger things like the castle can be a pain to get together because they are essentially a plastic 3d puzzle with screws. They seem to be pretty sturdy in the end though. Did I mention they are cute??

#2 - Duplo Legos, Wooden Blocks, and Mega Blocks
     No doubt, the hubby is an avid Lego fan. He'd probably live at Legoland if I let him. I love them too but I don't discriminate on building blocks of any kind around here. The girls can't get enough. We have a huge box of the mega blocks and a great variation of wooden ones. We just started our collection of duplos though. I think Bitty Bug builds more robots than planet earth could handle. They make cities and bridges and houses. I love it!

#3 - Magnets
   Zoo animals, dinosaurs, letters, and numbers! We have quite an assortment of fridge magnets now. I found the Melissa & Doug animal magnets on the cheap at Ross one day. You can always find bags of the colorful letters and numbers for a buck or two! Sometimes they play with them on the fridge while I cook. Other times they each get a cookie sheet to put them on. I've found them to be a super tool for learning the alphabet and counting.

#4 - Play-Doh
 Store-bought or homemade. It's cheap and fun. You can anything with it. You can smash it to create something new or bake it and keep it forever and ever. This stuff with some simple plastic tools and cookie cutters keeps them occupied for a good, solid 30 minutes if not an entire hour. It's also a fantastic sensory activity.

#5 - Puzzles and Busy Gears
 Oh, we only have over 20 kid puzzles. Cheap and not as cheap. Mostly wooden. A few plastic. Even some made of foam. NONE that make noise for heaven's sake! (I can think of some scenarios where noise-making puzzles could be great but NOT in my house!) Pro tip: put the pieces to the left so they put them on left to right! It's a reading tool! I also lucked out and found the "vintage" Playskool Busy Gears set at the thrift store for a few dollars. It's going for $30-50 on eBay and amazon which is nuts! I do like the old one much better than the new version. One of the neatest toys we own is a hand-carved, alphabet, snake puzzle that we bought at a local market.


     So, there you have it. These are our current favorites. They are pretty basic and maybe that's what is so great about them. Maybe I'll write about the toy rotation system I've got going soon. It needs some organizational work but it's much easier all ready than having all the toys out at once.

The Latest: FREE Apps and Such

   Ok, I said I had some more things to share so here I am not waiting too long to share! YAY! We had the iPads uncharged and put away for a few weeks. Because, sometimes techno-guilt strikes and we need a break. Well, we pulled them back out. After 1000 updates I went searching for some new games. I hate spending money on games I haven't played around with firsthand so I tend to scour the free lists and do some googling first. Here are the new additions to our iPads for the kids:

Agnitus - Games for Learning

Agnitus - Both girls have gotten into this one. My three year old is flying through all the little games and she finds all the characters to be very amusing. She has no problem navigating and there are plenty of different things to do within this one app so it keeps her little brain busy. Downside: although it is initially free, any additional mini-games cost extra. However, once you see what is available you may not mind spending a few extra bucks on it. There is a really cool curriculum-style system to it and you can even see report cards of the kiddo's progress through each learning component. Go here to see more about what this one is all about. Oh, and P.S. It's also compatible with multiple languages.
Available on:
ipad

ABC Music by Peapod Labs

ABC Music - This is a nice little dictionary style app from Peapod Labs. Instead of sticking with the typical alphabet learning games or a general touch music game they've combined the two into what is essentially an interactive musical encyclopedia. It is chock full of music and simple tasks. Huge plus: words are in English or in Spanish. We aren't a bilingual family but I like to expose my kids to different languages and cultures. I know there are plenty of bilingual families out there that could really get some use out of this feature though. The navigation can seem a little sporadic or random until you get used to it. Every letter links to a pop-up with links to new pages for instruments starting with that letter. If you click the A in "Guitar" it may seem to suddenly take you over to Accordion. This doesn't take long to figure out or get accustomed too. It's a nice introduction to music for younger kids and perhaps a good vocabulary tool for older ones. Go try this one ASAP because it's only free for a limited time!  
Bonus: Go here, scroll down, and download their free printable coloring book.
Available on:
ipad
ipod touch
iphone

Sago Mini Sound Box by Sago Sago

Sound Box - When you search for this one in the app store type in Sago Mini Sound Box. There are tons of apps with variations of the "sound box" name so it's not easy to find that way. This is a very, very simple concept. Sago actually has (what looks to be) three super neat games for young toddlers. Both my kids (3 and almost 2) liked this but it would appeal to the smallest of tablet-wielding littles. My younger definitely liked it more than my older one. Some kids may get bored of it quickly. For whatever reason this game was free. The other two by Sago Sago are currently $1.99 and $0.99. No idea what the reason is for the pricing variation but it is why I only have the Sound Box app.  Anyway, this game is colorful and reactive. It has a very clean layout. It responds to the slightest touch by adding colorful shapes to the screen or manipulating them about. There is a set of 9 different noises to make and it's super easy to go back and forth between the different noises. No doubt though, some of these sounds have the potential to get annoying so fair warning there.
Available on:
ipad
ipod touch
iphone


And finally . . .

PlaySquare by PlaySquare, LLC

PlaySquare - This is another free for a limited time app. It looks like this one may be one heck of a spendy one in the future too. The gist is that all the kid media masterminds (Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, and LeapFrog) have come together with MIT to create what is alleged to be the first "touchable television". Impressive. Read more about that here. Right now this is free and starts out with one VERY interactive episode of Word World (you may or may not be familiar with it but it's what is shown in the image above). Later on new episodes will possibly cost you 1-2 bucks a pop. It's really up to each person individually to decide whether it's worth it. My 3 year old is a fan of Word World (say it five times fast!!) anyway so she was all about this. She dove right into figuring out the word games. I think it has a lot of potential but I'm not sure we'll be doling out all that much on it later since I can manage time to incorporate the proposed lessons for the kids in other ways and let her just enjoy the show(s) on regular TV (errr netflix/DVDs) when it comes down to it. I won't lie though my first thought was "this would be awesome for trips!" add a couple new game-video-episode things on the way there and on the way back. Easy.
Available on:
ipad



I'll post about my findings for us adult people soon! Enjoy!