Where are all the toys in your house?
I get that. A lot.
The boys’ toys are in their room; Mabrey’s toys are in her room. We have no separate playroom and I don’t keep overstock in the attic. I store drawing, coloring and crafty supplies in a designated cabinet in the kitchen. Board games go in the floating credenza in the dining room/mudroom. Truth be told, my kids don’t have a lot of toys. We don’t have the space and even if we did, I would still keep the bare minimum. Why? Because no matter how many toys they have to choose from, they keep coming back to their favorites. They play for longer periods of time and have better focus when they aren’t bombarded by choices and jumping from one toy to the next.
Today I’m sharing my older kids’ {not mine!} five favorite toys. There are a slew of blog posts on the internet addressing the best baby products, the best baby toys, the best toddler toys and the best preschooler toys. But you don’t see a lot in the way of the 5-10 year old range so I thought this would be a fun and slightly different take. My older kids are boys and they’re 5 & 8 but we have {all!} nieces ranging in age from 1-10. When our older nieces visit, I feel bad that we don’t have girl-specific toys but something always grabs their attention and it’s usually one of these five items. FYI- This list doesn’t include crafty, tech-y or outdoor playthings. I was trying to focus on the toy genre. Oh, and this post is not sponsored in any way.
1 – We bought the boys this blocks & marble set for Christmas last year. They have a lot of fun engineering marble tracks in different configurations and seeing what happens. You can see the little wheels in their brains turning as they try to figure out which block to put where in order to get the marbles to go the way they want. We’re thinking of investing in the super set this Christmas to give them even more options.
2 – Have you guys heard of littleBits? They are the bomb. Basically, they are little modules with their own specific function that snap together magnetically to create a larger circuit. Kids learn about electricity without the risk of shock or firestarting. Super cool. Like the marble track, the starter littleBits set can be extended with additional pieces and/or sets. My kids have saved their money and bought additional pieces like the fan.
3 – Good ol’ plain wood blocks are just one of those toys that never get old. My boys use them to build roads, houses, cities and forts and drive little cars around the block backdrops. The most comical use I’ve seen was when the boys built skyscrapers for Mabrey {a.k.a. Babyzilla} to demolish. Ah, I savor those rare everyone-is-getting-along moments.
4 – Legos. The bain of my existence. Yes, they get lost in our shag rug, take over rooms and act as mini land mines when left out for me to step on barefoot BUT they keep my kids occupied for hours. They have all kinds of different sets and mix them together to create elaborate castles, houses, vehicles and weapons.
I’ve yet to find a good way to store Legos. Suggestions? Right now we’re giving one of these organizers a try. It has three perforated trays that are tiered to sort Legos by size. Often times, the boys are looking for a specific piece and this helps them narrow things down quickly. If this is the best system for them, we’d have to invest in a few more to contain their entire collection.
5 – Books. Technically they aren’t toys but out of everything on this list books keep my kids’ attention the longest and take up the most space in their room so I thought it was worth the mention. “There Are Rocks in My Socks!” Said the Ox to the Fox is one of our family favorites. We have HH’s childhood copy. While writing this post, I was stunned to learn that this book is a collectible. New copies go for upwards of $60!
We spend a lot of time reading in our house, together and individually. We take weekly library trips and they are one of my favorite things to do with my kids. I have fond memories of spending my summers as a child and teenager at the library or reading library books. {HH can’t relate. He says that was the last way he would have chosen to spend his childhood summers.} I can’t tell you how happy I am to see the excitement in my kids’ faces when I tell them it’s library day. Of all my kids’ belongings, books are the most important {they have more books than clothes} and I don’t think they can have too many.
Those are my big kids’ favorites. And you better believe I’m keeping them close at hand this summer to combat boredom! When I look at this toy list, I see a common thread. Imagination. On their own, these toys aren’t that captivating. Imagination and creativity bring them to life and make them fun. And because imagination is involved, these toys are long-lived in our home. They aren’t seen the same way twice. They aren’t played with the same way twice. They aren’t thought about the same way twice. Each experience with them is totally new and unique.
images: collage by Dana Miller for House*Tweaking, linked within
family life, kid-friendly