How to Implent a Toy Rotation
Have you ever been exasperated when your sweet child tells you they are bored while also being surrounded by a mountain of toys? Ever wonder why your child has become disinterested with their toys they used to love playing with? The answer to both of these common questions is that: your child has too many toys. Or rather, more accurately stated, your child has access to too many toys at a given time.
It’s counterintuitive to think that kids will play longer and more deeply when less toys are available to them but time and time again I have seen this with my own children and the children of many of my close friends. There is probably lots of child development research to back this up, which I won’t cite here, but I dare you to try this experiment and see how it changes how your kids play with their toys.
Gather all toys together (if they are not already stored in a central place). I define toys as things that your child can play with inside, independently (I personally don’t include things like playdough, puzzles with small pieces, games, paint, kinetic sand on anything that can present a choking hazard to a younger siblng or regular visitor in the home.)
Discard any toys that are broken (or consider donating those that you really dislike :)
Categorize toys: group all of the blocks, trains, legos, dolls, play food, dress ups, balls, etc. You will probably have several toys that don’t belong in a category and that is fine.
Evaluate what is in each category. If you have duplicates, I recommend paring down, keeping in mind how your child interacts with the toy. For example, if your child has 4 dolls and rarely plays with them all at once, go ahead and keep just one doll (and donate the rest). If your child has 4 dolls and loves to play “babysitter” with them all at once, you might consdier keeping them all (or maybe just 2). If you have more than once child playing with these toys, you may want to keep one for each child.
Decide what you will make available to your child in the first rotation of toys. I like to include a mix of toys that include at least one type of building toy (legos, block, trains, magnatiles) and one type of pretend toy (dress ups, play food, dolls, tools). Maybe throw in a few other toys you think your child will enjoy and provide a good variety when considering the buiding and pretend toy you already have chosen. Here are some other things to consider.:
You want to aim for 3-4 baskets of toys. Another guideline: if your child got all of the toys out, would they be able to put all of the toys away in 5 minutes with minimal help from you?
You don’t have to “get it right” the first time. if your child requests a specific toy that is out of rotation, explain to the child that you will get the toy for them once they identify another toy that they want to put out of rotation. Always set the expectation that it will be a 1-for-1 trade.
Decide how you will store the toys in rotation. Make sure that whatever storage system you use, that it is VERY SIMPLE for a child to put the toys away. I love these storage boxes from Ikea. Whatever you decide to use, make sure everything is at the child’s height so there are no barriers to putting away the toys.
Decide how you will store the toys that are out of rotation. The key here is to store these toys out of the child’s reach (and ideally out of sight). You also don’t want it to be a huge pain to rotate toys in and out so you want the toys to be accessible for YOU. I store our toys that are out of rotation in a few large bins in my basement (high enough that the kids can’t get them down on their own.)
Rotate toys: Observe how your child is interacting with the toys available to them. You might be shocked to find that they will interact more with each toy when there are less availbel to them (even if that toy has always been available to them.) My theory is that toys become invisible (or less visible) when there are too many to choose from. They get overwhlemed and they don’t interact with any of their toys. When you only offer a small amount of toys, it’s like they become novel, like they are new toys to them. How often you rotate toys depends on the child. Sometimes your child will want new toys to play with after 1 week and sometimes they won’t need new toys out for a month or two. The best indicators that it is time to rotate toys is when your child is less interested with their toys (playing less deeply/shorter amount of time).
Some of my favorite open-ended toys:
blocks
magnatiles
duplos
train sets
balls
drawing pad
tool set
puzzles
