While laying in bed wide awake at 5am for no particular reason other than I slept great and felt completely rested…I found myself listening to the low rumbles of thunder and watching my sweet baby girl as she slept next to me. I smiled and kissed her cheek and thanked God for blessing me with such an amazing little soul and such a quiet peaceful morning to reflect on our precious gift.
Most mornings I wake up before everyone else is up and I spend those first few quite minutes of my day to pray and meditate on all the things I am grateful for in our life. This morning I was scrolling through my phone checking emails and facebook and I found an article that really resonated with me and the way I have been feeling about excess toys in our house.
I understand that children love toys and should play with toys but I have been grappling with the issue of how many toys are too much or the idea that I want my sweet baby to grow up with an appreciation for things and not in this world of entitlement that I feel so many young children are becoming accustom to…
For Willow’s birthday she received so many fun gifts but instead of giving them to her all at once to play with we have only allowed her to play with one or two at a time…and then switching the “old ones” out with a “new one” as she begins to get bored. She has a toy box but we only keep a few toys in there at a time…and we switch them out regularly. (Let me say that this sure has made her toys go a long way!)
We pick up the toys every evening before we go “night-night” and Willow helps to put things back in their place. Honestly – something she started doing on her own by observing us pick up the family room in the evenings before we head to bed…and we have continued to foster her helpfulness and praise her for it.
I encourage her to play with everyday items in the house just as much as I encourage her to play with her toys…honestly maybe even a tad more. She loves to throw things away and she loves to play with the pots and pan drawer. She sometimes sits on the stoop of the fridge while I am pulling things out to make dinner. She dances and twirls around the kitchen while we play music and cook dinner. She loves music. Loves. It.
Most of the toys that she does play with at home are all music toys…she loves her Kazoo the most and the radio speaker. I would say our “toy-style” is a more of a “get creative style”. We have puzzles and music…blocks and she loves her Noah’s Ark with Little People. I can already catch glimmers of her little imagination as she plays with a few toy cars and shows us new dance moves in the evenings.
I do know that we do not have a “toy room” and do not plan on having a “toy room”….I want to continue to foster her using her imagination and getting creative with the toys she does have. We will continue to switch toys out as she grows and develops…and will continue to foster her enjoyment of helping to clean up and put her toys away!
I found the article below to fall right in line with how I had been feeling and so I wanted to share. Take a look at your toy-style and how it might be impacting the development of your children…I know I was sure surprised when I did!
xo – Ashley
http://community.today.com/parentingteam/post/why-i-got-rid-of-the-toys
spoonful of crunchy 