I am writing you to BEG for your help. In a world of craziness (at lest my world is) I need some assistance in my toy room.
My 4 year old daughter was the first girl born in both my hubbys and my side of the family (and we have a big family) so she was very spoiled...now that we have an 8 month old boy we are having a toy crisis. We have a room just full of toys but the only problem is none of them are really working for us. They don't use their imagination as much as I would like. They just play with something for a few minutes and then it's "old". Do you have any thoughts on toys that will last for more than a few days? Something that will make them use their imagination, maybe something they can both do together (or something that is gender neutral since JP is still little)?!
Someone suggested buying a really nice big kitchen set and I am looking into that...but I'm tired of having 100's of toys that they don't even want to play with!
Also, kind of a second question...since our son was born our daughter (almost 5) is starved for attention...any thoughts on ways to make her feel special and not left out because Mommy & Daddy have to take care of "baby"?!
I have a three year old and one year old daughters. I got a Step 2 Kitchen and they both love it and play with it for long periods of time. It makes noises and has play food. They also play a lot with the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics. It is all magnets that stay on the side of het fridge. They play with that forever and it helps them with the alphabet.
Try taking your daughter out for one on one time. Be sure to explain to her that although the baby keeps you busy...she is still your special little girl. Do crafts with her, that will help with both problems. As far as toys....kids always like the box they come in better than the toy! Try keeping it simple, avoiding "trendy" toys that are more hype than they are worth. Play Doh keeps them busy forever(if you are able to supervise). In my experience the simpler the toy the more interest they show. Remember that children biologically have very short attention spans and what seems like a short time to an adult feels like forever to them! Good luck to you!
1.I have three little one's (3, 2 and 11 months). It has been a challenge trying to balance it all but I was able to do it. I have learned that trying to teach them to share can be frustrating but the rewards far out weigh the frustration (consistency eventually paid off)!
2.For the most part all of the toys in my household are shared. This is not because we don’t have enough, because believe me, we have plenty! It is because we feel, this teaches them that there are other people in the world other than themselves (this is a novel concept for a child that age) and that is just the way it is in our household anyway.
3.As for finding time to give them all equal attention that is tricky. I was really worried about that after I had my two year old but I found that including them (the older children) in the day to day really works.
§ For example: If I am changing the baby, I ask one of the older children get me a diaper, wipes or whatever just to get them to participate. § If the baby is upset I will ask one of them to kiss, hug or play with her to calm her down. § I am always getting them to participate in the day to day (with the baby) on a regular basis. I do this with all the daily actives from bathing to feeding (feeding was a challenge since I am nursing). § I don’t know if it makes them fell like they are getting attention or if they fell like they are a part of or what but for whatever the reason it actually works.
4.They all want to be the center of attention all the time we just don’t let them. I am also having the older one’s look after their little sister and that works amazingly. § They witness me doing everything for the baby and they must know that she is not able to do it by her self (whatever it is) because they really don’t give me a hard time. § When and if I run into problems they are not with the older children, it’s with the baby trying to be the center of attention but I don’t have time to allow that ether!
5.I read an awesome book that I recommend to all: It is called “on becoming baby wise” by Dr. Ezzo he also has on becoming child wise one and two, try those books perhaps they will help you like they helped me.
Hope this wasn’t to long and I hope it helped, good luck!
I have 5 boys, in my case I have found that if you have some kind of playhouse or play tent they can use their imaginations and the playing never ends. Weither you get a kitchen set or make the playroom into a grocery store with a cash register and shelfs of food. No matter what age the playhouse can be fun. Just change the theme every now and then. Make it a school house, store, treehouse, hiding place, put a race track inside, railroad station.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's world feels a little crazy some days. I used to be a preschool teacher, but stayed home after I had my first son, who's now 21/2 years old. Now we are also blessed with a 10month old boy.
We had some sharing issues in the beginning, but I've found the "magic" toy that they both love! Wooden alphabet blocks! They build towers with them. Of course the little one only knocks it over, but the older one is able to build so many different things with it. A stable for his animals, a house, a tower, a dog house, a road for his cars...great imagination toy and keeps the little one occupied.
I also recomment plastic food and little pans and pots. Hey, you could even buy only the plastic food and give them some of your old cooking utensils and pots to play with. They'll both enjoy that.
Hats for dress-up works well too. Just look at yard sales and consignment stores for stuff like that...just make sure you wash everything before giving it to the kids to play with.
Plastic links works really nice too. I'm not sure exactly what they're called. Could be linking beads or something. But, anyways, they're big enough that baby won't choke on it and interesting enough that most children enjoy linking them to make crowns and necklaces and things like that.
I have 3 kids and what we have is a collection of sorts but what has lasted for the most part is a collection of wooden toys (train, blocks,puzzles) at least 6 years or so. they are being added on as the years go by and my children are still playing with them. I implement some good old kids shows (what we used to watch as kids is pretty ok) and reading books, which I buy in the second hand store. just in case they break 'em it wont hurt my pocket much. I suggest you clean house and either give or sell your current toys and start form scrach. it takes us about 2 to 3 trips to the toy store before we buy a toy for the kids (we let them test the toys and see what happens) wooden toys can be unisex and ageless (melissa and doug are pretty good), and to give some one-on-one attention to your daughter try playing with her (just her) reading a book or having some ice-cream will do you a lot of good,slowly add baby along the way. when my son was born my 4 yr old wouldn't let me even hug him (he thought I didn't love him anymore) but I regained him slowly and now loves playing with his baby brother. I like to play pretend with my kids and somehow they pick up from there. hope this helps! good luck :0)
BOXES~~ I have a 4 year old boy, a 1 year old girl and a newborn boy. My 2 older ones would rather play with boxes than anything else! So I always give them to them until they are tore up then they go in the trash. Free toys YEA!! My kids have lots and lots of real toys that they never play with!!
Hi, I have 2 kids (4 and 8), and 2 more on the way... both my daughter and son get bored with toys easily. I've set up a system where i keep the toys in a number of small boxes in the closet. i take a new one out every couple of weeks. so it's like christmas each time. by the time they get bored with the toys, it's time for a new box.
for my daughter, who's older and has figured out the whole system, her toys are saved up for using her "allowance". she only gets new toys if she saves for them. that way, the things she asks for that are not really necessary or quickly forgotten, she is less likely to "buy". encouraging her to save for things means she thinks more about what she is asking for.
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