A couple of toy questions

[Tweakster]

1)  When did you start putting toys into your kid's bedroom?  Finn has very limited toys in there, only cuddly toys at the moment.  I am *thinking* of putting his train table (the one DH is building for Christmas) in there.  Crazy? 

2)  Rotating toys - how to do it, how many should there be out at one time, should they be in themes, how often do you rotate and do you mix up the rotation batches?  It's something I never did when he was younger but I do feel he would benefit from it now.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

When did you start putting toys into your kid's bedroom?

Still don't...even for Masyn!  Just books and stuffies. We have enough space that their rooms can be just for sleeping, we don't really use them otherwise!

Rotating toys - how to do it, how many should there be out at one time, should they be in themes, how often do you rotate and do you mix up the rotation batches?

I don't rotate as much as I used to, some things are permanently out now(barbies, play food, dolls).  Things I do rotate are puzzles, games, little people sets, and I don't really do a theme.  I probably do those every month or so.  We are getting a play kitchen for Xmas, so I may put a few other things away to make room. 

[teilvnav]

Ditto! No toys in the room except for a tub of stuffed animals. And his bookshelf has tons of books. But that's it! I rotate toys every month or so as well. We have a small house so I pack a laundry basket with the things that he doesn't play with as much anymore by the end of the month, and refill it with stuff from our playroom downstairs. Some toys have never made it downstairs, and some have been up and down frequently. He is also getting a play kitchen for Christmas, so a few more things than usual will go downstairs for a while. I do themes sometimes; leftover favourites from my teaching days. When we read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" we layed with words and letters a lot. I taped a paper coconut tree on the fridge and we replayed the story with magnetic letters. We made a book. Stuff like that. I did an animal theme once, and a vehicle theme (car wash, parking lot, etc).

[my3girlsjde]

I literally just started after moving in a month ago. And it's stuffed animals, library books and whatever puzzles they have on the floor. No other toys. When I do bedtime alone when dh is working, they are allowed their leap pads with the volume off while I'm putting E to bed. But the leap pads haven't become an issue so just something to help deal with the three on my own.

But actual toys that would speak to them and silently convince them to get out of bed and play? Not for these girls. I have friends who do it but I have no idea how they don't pull their hair out.

I didn't do themes because there's more than one child but it's a great idea that I would definitely do with just one. We have playdate toys that only come out on playdates and a few regular ones. Usually right after Christmas though, I split the toys up and put half in the basement for about a month. Then I swap back and forth until enough have been tossed throughout the year that I just keep them out until the following Christmas.

[Mashi]

All of DS's toys are in his bedroom and always have been.  He can go into his room and choose toys and choose where to play with them when he wants to. We keep a selection of them in the living room and rotate that selection periodically.  But he is not limited to playing with what is in the living room, he can walk to his bedroom and look on his shelves or cupboards and choose what he wants to play with. Sometimes he chooses to play with them in his bedroom and other times he chooses to bring them into the living room. Most often he brings them to the living room but sometimes when he goes in to choose a toy he gets distracted by something else and gets it down to play with it for a bit.

Before bed everything goes away and we have never had an issue with him getting out of bed to play with them at night. Perhaps because they have always been there but also because he knows that bedtime is bedtime and that's that!

2)  Rotating toys - how to do it, how many should there be out at one time, should they be in themes, how often do you rotate and do you mix up the rotation batches?  It's something I never did when he was younger but I do feel he would benefit from it now.

I can't see that there could possibly be a rule about how many or which toys should be out! In terms of how many, I would say "enough for him to play with" - sometimes DS has 3 toys out in his living room selection but other times it is 8. Enough to play with.  I make sure that I don't just put out cars and vehicles but that if his garage is out then some cars are out as well, if he has his garage and bucket of small cars then I probably would not put out his large cars but his easel and pens. If his easel and pens are out I know he likes his bucket of magnetic letters/numbers so that as well.  If some of his puzzles are out then I would not bother with this stringing beads, kwim?

[*Becky*]

we do now have a few toys in his room mainly because we are running out of space downstairs so his garage is in there plus cars and books. Most is downstairs and no I do not really rotate but again mainly because i have nowhere to put the toys we are not using. Every so often I put some in the toy box and others come out but he can still choose things in the toy box if he wants.

[MadisonC]

DS has 80% of his toys in his bedroom.  I am just waiting for him to be able to walk and then will move more in is room.  Its just nice for him (and me) to be able to play in his room and not just in the living room.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I guess it is worth noting that I actually have an upstairs and downstairs living room as such.  So, we have select toys in the "nice" living room upstairs that fit in baskets or behind the couch and downstairs (more of a family/playroom/office) we have a huge shelving system with bins plus an armoire where the ones out of circulation are kept locked up. So tons of space and not really a concern to keep them in their rooms until they are old enough to want to keep special stuff put away for themselves.

[Roseii]

We've got tons of toys in dd1's room, she has a huge bedroom and we were running out of space downstairs xx

[Yazzie]

Love the thread - tagging along, interested in rotating especially that A does ONLY cars now, he's not interetsed in anything else, and I assume it's because his fave toys are right there, why play with blocks?

[twogirlsmommy]

We don't rotate b/c we have no place to put the ones she isn't playing with and we do have toys in her room but they are quite toys.  So and example is a shape sorter, some rubber blocks, some stuff animals, some puzzles and LOTS of books.  I should also note that dd is still in a crib so we have yet to come across the whole playing instead of sleeping but I'm sure we will.

[Tweakster]

DH is building a bookcase so I have to wait to put the books in his room.  But there's a few in a small book holder.

I don't think he'll get out of bed and play at night, but quite frankly in the mornings there are times I wish he would lol  He does wait until the sun comes on his Gro-Clock but I really feel like it would be good for him to have some alone time in his room, playing.  He doesn't do anything on his own, I thought this might encourage that.  Plus there are just too many toys down here and he is overwhelmed with choice.  I think that can be a problem for a Spirited kid who already struggles with focus.

[okinawamama]

we have 100% of Ambrose's toys in his room. The house is small (and aesthetically I really like to have all the toys out of sight ). He spends a TON of time in his room, playing with his toys. We live in a one story house, so I can hear him at all times and he pops in and out, but for hte most part, he leaves all the toys in his room. We also don't rotate any toys, we just don't have any space to store toys, so if they're not being played with regularly, we get rid of them.

[~inbalance~]

We have no toys in either boys' room which has been fine until now (except T has a few books, stuffed animals, and we let him bring little trinkets to bed ie a truck, his kiddie binoculars, whatever he fancies that night ).  I was wondering about this as well though as next year we will be moving them to the same room and I really want it to be their room in all aspects, including having some toys and other things.  But I am worried, especially with F being so young still, and the whole sharing room thing being new (it's like they will have each other as toys, lol) that if I put anything in there they would never sleep.  So I'm not sure really!

As for rotating toys, I don't really rotate them.  We have several boxes, which I try to keep sorted (1 for cars/trucks/other vehicles, 1 for costume/dress up stuff, and 1 big one for everything else) but who am I kidding, everything ends up a jumbled mess.  This is where most of the generic plastic toys end up.  But I do have a few other boxes which are kept out of sight and brought out when they need a change - 1 with puzzles, 1 with trains and tracks, and 1 with mega blocks.  I also go through them regularly and get rid of stuff that doesn't get played with.  I do have another stash of toys that are a bit beyond them still (Alphie, which I keep meaning to pull out for T since I think he is getting to a good age for it, and a kiddie laptop that would just get pounded on so I put it away, and something else but I can't remember what it is).

[petram]

We have also had toys in E room from the beginning but we have never had an issue with playing with them when she shouldn't.
I find it allows her to do her own thing when she wants to.
My lo is 7.5months and also has toys in his room, when i am doing chores upstairs i bring him up and he plays freely, i did this with my big one too and she now happily comes and goes as she pleases from her room.
We do have a selection of toys down stairs that get rotated, big one loves playsets so i swap these over when she starts to loose interest in them, atm we have peppa pig out, noddy is also a winner. We also have a selection of games, usually 3 or 4.