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What toys do your kids REALLY use??

5K views 88 replies 76 participants last post by  Hu Xiaoqi 
#1 ·
As the holidays are approaching, it occurs to me how many gifts I've bought that my kids never really used. (And we're talking quality stuff here!) I realize there's a huge difference among kids, but thought it might be fun to make a quick list of what things my kids HAVE actually used. I'm including the age, too.

DS (now 6)
-- Bob the Builder die-cast vehicles (2-3)
-- Playdoh with various "tools" (2-4)
-- Matchbox-style cars (2-5)
-- Automoblox (3-5)
-- Magnatiles (3-5)
-- Puzzles (2-6)
--Legos (5-6)
--PLaykitchen with food (1-3)
-- Action figures/superheroes (3-6)
-- Wii and Nintendo DS (4-6)
-- Balance bike (3-5)
-- Plan City garage (3)
-- Playmobil 1-2-3 sets (3-6)
-- Board and card games (3-6)

DD (now 3)
-- Babies (mostly Corolle, including high chair and baby bed) (1-3)
-- playkitchen with food (1-3)
-- Calico Critters (2-3)
-- Dollhouse with family (3)
-- Playdoh with various "tools" (2-3)
-- Crafty stuff (2-3)
-- stuffed animals (2-3)
--Puzzles (2-3)
-- Balance bike (3)
-- Playmobil 1-2-3 sets (1-3)
-- Books (1-3)

Man, I could have saved myself a TON of money on things like wooden trains, Fagus trucks and dress-up that my kids don't really use. Ah well. Live and learn! Hopefully I'll be wise when shopping this Christmas.

-e
 
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#77 ·
My 14 month old son likes
bead maze
wooden cars, trucks, train (anything with wheels)
thugs that make noise (books with music, puzzles that make noise)
empty cardboard tubes
pots, pans, things to make noise with
broom (he "sweeps" with his mini broom)
little tykes lawnmower to push outside
anything that's not supposed to be a toy (my phone, he adores my iPod touch-I have tons of apps on for him)
 
#78 ·
My 15 mth old loves:
Wooden blocks
wooden shape sorter (though she can't shape sort yet)
Pull and push toys - one that looks like a wooden lawn aerator from ikea and a pull wooden hedgehog
A big plastic megablocks truck (this has been a fave from about 9 mths)
A fisher price telephone that makes noise - her only 'noisy' toy. She loves it
Wooden puzzles
Books
Playsilks
Wooden cars - they are small enough not to be too heavy for her.
Plastic nesting/stacking cups - these were a fave from 5-12 mths and she still likes them! The best gift ever!
Toy glockenspiel/keyboard combo
Stuffed duck and teddy

We have a mix of plastic and wood toys, though I prefer wood as it's harder for them to be broken/shatter. She's not yet interested in the Waldorf doll I made her.
 
#79 ·
DS1 is 3.5 and plays with:

Wooden train set
Matchbox cars
Larger plastic firetruck and bulldozer
Step2 rocking horse
playdough/ cookie cutters/ rolling pin
wooden puzzles
Our piano
A gloworm that is his "baby"

He's also really into making tents/ houses with boxes, blankets, tables and chairs.

DS2 is 26 months and plays with:

Wooden train set
Wooden stacking ring
Mega Bloks
Rody
Step2 rocking horse
Mr Potato Head
Little People farm
Our Piano
Wooden puzzles

Niether boys plays/played with:

The nice set of wooden blocks we have.
Most of the stuffed animals (we have a toy box full that have been gifted to us over the years.
Our hand/finger puppet collection
The wooden school bus or airplane.
The wood and metal bead chase.
 
#80 ·
My 7 year old basically plays with her bryer horses and a pet vet kit she received for Christmas last year or her doll house she is gettign into real board games games and of course loves doing art.. With friends she'll get out her barbies and little pet shop toys. The marble run we got her several years ago **** gets good use as in an old "thomas the train set" she got as a hand me down gift. and she loves her bike and scooter and would probably rather be outside with those than indoors.

Deanna
 
#81 ·
I agree with many of the others here that the toys that have stood the test of time through all of my children are usually the most open-ended ones. For myself, I love natural, exquisitely crafted, heirloom-type toys and have invested considerable time and $ either purchasing or making them over the years. For instance, I spent countless hours 2 yrs. ago making a gnome family out of wood and embroidered wool felt to go with a gorgeous wood treehouse. I've needle felted bugs, knitted vegetables and fruit, stitched Waldorf dolls, sewn green eggs and ham, pancakes, butter, and syrup, dyed a bazillion playsilks, cut and sanded tree blocks, altered Goodwill finds into dress-up clothes -- you get the picture.

But with a few exceptions, these are NOT the toys my children adore, which is such an interesting disconnect. I, too, puzzle over why what appeals to me as an adult is not what appeals most to my children. But I've also matured in my parenting enough to recognize that it's really not about me, lol, so I no longer keep out toys, even gorgeous, handcrafted toys, that my kids never touch.

Another dynamic which comes into play in our household that affects toy play is the wide range of ages (11 yrs. to 4 mos.) As my kids have gotten older and we've added new little ones to our brood, I've gradually come to detest any toy with smallish (or numerous) parts, because while it may happily occupy an older child, the littles only use it for throwing/scattering/losing/ingesting. Legos fall into this category, as does any building with furniture or accessories, although we've tried to solve this by relegating these kinds of toys to the kids' bedrooms instead of leaving them out in the communal playroom. Still, doors get left open, and chaos invariably ensues.

Finally, one of our children has SN, and that has been such a learning experience wrt toy play, as well. Prior to her birth, we owned very few, if any, electronic toys, super-noisy toys, etc. But Sophie is drawn to and engages with bright lights, sounds, buttons, and electronic "bling" SO much more than any other kind of toy. So now we own a whole forest of these things, much to my bemusement. And she's beyond thrilled! She really represents her very own category in our family in terms of toys.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I'm sure if we owned a video game system of any kind, it would be constantly played with by my older kiddos. Their grandparents own a Wii, and when we visit them, it's all they want to do. Which actually is why we don't have one ourselves, b/c I know I would be hard-pressed to enforce strict limits with it in the craziness of our everyday life and therefore we couldn't use it in a balanced way.

So anyway, here's my short list, based on what ALL my kids (with the possible exception of Sophie) have played with, boy or girl, at most all ages:

Dress-up clothes
Playsilks
Books, books, more books
Legos or Duplos
Mini trampoline, tumbling mat, hammock swing, couch cushions and blankets to make forts, balls of all sorts
Art supplies
Play kitchen and food

The boys also love(d) wooden swords, bows/arrows, stick horses, and Nerf guns.

The girls also love(d) dolls, doll clothes and diapers, and baby carriage.

After age 5, they all love board games of all types -- Haba and Ravensburger are some of our fav brands.

Sophie (3 1/2 yrs.) also loves her chewelry, electronic phones, VTech toys that count or do colors or sing, and above all, her Signing Times videos.

Guin
 
#82 ·
DS will be 5 in a few days. He loves electronics, so he got a lot of learning toys for Christmas. He will play for hours with his Computer Cool School, Leapster, and vSmile. I especially love the Computer Cool School because he's learning a TON and he can wear headphones, so Mommy doesn't have to listen to annoying music for hours. He also got a Tag that we haven't gotten set up yet, a handwriting set, and an art kit. Everyone was just wonderful this year about getting him educational stuff, since they know that we're homeschooling and he has a ton of toys already.
 
#83 ·
DD is 14 mo and this is what she plays with daily right now:

M & D pound and roll tower - she LOVES this thing, and it's been a big hit with her little friends (usually 15-19 mos, but even 6 yo & 9 yo cousins like it) The. Best. Investment. I can't say enough about how great this turned out to be!
Rope and Beads
Lots of books! - She loves Biscuit and Pal & Sal and Where's Waldo
Pull and push toys - we also have the ikea one but we call it a vacuum since we have no idea what it's suppose to be!
Nesting/Stacking cups
Stacking rings
mp3 player - it's a baby one with three buttons
Plastic bear that honey came in (he's for bath time)
Rubber ducky
Bathtub markers
Stuffed bunny
Baby doll with removable dress

She has other toys that she will play with but not every day:

Kitchen stuff
Wooden coins and box
Imbucare box with ball
Shape sorting box
Wooden blocks
Bead roller coaster
Electric keyboard
Alligator glockenspiel
Ukulele
Feather duster
Old computer keyboard
Old cellphones

I guess it just depends on what I have out since we don't have a toy chest but have all the toys on shelves that are divided. So I try to have only one toy per cubby. I can't think of any toys that she doesn't play with. She's getting too old her for her rattles and board books but will still occasionally play with them. Oh, I guess I would have to label the stuff animals as unplayed with toys!!! Oy, why do they have to be so cute and so useless?

I'm very careful to only give her toys she's developmentally ready for. So we will get out the wooden train set but she gets easily frustrated when the cars fall off the track so she ends up throwing the cars and pulling apart the track. I'm sure she will love it once she's old enough for it, right now she just doesn't know how to play with it.

I don't find that she likes the plastic toys better than the wood. We have plastic toys so she can have them in the tub. She still manages to play with her wood toys, even though they are so heavy.
But I really don't sweat it. She's a baby, she will like what she likes, not what I want her to.
 
#84 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Down2Earth View Post
DD is 14 mo and this is what she plays with daily right now:

M & D pound and roll tower - she LOVES this thing, and it's been a big hit with her little friends (usually 15-19 mos, but even 6 yo & 9 yo cousins like it) The. Best. Investment. I can't say enough about how great this turned out to be!
Rope and Beads
Lots of books! - She loves Biscuit and Pal & Sal and Where's Waldo
Pull and push toys - we also have the ikea one but we call it a vacuum since we have no idea what it's suppose to be!
Nesting/Stacking cups........
LOL! We don't know what it is either, but DD loves it! We decided it looks kind of like a lawn aerator, so that's what we call it! I kind of like playing with it myself!
 
#85 ·
My son is 7 in a few weeks, and it's all about LEGOs, art supplies and making movies right now. He is either drawing or painting or sculpting, building Lego creations or making reviews or movies with the Flip.

Otherwise, He loves playsilks, dress up clothes, robots, marble tracks, building blocks, games, taking photos and musical instruments, and they get a lot of use as well.
 
#86 ·
My son (5 1/2) and foster daughter (almost 3) love very similar toys. They adore play kitchens (have used them for years at school and/or Pottery Barn Kids and children's museums. We just were given one for Christmas, though.

Wooden trains and tracks are still popular. We have several sets of Sure Track (clips) so they can create track that are up in the air. Our Nilo table is never used for trains.

Lots of art supplies.

But the absolute favorite for both (and really any child ages 18 months-adults) are Magnatiles. We've got about 200 of them and they are the best thing every. We use them inside (on the floor or on our small light table) or outside on a blanket.
 
#87 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Polliwog View Post
My son (5 1/2) and foster daughter (almost 3) love very similar toys. They adore play kitchens (have used them for years at school and/or Pottery Barn Kids and children's museums. We just were given one for Christmas, though.

Wooden trains and tracks are still popular. We have several sets of Sure Track (clips) so they can create track that are up in the air. Our Nilo table is never used for trains.

Lots of art supplies.

But the absolute favorite for both (and really any child ages 18 months-adults) are Magnatiles. We've got about 200 of them and they are the best thing every. We use them inside (on the floor or on our small light table) or outside on a blanket.
I had never heard of Magnatiles so I had to do a search for it. Oh my! they look awesome. Aaaargh! I now have to figure out a way to buy some without irritating my DH since I just ordered an expensive wooden play kitchen online.
 
#88 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Down2Earth View Post
I had never heard of Magnatiles so I had to do a search for it. Oh my! they look awesome. Aaaargh! I now have to figure out a way to buy some without irritating my DH since I just ordered an expensive wooden play kitchen online.

We got most of ours gradually (and then were given a big set.) Learning Express carries a few different sets and they always have a coupon. Makes it a bit easier. I orginally started getting them to use in my classroom and then they would come home with me so my son could use them. The see-through ones are way better than the solids since you can explore light and colored reflections with them.
 
#89 ·
Any plastic toy with a predetermined outcome.

halloween masks

Fisher Price makes lots of these, I've only ever bought one thing (the Dance Dance Monkey thing) it was a dust collector. But we've recieved tons of it as gifts or hand me downs. The FP garage became a step stool, the farm a storage box for the billion plastic animals and people, you get the idea...
 
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