Playrooms and sharing...or not?

[Melaniee]

I was enjoying the playroom photo thread this morning, as my children finally have one, though we will be moving in a few months and I do not yet know if they will continue to have one.  (Note: I'm getting a chuckle as after all this time I was so thrilled for them to finally have a playroom, instead of taking over the living room and leaving it a littered mess of toys - where do you think they are playing at this moment? Yes of course, the living room) 

 My children are 4 years a part and with my eldest's age, I feel he's starting to grow out of all of the charming wooden toys. On his own time, he's reading, drawing or playing with Legos. I'm not sure what to think about this - is it our doing by letting th evil Legos in (seriously, I loathe these things and held off for many years); or is it just a natural course of aging?  

My children have such different interests in toys now.  Ds keeps his mountain of Legos in his room (the darn things are so fragile, it's better if none of us touch them, let alone little sister).  Dd wants her dollies close and in her room (which at the moment is blissfully large for once and can hold just about everything she plays with, which wasn't the case before).

Yes they do play together, but it's generally when they are 'creating' their play which means the entire house gets involved and it really doesn't matter where the toys are kept because they usually do not stay there during the course of this play.

I am noticing that the toys kept in our playroom, at least lately, are rarely played with.  There is a great lot of storage in there for things like board games and art supplies which come out and go back.  However, it really just seems like it is a room of storage and not play. 

Do your children share all of their toys? If not, do they still stay in the playroom? If so, are there still "rules" about what may be shared though it exists in a shared space? Do your children ever "outgrow" a play room?

[dogretro]

Since your children are now getting older, you may consider morphing the room into more of a family room or creativity room.  The best example I can think of is the Soule family's "library": http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2010/10/the-library.html  I would call this style of room a "studio" myself, but whatevs.  The toys can stay in their rooms b/c that is where they play w/ them & the studio can hold their other things.  I am tinkering around in my brain of where we could create such a space in our own home, but I have not hammered it out yet.  We have made our small sun room into a play room & our kids are still incredibly young and LOVE their play room.  I am an only child & was fortunate enough to have both a bedroom AND a play room, right next to each other.  My friends and I used my play room tons (it also had a couch, tv, and computer) for years and years, up until I entered high school and no longer played with toys.  Then it became a guest room :)

[Melaniee]

Thank you for the link! Ours really is a 'family' room, but in my mind it is a play room. We have a couch, and a fireplace and that is where the family pooch resides.  It's not as big as hers, but that is inspiring!