Quote:

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan Cell phone Computer keyboard Set of keys Windchime Cat Lina's consistent favorites from about one month to now. As for buying toys for a tiny LO, stick with stuff that looks like it'd be fun to chew.

 

I have a 4 YO and an 8 month old, some they enjoy together:

Legos (DS loves the regular sized bricks, but we play w/duplos around baby)
soft balls
music shakers

We have soooo many toys cluttering our house, for some reason I have the hardest time decluttering toys. The broken/missing parts ones are easy to get rid of but I have several teethers (8?) why do I keep them? Has she ever chewed on them

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That's a tough question to answer. I'm more of an advocate for setting aside toy space, and then keeping the toys within the toy space. The toys kids like are so individual and change so frequently that I gave up trying to predict what DS would like.

For example, DS has one bookshelf (for books only)
One toychest (whatever he wants in it)
One set of bins on an organizing rack
A chest of art supplies

Anything that fits in those four places, he can keep. Once something gets close to full or I see that there's a lot that he has that he isn't playing with, I purge.

I'll be keeping this system with the new baby. They're going to be sharing these 4 spaces now, because at this point, none of them are full and things are easy to organize.

 

This list includes the toys that have lasted for years:

4 yo girl:
Doll & clothes
Play kitchen
Backpack - loves to take pretend trips and fill with stuff
Craft stuff
Dress up

8 yo boy
legos
train set
knights/army guys
star wars action figures
dress up

 

Most used, by all my kids:
- kitchen utensils (such as turkey baster, measuring cups and spoons, etc.)
- couch cushions and chairs for forts, houses, towns, etc.
- laundry baskets
- blankets/sheets/pillow cases
- pretty rocks in a little jar, a basket of pine cones and a huge stick collection

My two year old has:
- a baby doll, cloth diapers, sling, stroller, playsilks for blankets
- lovely wooden kitchen set
- one seriously wicked imagination!

My older kids (12, 10, 7, 5) play with K'nex, Nerf guns and Yugioh cards.

We have a nice arts and crafts cabinet, a couple of puzzles, a pretty good selection of board games and a bunch of dress up/costumes.

We also have trains and tracks, wooden blocks, plastic character people, matchbox cars, parachute for floor play, dinosaurs, and a "midwife" bag - although these are used much less frequently than anything else.

 

DS1's favorites at age 3 are:

1. Train set
2. Car set (we have some Plan Toys city stuff)
3. Blocks
4. The Orchard Game, puzzles

DS2 (age 1.5) loves:

1. Train set.
2. Car set
3. Blocks
4. The Orchard game.

Ok, I didn't intend for those two lists to be the same... but I guess they mostly like the same stuff.

 

i think in our house (with a 27 month old dd) the list would include:

babydoll + accoutrements like clothes/bassinet/stroller
blocks
schleich animals
playkitchen + playfood
her own purse with wallet/keys/fake cellphone/random doo-dads she finds

but i agree with pps in that the list changes as they grow and develop new interests/skills. i am looking forward to the dollhouse stage