Still haven't figured out the toys...

[GymMom]

I've been up & running for 3 months now. Of the toys I have, I definitely see which ones are a hit and which ones need to go. But I'd like to invest in a few things that will get a lot of use. My group is 1 - 3 year olds. I'm thinking I need a couple of dolls and accessories and some dress up clothes. Any recommendations for these categories or for toys in general? Im going for play value over quantity as I have a limited budget and a tiny space.
I have a play kitchen, big Barbie house and train tracks with trains & cars which seem to be the favorites so far - and wooden puzzles and of course lots of books!
One more question, if you're still with me. I know some of you rotate toys on a daily or weekly basis. How many types of things do you have out at a time, how often do you change them and are there some things that are always out? So far, I have everything out all the time, but I think I need a toy rotation system!

[sunnydays]

Doll strollers and shopping carts are a huge hit with everyone from 1-4...and of course a few dolls to go with them (clothing need not be abundant or fancy because at that age they often just strip them naked and leave the clothing on the side...hahaha). Building blocks of some type (mega blocks or wooden blocks etc) are great because they can be used in so many ways. Dress-ups are great as you mentioned...you can often find things around your own house to throw into that box or pick up things at Thrift stores. Playdough tools have been a good investment for me because the kids love to play with playdough for hours on end at times and they absolutely love the little spaghetti maker thingies for pushing playdough through as well as the little rollers and cutters. Otherwise, I find I spend the most on arts and craft supplies...for example a big bin of pom poms which the kids use for sorting, picking up with tweezers, making patters, or putting into and out of wipes boxes (never throw wipes boxes away...they are an awesome toy for all ages!).

[monkeymama]

favorites in my house are lego, play kitchen, toy cars with car ramp, little people ( i have multiple sets and they use them for everything!) and i recently bought a whole doll set: stroller, high chair and play pen for dolls and my little dcg love them :) i try and steer clear of brand name things ie. thomas, spiderman, dora etc. and just stick to basic things. their imaginations will do the rest! i dont keep everything out at once....i rotate monthly and base it on my age group and what theme we are going with at that time...for example november was animals so play animals, farm houses, certain kitchen items, books and puzzles about animals, and lego

[monkeymama]

oh another hit in place is ride on toys- i have 3 or 4 out a time and kids love them!

[mimi]

A poster suggested a magnet wall which my hubby built a couple of months ago. Leap frog has these great magnet games which they can place animal heads and bodies together. They also have vehicles and numbers. The kids love this. Especially the little ones. They are about 20.00 but go on special all the time at toys r us.

[Sandbox Sally]

mimi could you post a pic of your magnet wall? I'd love to see how that looks in your play room. I am thinking about maybe doing something like that. Do they really really love it? It's worth it? I want to know more about your sets too. LOL tell me everything!! :D

[playfelt]

A feltboard and a pocket chart are great investments in terms of something basic you can use for multiple uses. The pocket chart can be used for matching and sorting, just cutting seasonal pictures from magazines and mounting or stick to shapes, letters, etc. You can then use the pockets for telling stories by putting the figures in the pockets. Feltboard works the same way and both are quiet actitities depending on how many sound effects the kids add.

Just be sure that what you buy aimed at the older kids is stable enough for the little ones such as a stroller that a one year old might use to try and stand and push. Or a doll playpen they might fall down and collapse the sides on - ie a plastic laundry basket makes a great playpen for a doll.

I don't find my group really dresses up at all since they can barely do their own shoes or a sweater on and off. They are more interested in making the dolls do things over them dressing and doing. They pretend to have tea without dressing for a tea party or be a doctor without wearing scrubs. Keep empty plastic bottles, containers etc. I am gradually trying to replace my plastic/wooden playfood with fabric/felt foods but a few foods at least are nice - just make sure they aren't small enough to be chocking issues for the toddlers who might get into the doll area too.

Puppets is something you might want to look into. Even the dollar store ones - especially animals ones are great. Animals of any kind. I have a large collection of dinosaurs from the dollar store they love and yes sometimes the dinosaurs and the cows and pigs are all part of the farm.

[Crayola kiddies]

I have a doll center, kitchen center, book center, I have a shelf from Ikea that has the bins and I have cars, puppets, blocks, Lego, in those bins. I bought four free standing pantries with doors from crappy tire and I put all my toys in those with child locks on them and I open a different one each day and that's my toy rotation. In the cupboards I have larger tonka trucks, shape sorting toys, musical instruments, talking toys, tea party set, smaller Lego, play doh, busy beads etc. One cupboard is mostly puzzles and that available anytime. The stuff I don't want the kids pulling out randomly like play doh and small Lego I put on the top shelves and that way they have to ask. But everything they can reach is fair game and they also are able to put the stuff away by themselves too! ; )
I also forgot I have a dress up center and tons of little people and a car garage as well as lots of push toys ( lawn mowers, strollers, grocery carts, ) I have play food for the kitchen center and a cash register for the store. I have a 4x8 magnetic chalkboard on one wall as well.

[Bookworm]

I have a play kitchen, dolls and strollers, lots of stuffed animals (all the kids love animals), little people ramp and garage, a tool bench with tools that are out all the time. In bins I take out randomly are dress up, mega blocks, animals (from dollar store), different types of noisy toys and wooden blocks. I also have a reading area, a picnic table to do colouring/crafts at and some ride on toys. I have a small chalkboard painted on my wall, but I don't like it (from previous owners), so I am going to cover it with a magnetic board.

[Inspired by Reggio]

I rarely 'rotate' toys in my program anymore :o

My program has staples that are always out and than I might add or remove some seasonal related items within those staples ... aka change up the puzzles, books, puppets, additions to dramatic play like Santa's hats, elf boots, red sacks and so forth this time of year but the rest of the staples are always out!

So I have


The block area with a variety of blocks, animals and accessories
The literacy area with the pillows and books, puppet theatre and felt board and the musical instruments
The dramatic play area with the kitchen, little table and chairs, high chair and all the accessories for dress up and role playing
The creative corner ~ table area with access for two children to the open ended art materials, puzzles, sensory exploration and my portable light table sits out here some days.
Floor toys on a shelf beside an open area of floor space ..... baskets of open ended materials to add to any of the above areas to accent their play (rocks, shells, marker and play doh lids), manipulatives like 'widgits', magnetos, and other things like shape shorters and so forth to sit and explore with.

[sunnydays]

One thing I have noticed is that it really depends on your group. Before i moved, my group loved the mega blocks and cars and trains, so they were always out. Now, this past weekend I finally put all three of those things away because my new group, although similar ages, don't actually seemt o play with those things and instead the babies just drag them around and make unnecessary messes or try to put the cars and trains in their mouths etc. I think I will put away the train table as well because now there are no trains for it unless someone asks...which nobody does! So, for me, rotation kind of goes by interest...if I notice something is not being played with, I put it away for awhile and maybe next time I take it out someone will play with it..if not, away it goes. Too much stuff just means more mess and doesn't mean more fun ;) It also depends on how much space you have. In my old house, I couldn't have ride-ons or strollers because the space was too small and kids would get run over. I now have a huge space, so we can have these things out with minimal issues. What you buy has to make sense for your space.

[Inspired by Reggio]

.... What you buy has to make sense for your space.

Exactly ~ my playroom is only 16 x 12 down there so not 'huge' by any means ... I cannot have ride on toys or big pieces of furniture in there for sure .... when I choose material or a toy for the playroom I always do so with the intent of being able to envision at least three different ways children might 'use' the item and how each age group might use it.

So for example I do not have any of the 'Little Tyke / Playskool stuff' the big fire stations, large garages, airports, farms and so forth anymore cause while some kids love them basically that is all they are ever used for so if no one is 'into them' at the moment they are taking up valuable real estate ... so if my kids want to play 'fire station / garage / airport / farm' they build one with the blocks and other open ended material accessories around the room using their imagination and all I have to 'store' in my playroom is the blocks which are always out and the blocks have 'ramps and gullies' so they can build their own things to race cars down or they make 'stalls' with blocks and put the farm animals from the toy shelf in them or they build airports and find the airplanes from the bucket of vehicles and so forth and it takes up a TINY FRACTION of the storage space cause well if no one is interested in 'fire stations' they use the blocks as something else and pretend the wooden people silhouettes in the block area are 'someone else' like the girls for example who love to build 'castles' and use them as the king and queen and princess ;)

[Spixie33]

I agree with everyone that it really depends on your group. I recently got rid of my large train table and just bought a smaller table that has a flat surface instead. The flat surface is more practical because it can be used for cars, train tracks or the farm animals.

I have a basket of music instruments for my music centre.

a play kitchen and play food is a must. I take turns between leaving the shopping cart out and putting it away because a lot of stuff gets wheeled in there and creates large mess all at once.

I have a chalk board/magnetic easel stand with magnetic ABC letters on it.

A puzzle and book centre. There are different puzzles from chunky 3 piece puzzles, to 12 piece puzzles to large floor puzzles that we do as a group

Blocks

A large dollhouse/Barbie house

A lego table which hardly gets used for legos.

Then there are lots of miscellaneous things like Barbies, Little ponies, cars, dinosaur boxes, farm animals and a barn etc. Something like the farm animals can be a hot item for a few months and suddenly they sit collecting dust for the next few. Sigh.

I would recommend some toy dolls and one or two of the little strollers for the kids to use. Those are popular with the boys and girls along with pretend bottles to feed their 'babies'

I don't rotate toys. I do periodically remove toys and clear out toys that aren't being used and try to reconfigure how my playroom can be used better and function better. That could be adding new toys or furniture and removing something else. I am often looking around during the week and wondering what the best layout would be and observing what is getting used and what isn't.

[Momof4]

Every day my dckids get out the same toys when they arrive then they get into more of a variety as the day progresses. The first things out are the doll buggy, dolls with pillows and blankets by my girly girl, then the shopping cart full of dishes and the kitchenette and a picnic on the blanket by the dolls.

For the boys, they go straight for the millions of toy cars/trucks/construction vehicles and the parking garage and related toys.

So I guess I would call these my most popular toys. But they love the easel with the chalkboard on one side and roll of paper with markers on the other side, blocks of course, wooden puzzles made by my woodworking brother, different things get set out every day so I do rotate my toys and give the children variety.

[angelina]

for me, depends on age group, relative to space available. I have all learning centers, but often combine them to save space and put away those that i don't need.

i have 2-3 year old group. my space is about 16 feet by 14 , the basement and the living room is about same size, but smaller area wise because of the couch.

I have the learning centers, but i also keep everything stowed when we want to zumba indoors or we do bean bag toss or basketball.

Always ready on the shelf: writing centers - this is use for transition, coming in the mornings, doodles at quite time, and something to do before pick up at 4:30 pm to 5pm.

Blocks: also used in numeracy, literacy centers - sorting colors, counting.

Balls and Basket: I have 2 boys, they like something to throw in the bean bags.

Art center : trim down to what is needed as to wanted (space issue)

library is open all day, (1) 3 -tier bookshelf, 1 short shelf for the toddler ones.

Dance and yoga area is always open for kids who just want to dance, sing or both. i keep it as open and they can dance on whim, as i do that too.


And the kids will help me rotate toys on monday mornings. usually, i have 2 bins for free play. This is housed in a 16 bin toy organizer. what does not fit on he organizer, goes into the bin.
sometimes, i am lazy, so it is done every two weeks. if kids asked, then we do it.

Angie