Encourage Your Children To Play With Their Toys
Many parents share the frustration - closets filled with great toys, an awareness that active play is a key part of their child’s development, but – challenges with encouraging their children to play with the toys.
A number of factors contribute. At home, the pull of TV and computer games is strong. Young children also spend less time at home than earlier generations. In addition, the ways that families store and access toys can also contribute to playtime (or lack of.)
The experts are unanimous in emphasizing the importance of self-directed, unstructured playtime. This time allows children to be creative, pretend, explore, and solve problems – all while having fun.
Some ideas to encourage your children to play with their toys follow. We hope that you will also share your own thoughts/suggestions, below.
- The most obvious, but must be included, turn off the TV. For children old enough to protest, set a limit and encourage them to choose the shows they would like to watch within the TV time limit.
- Location, Location, Location. Make the toys visible. Invest in a few low (safe) bookshelves and leave out a manageable mix of toys. Too many will overwhelm. While toy boxes may look more attractive – children will play with toys they can see.
- Think about locations in the house where you “do things” and where your children like to be with you. Do you fold laundry in the basement? Leave one or two toys near the washer/dryer. Leave a few items out on the kitchen table. Do you have a home office and work from home at times? Keep a few quiet items in the office.
- Divide/Sort/Conquer. Every parent knows the frustration of a jumbled mess of assorted toys from 11 different games and activities. This can be tackled in two steps. First, as discussed above, keep a limited number of items “out” at all times. For all items not “out” consider investing in several inexpensive plastic bins – and create an “art bin,” a “truck bin,” a “music bin,” etc. to help keep like items together and accessible.
- Turn on the music: Most children respond positively to music – and playing music in a room with some toys out can often be enough to encourage children to dive in.
- Provide variety: Children thrive on “new” toys. Hence, leaving out some items, and rotating frequently (in and out of the bins), is a great strategy. In addition, review the “mix” of toys that you leave out – ensuring that you do not leave too many items out that are similar to one another.
- Unexpected placement: Take one or two items out, off the shelves and leave in the middle of your playroom. The odds are good your children will play with these toys – and more.
Share Your Ideas - What do your kids love to do inside? What toys do they love? Share your thoughts with us, and we will share many more great ideas with you.
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