Jack has always been very lucky to have a lot of toys, some of which we bought and some of which were gifted to him by others. You can see our favourite toys here and here. When he started walking and was able to get into all his toys himself, we put them all in our living room in a big basket and let it be a bit of a free for all. You’d think that would be every toddler’s dream – access to all the toys, but we started to notice that he was pulling them all out, playing with them for a tiny amount of time and moving on. Then he was getting bored.
It wasn’t until I was talking to my mum about this, that she suggested limiting the number of toys he has out at one time. Apparently it’s a Montessori technique, and I’ve always been really interested in the Montessori way of learning as it’s how I was taught when I was a preschooler. Mum suggested putting the toys away and only letting him have a few out at each time. Then when he gets bored of them, he is taught to put them back and get out a new toy.
I moved Jack’s toy box through to his room, and left out his two absolute favourite toys (his wooden truck and his wooden blocks) in the living room. The next morning, I took him through to his room to choose a few toys to take back through to the living room to play with. This technique worked! Jack became more interested in the fewer toys and played with them for longer. I noticed he would start to get bored, would drift off, and then come back to the toys and use them in a different way for play. It’s like the boredom was stimulating him to come up with more imaginative ways to interact with the toys.
We’ve been doing this method for a few months now and Jack doesn’t get nearly as bored as he used to. He’s also learnt a lot in terms of playing with toys in different ways, for example he’s learnt to make his blocks into a road to drive his car along.
I now leave a few different toys out on his table each night for him to play with and we swap them out during the day. Things like blocks and Duplo and puzzles are put away, and if he wants to play with them we can get them out. When he’s bored with that activity, he is learning to help put the blocks away and then we get a new toy out. Same goes for things like puzzles and other toys too.
I feel like teaching him how to put things away at an early age is good, and it definitely helps keep me sane too! I hate having tons of toys scattered everywhere, so this is a win-win for both of us. I’m also teaching him how to put everything away at night before he goes to bed, so that there’s a clean slate for the morning.
Would you try this with your child?