You may be wondering, what do you mean rotating your toddler’s toys??
Let me tell you…
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I’m sure you can relate: Christmas comes around, you love watching the excitement in your child’s face when they get a new toy, they play with it with enthusiasm for a day or two…
…then the excitement begins to evaporate and the toy is forgotten and gets mixed in with all the other million (exaggeration, but feels like it!) toys.
You might start to think, “Is my child spoiled?” “Do they have too many toys?” “Will they be ungrateful as they get older?” “Should I burn all the toys and start over?!”
Okay, burning might be dramatic..
But! It’s never a bad idea to gather up some toys and donate them to reduce the amount of clutter. (Trust me, your toddler WILL NOT miss the toys you donate, they will forget about them very quickly.)
Anyway, how do you remedy “toy complacency” in your toddler?”
You rotate their toys regularly.
When I say rotate, I don’t mean rearrange them in the playroom. What I mean is this:
- Find a place in your home, like a closet or bins in the garage or the attic or whatever works for you.
- Store all your toddlers toys there (if there are just too many to store, consider donating enough to where you have space to store what’s left.)
- Choose a few different toys at a time and put them out for your toddler to play with.
- After about a few days, a week…or really however often you want, while your toddler is sleeping, put those toys back into the storage area and choose a few different toys to put out for them.
Now, watch the excitement and stimulation in their eyes when they see toys that they have definitely forgotten existed. HOURS of play, I tell you, hours.
Here are FIVE positive reasons to be rotating your toddlers toys:
1. Avoid Overstimulation
Too many toys can overload your toddlers senses. The colors, shapes, sounds, textures, oh my!
Instead of trying to focus on many toys at once and becoming overwhelmed, having the option of only a couple of toys at a time will be much easier on your kiddo’s little learning brain.
According to the Raising Children Network, overstimulation of young children can lead to issues like:
- Crankiness
- Tiredness
- Excessive crying and an inability to properly communicate how they feel
- Throwing fits
- Loss of interest
- Defiance even with simple tasks
No thank you! Anything to avoid these fun behaviors, am I right mama?!
2. Gratitude
Having only a few toys to choose from instead of being surrounded by tons will help your toddler develop gratitude for what they have.
It is the cutest thing and makes me smile from ear to ear when I rotate out my two and a half year old’s toys for a few different ones and his reaction is to get soooooo excited saying, “thank you mommy! thank you mommy!!!!” while jumping up and down. I die!! He had forgotten he even had those toys..he is so thankful and I love that.
What I’m hoping is that this leads to less feelings of entitlement.
That right there is worth it to me!
3. Less Clutter
How many times per day are you on your hands and knees picking up the same piles of toys that got played with for 5 minutes. I know you know, mama!
Moving on…
4. Higher Quality Playtime
Research has shown that having fewer toys to choose from results in higher quality playtime as children are able to focus better than when there are more toys present.
I’ve observed this in my toddler. He has a small bin of little toy animals (I count this bin as ONE toy because the little animals are so small and can be played with together). When that is the only toy available to him I can see his imagination run wild!
He will line them all up by animal type and have them talking to each other. He even makes different little voices for each one, highly recommend!
Below are links to some of the animal sets we have:
5. Better Attention Span
Being surrounded by too many toys can cause your toddler to bounce from thing to thing, thus training them to have a shorter attention span.
According to a study by the University of Toledo:
“When toddlers had exposure to fewer toys, they played twice as long with the toys they had…”
So, those are just a few of the benefits of rotating your toddlers toys regularly! I’m sure if you try it you will see even more benefits.
If you have any tips or tricks related to this topic, please comment below!
Thanks for stopping by!
