Toy Arrangements

Toy arrangements:

   I have followed a bit of Montessori method when it comes to toy arrangements. The minimalist approach is followed in Montessori while providing toys to the kids. Instead of dumping a lot of toys in the play area, we can give a very minimal amount of toys (4 to 6 toys ) at a time to the baby. I have arranged them on a shelf, and it has the maximum of 6 different variety of toys.

Selection of toys/activities to display:

•   First I will select some activities/toys based on my idea, her age,and capability.

•    Will arrange them in shelf and observe her for a few days.

•    If she is interested, she will take it out and play with it.

•   If she’s not interested either she won’t even touch it, or she’ll throw away.

•   I will continue to keep the same item (which she likes) until she lost interest.

•   Will keep the not-interested items for one or 2 days more, If she didn’t touch even after I will remove them and introduce something new.

•   While removing the not-interested toy, I will add something new along with the old interesting thing.

•   I try to rotate the toys/activities once in 10 to 15 days, and it depends on her interest only.

•   In the above pic, she didn’t touch the top right corner toy at all. So after two days, I removed it and added another new toy/activity.

•   Sometimes she won’t even come near this shelf but plays with whatever available at home.

•    I will try to keep the toys/activities in a tray if there are small pieces.

•   Except for the shape sorter (2nd row left one), she played with everything. Most favorite are purses. She’s two years old now still, she’s fond of that.

          That’s our bookshelf. I have Mentioned details about our bookshelf in the book thread.

          Please don’t ever imagine; our house will be so clean because of a few toys. No, it won’t be, and it’s not possible with kids. And that’s how kids will be. She will pull out the toys, throw it in the living room and plays with something else. It will be a mess during the daytime, but it has lots of benefits too.

Benefits:

•   We slowly involve her in cleaning these toys after playing with it. Though she can’t do it completely, she’ll help us in doing it. In this way, kids will learn about cleaning.

•   With a day to day practice, kids will learn the routine from us and started to do it on their own.

•   Kids will focus on one or very fewer toys and play with it. There won’t be any distractions.

•    They get used to minimalist living and be happy with fewer items.

•   Their imagination skill may increase. While playing with fewer toys, they can imagine and play in different ways with the same toy.

•   More than anything, as a parent I would say actually its so easy to clean after the play time, and we can keep track of even the small items.