What to have in a child's bedroom?

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I have a strange question.....

What are the very basics that you would put in a 2 1/2 year old girls room? Not playdough, bubbles, etc.. IN THE ROOM.

See, my DD has decided that she no longer needs to clean her room. She is capable just unwilling. We have decided that she has WAY too many things in her room. I went through it with a trash bag and took almost everything out. She was excited! Hopefully, it just hasn't sunk in yet or my plan back fired horribly. But she really does have so much that she doesn't appreciate any of it and really doesn't even play with anything. She plays more in her 4 yo bothers room.

A few things that she still has are... kitchen & shopping cart with about 5 pieces of food and dishes, doll house, doll cradle, doll "center" (bath, high chair, etc.), doll stroller. Those are like part of her room.

OK. I have to leave her a few GOOD items. What kinds of things do you think are "must haves" for a 2 1/2 yo girl?

-- Rebecca (rebeccagallant@earthlink.net), April 23, 2002

Answers

A red wagon and a trike. Bob se,ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@kans.com), April 23, 2002.

I guess I need to add... They have LOTS of "outside" toys, games, craft items and things like playdough. But these are not in their rooms. I have everything but the "outside" toys put away so I control when they are out. Outside stuff is outside of course.

The things that I left in her room... the doll house, kitchen, stroller, cradle and doll "center" is IT!! I took all of their "1000" pieces away. I left 1 doll and about 5 kitchen pieces.

I guess the question is if your house burned down and all of their toys were gone. What would you replace. What is really good and important and useful. When they have so much that they don't even play with things it is too much. I want her to have the basics and learn to be creative and enjoy playing in her room. I know that everyone will have a different opionion. That is what I want. I just want some ideas from years of parenting and looking back.

I took wooden blocks, a barn and farm animals, musical instruments, balls, magna doodles, books, coloring books and crayons, 20 or so baby dolls and clothes, a handfull of barbie like dolls and my little ponies, a laundry basket full of fisher price little people and little people stuff, another basket of dress up clothes and play jewerly, tons of pretend food and baby supplies, a cash register, a tape player and tapes, puzzles, view masters and slides and a toy box full of "stuff"! No child should have so much!!!!! My opinion anyway. But, we have tried to obtain useful play things but we still have too much. This list of course is not even complete.

What to keep?

-- Rebecca (rebeccagallant@earthlink.net), April 23, 2002.


I would give a 2 1/2 y.o. one doll, blocks (maybe 25), a ball, 2 plates, 2 cups, a pan, a car or truck, one stuffed animal, books (age appropriate and lushly illustrated),a few plastic farm animals, and a box to put them in. I'd make crayons available, but not in their room. Those toys will allow a child to use their imagination, but will not overwhelm them.

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), April 23, 2002.

I think what she has left in her room is plenty. Maybe her Teddy Bear and favorite doll?

How I dealt with this issue with my girls at this age is the building toys, crayons & coloring books, and farm playset were in a small play area in the living room. This way I could supervise and enforce the "one toy at a time, put this away before getting another one out" policy. This way, blocks, crayons and cows were not lost in the mess.

Too much stuff is overwelming to a kid that age. Put some of it away for for another year, or recycle toys through a box at the top of the closet. 3 or 4 activities to choose from at a time is all a little kid can handle until they are about 4 years old.

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), April 23, 2002.


I would give the wooden blocks back. Every child should have blocks. I throw out all the cheap little plastic toys, the kind they get from fast food restaurants. With other toys, that they like, sometimes it makes a difference to pack a box of the toys away. Then, unpack the box when they get bored, and pack up some of the toys they are bored with. Have you ever watched a child go through a toy box to get what they really want? You could watch her go through a box of her toys a few times. What does she go looking for, and what does she throw out of the box ? In general, I get rid of plastic toys unless it is something the child really enjoys and uses. Also, sometimes a child is not yet ready for a toy, and then as they mature they just love the same toy that they never played with 6 months earlier.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), April 23, 2002.


I agree, too much is not good. However blocks are essential!!! My 8 year old still plays with his almost every day. As they get older they do like to have different things, so switching the toys is interesting to them and doesn't cost you anything. My son loves to build so he has many differnt sets of building toys in big green containers stacked in his closet. He keeps them sorted into the proper containers and always has.

I have found that 2 year olds will keep their rooms clean, but you usually have to "supervise" by saying, "OK, put the blocks away...etc..." and encouraging them bit by bit. While all children should have a little work to do, it is not easy for a 2 year old to know automatically what to do next.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 24, 2002.


Blocks are great--but I would add that you might want to rethink throwing out all those "free" happy meal toys.

In a child development course I took--they said that the real learning occurs when blocks are expanded by having "people"--that way blocks can be roads for people or schools for people.

There is "talking" between people which encourages language development and making connections between activities. The play becomes endless because you have gas stations, and airports.etc..

I stored the "people" box next to the "block" box and it worked out nicely.

You are right a 2 1/2 yr old will not clean their room....but a 2 1/2 yr old WILL clean up her blocks if she wants a snack or wants to go outside to play. Use her wants for your needs.... Good Luck. Makes me with I had a 2/1/2 yr old to play with!

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), April 24, 2002.


I do the trash thing about every other week. I take a large trash bag go in there rooms and just start tossing. I do keep a box of new toys that I give them periodically. Marques' toys consist of lincoln logs, hot wheels, and legos. Jalynn and Journey have a kitchen set, two chairs, dolls, stuffed animals, barbies, and magna doodles. I stopped giving them things, like puzzles in there room that they are just going to tear up or lose pieces. I do keep them in the closet that they can play with later.

The neighbors kids are always telling me that there bored and I don't have any toys for them to play with. They have tons of toys at home that they don't play with either, they just leave everything on the floor and play with a couple of things.

-- Melinda (speciallady104@hotmail.com), April 24, 2002.


I remember Melinda's favorites, the Fisher-Price people, and Strawberry Shortcake.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), April 24, 2002.

Rebecca, I'm having the same problem. It never ends, my kids have so much stuff I'm begging people not to buy them any more toys! (It doesn't work by the way - with 2 grandmas, 2 greats and 3 aunt/uncle pairs, not counting several older cousins, I lose everytime).

I would add in either the blocks or Lincoln Logs/Tinkertoys. Something like that to build with, it encourages both imagination and manual dexterity, and she's at a good age to be learning her hand/eye coordination.

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), April 24, 2002.



I love tinker toys! Brady has legos, mega blocks, tinker toys, lincoln logs, and a few other kinds that I don't know the name of, but are a little more advanced!!! He also has all kinds of scraps of wood to build with.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), April 24, 2002.

Raised 4 kids, 2 boys, 2 girls. Take her toys and sort them by type or what "goes together". Put them into plastic container with lids (cheap at the "dollar store") Label the outside of the container. Store them where the child does not have access. Once a day/week/month, depending on the weather and boredom factor, allow the child to have a container full to play with. When she is done playing, all goes back in the container. Then and only then, can the child choose another container full of toys. I had to set limits sometimes as to how often the child could get a new container. But it really helped cut down on the clutter. I also noticed that the girls enjoyed "boy toys" and the boys enjoyed "girl toys" at times.

Everyone told me to enjoy them while they're young, and I did. Looking forward to grandkids someday. They always liked Grandma's toys better anyway, lol.

Hope I helped!

-- Cindy (ilovecajun@aol.com), April 25, 2002.


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