Where Did The Toys Go?

I like to have a neat house.  I like to have order and I like to have a reasonable amount of toys out for the children.  There is evidence that shows too many toys out in view for a child can be overwhelming.  I've seen this in action.  Take a room full of toys and watch a child walk in and while they may play with the toys, they might dump lots of toys all over the place or they may just seem to move the toys around.

But, take most of the toys away, leaving only a few toys out, say eight to ten, and watch them dive into those toys with excitement and vigor.  Interestingly enough, should you decide to do this test, leave eight toys that were already in the room when it was cluttered and you'll see your child have a sudden interest in the toys they may not have had before.  They're more engaged with the toys and they may play longer with less overall, "toy clutter".

We've been to lots of houses with small children  and many families have lots and lots of toys out.  Some people have toys in every room and some people have toys only in designated areas.   Today, we ran into a completely different situation: we couldn't find the toys.

The house was around the corner and we were there for a two-year-old birthday party.  As more adults and children arrived, the adults got to talking and the children started looking for things to do.  We found only one toy, a little plastic camera that lit up.  I tried to get my children to share it, but that's never a good solution.  In a bit of desperation, we took them out onto the porch and there were some outdoor toys my two liked playing with in the thirty-six degree weather. 

We found out later when other children were in the same situation, that the toys were stored away in the lowest cabinets.  The family was much like ours in that they like having a place for the toys.  They just had them all hidden at the start of the party.  Once we found toys, we had a bunch of entertained and happy children.

The Big Boy Update:  Ornament hanging and hooking and un-hanging.  We hung ornaments on the Christmas tree today.  Consider the standard ornament:  it has either a loop or a hook.  Hold on, did you just say, "hook"?  Guess who is obsessed with hooking?  My son enjoyed taking the ornaments down and trying to "hook" them together and he was almost faster than we were at putting them up. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The Pillow Upgrade.  She's had a pillow on her bed for some time now and has been happy with it.  Prior to her current pillow, she had one of those pillow pets and she liked that.  I had forgotten about it and it was stored away in the closet the children can't get into.  When I opened the door the other day and my daughter came in with me, she saw her old pillow, grabbed it and took it back into her room.  When I returned, the pillow pet was in the pillow spot on the bed and her other pillow was on the floor in the corner, discarded.