Welcome to Grant's corner of the den :)
Isn't it cozy?
This corner plus a box of trains (and often a push toy of some type), in the opposite corner of the room, are all the toys he has to play with on the main floor of our house. We started with a box of toys under the coffee table. This worked until he was old enough to pull up and started getting into the bookshelves. I started pulling breakable things out and putting in toys until it seemed like toys were EVERYWHERE!
Then I read
this post.
I, of course, followed her link to The Intelligent Nest
post (another great blog!) and started reading all about the Montessori philosophy. I totally bought into it.
Why did Montessori think that order was so important? She believed that children are very capable, often more capable than adults are ready to or patient enough to allow. Children can learn to find and put away things that they want and need, but they cannot accomplish this if their things are never in the same spot and are scattered all about. Think of how much use that $20 puzzle you bought is if it is dropped into a toy box with a bunch of other toys, with pieces falling out and missing. Rather, a puzzle kept in the living room next to the sofa on the floor is accessible, visible and usable. The child can reach the puzzle, dump the pieces out, have no concern about loosing pieces amongst other play items, and put the puzzle back together when he is done because he can see all the pieces clearly. There is no clutter to sort through. Therefore, your child will use and learn from a puzzle more in an uncluttered location rather than a cluttered one. This principle can be applied to most toys.
I had my doubts a toy rotation would work. I was wrong. It has been awesome. I wouldn't say he gets super excited after I've rotated his toys, but he definitely notices. He really plays with the toys that are out much more (even the ones that aren't his favorites) and it's WAY easier for me to clean up.
I rotate them once a week and sometimes I'll keep new toys out for two weeks...I also keep a few toys in his room and sometimes I just rotate them from upstairs to down for the variety.
We also invested in a learning tower. It's a huge, not so attractive, piece of furniture that brings a child to counter level. Grant loves to be up! He plays, eats snack, and helps me cook while standing in it :)
Of course, when you're up at 5am, you get tired of playing with toys inside after a few hours. We are still soaking up our outside time before winter weather really sets in!
