Top 5 Toys

These are the things that my kids play with the most when we are inside.  No particular order, it varies.

1) Blocks: My mom bought Justin a set of Melissa & Doug wooden blocks and Justin played with them so much that I bought a second set.  Ryan likes them too, but Justin plays with them every single day (unless I have taken them away).  He builds things for his dinosaurs, for the little people animals, and for other figures.  He makes towers, machines, and things that I have no idea what they are.  Great investment, classic toy, last forever.  Gotta have blocks. 

2) Trains: Let me start out by saying that I hate Thomas Tank Engine.  I was able to find some great deals on cars, tracks, etc. and slowly gave in.  Justin had seen them at other people's homes and loved them.  Ryan loves them even more.  Now that we have more track pieces, even Rob and I enjoy putting tracks together.  We often have creative differences with Justin though.

3) Fisher Price Little People/Animals:  We have a few different sets and the boys just LOVE them!  They play with the little people and the animals all the time, often without the main set part (barn, airport, etc.).  Justin acts out all sorts of things with them, while Ryan is more interested in manipulating the objects.  He loves to stick the animals down the silo and watch them fall out the  bottom.  He also likes to collect the "moos" and other favorite animals and make sounds for them.  Best of all is to destroy things that Justin has made.

I know that in the picture below it looks like they are playing nicely beside each other.  Please note that lasted all of about five seconds before Justin just HAD to have things that Ryan had or Ryan HAD to knock over the figures that Justin had so carefully placed in just the right position.

4) Legos:  Usually the Lego creations are not as big as this one.  Justin wanted to make something that was 100 Lego pieces tall.  These are actually Duplos.  There are a few MegaBlocks mixed in (cool TV cartoon characters), but I primarily went with the real deal.  After purchasing a few, I saw how much Justin loved them and bought a ton off of eBay and was thrilled with the deal.  Kids outgrow the larger Duplo faster than the normal sized Legos, so I didn't want to spend a fortune on them.  Justin and Ryan both have a blast with them.  Typically, Justin will build something for the Duplo cats or the Duplo dinosaurs.  He loves to make them little houses or playgrounds.  He will also build other things like towers.  He enjoys taking the basic blocks and making color patterns too.  Ryan was at the stage where he primarily knocks over things that are built or pulls pieces off of structures.  Now he can build things (okay, not really things, he is just hooking them together) and he thinks he is soooo cool.  I think so too.  Justin wasn't able to do that at the same age.  Of course Justin hadn't had the Duplos for long at that point and Ryan has been around them since birth.

5) Stacking/Nesting Cups and Boxes:  Okay, in this picture he isn't stacking or nesting, but he does love the blocks as well as the stacking/nesting cups.  When Justin was this age, he had cardboard stacking blocks.  They eventually came to an end.  I found these wooden ones and thought they would be much more durable.  They are, but they hurt when they hit you.  Justin and Ryan have managed to break one too, but it wasn't hard to repair.  These things are inexpensive, need no batteries or assembly, and provide hours of fun.  They are also fun to fill up with smaller toys or to serve as little garages or houses for things.

Dinosaurs, wild animal figures, cars and trucks, play food, battery powered abc or music toys, stuffed animals and dolls are all fun too.  The boys have lots and lots of toys.  I try to rotate them so that they are not all out at once.  That makes it easier at clean up time and means that they are excited to see something that has been put up for awhile.  I don't put away the top 5 toys unless it is a punishment for misusing them (ie throwing them or using them to hurt each other).  Then they are only up a night or two.  I do rotate the little people buildings and accessories, but leave the people and animals out and available.

Justin is creative and combines a variety of different types of toys.  That's great, but it means I can't really tell him to clean up all of one thing before getting out another.  Chances are he is playing with both (or all)!  Here he is with blocks, beanbags, a scarf, Fisher Price little people, and an empty container.

I have also found that with clearly labeled bins, shelves, and containers, that even Ryan knows where things belong and can help clean things up.  It also speeds up clean-up after play dates as kids and their moms can see what goes where.  You can use actual photos, jpegs from online, drawings, words, etc.

Simply Stickers

It doesn't get much easier that this.  Here is an envelope that had junk mail in it and some cheap stickers from Michael's or Joann's or somewhere.  Justin LOVES stickers and so does TB.  They can be entertained by them for quite some time.  I need to remember this for long airplane trips and hotels.  Cheap, doesn't matter if it gets lost, and doesn't take up much space.

On the Go

I have shown this clock on my other blog I think, but I thought I would just throw a quick picture here so I know where to find it.  This is a simple clock with the hands put on with brads and the numbers with velcro.

I also made a "5 Little Monkeys" thing for Justin (and TB).  The monkeys attach with velcro.  The figure for the doctor is on a craft stick so J can pick him up and shake him at the appropriate part in the rhyme.  Mama monkey is printed on the page with the bed and does not move.  The number strip moves up and down to show the number of monkeys on the bed.  (I know that there are five and not three monkeys on the bed, it's just a picture.)

Since the boys have enjoyed reading "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" I made a page for that rhyme too.  The number wheel is attached with a brad and turns so you can label how many frogs are on the log.

We will see what else I can come up with to put in the three ring binder.  I have an "Itsy Bitsy Spider" one in the works.  When I taught kindergarten, I had many of these boards made up on poster board and had the words with Boardmaker PCS as well. 

Cardboard Box

I am amazed time and time again by how kids can have fun with the simplest things.  My boys love empty boxes.  I saved some boxes and today when I was tired of trying to deal with my cranky boys I pulled them (the boxes, not the boys) out of the back room and told the boys to have fun.  What can you do with a few empty boxes?
Push them.  What is more fun than pushing around an empty box?  Better than an expensive toddler push toy anyday!

Throw them.  Hey, my boys like to throw just about anything.  Why should a box be an exception?

Race with them.  Pick up the box and run.  Who can make it around the living room first?

Climb on them.  Ryan climbs on everything.  Boxes aren't quite as much fun as shelves, tables, kitchen counters...

Stack them.   Stacking is the best because it leads to knocking them down.

It lasted for about an hour and then they were at each other again.  I put the boxes away for another day.  Perhaps there is a whole new life for them outside.

Jack Be Nimble (Again!)

 I know that I posted this on my other blog, but Justin and Ryan STILL just love doing Jack Be Nimble, so I thought I should put it here.  It is one of their favorites.  They love to change the object that is jumped over and like to substitute in their own names.  Whatever.  Who would have guessed that a nursery rhyme could be so much fun?  Here are the pics.  Yes, Justin likes to dress himself.

Building The Alphabet

Justin has loved letters since he was about 19 months old.  Right now he is frustrated that his fine motor skills are not good enough to write letters and words the way he wants them to look.  I found some pages from a Handwriting Without Tears workbook that I had from when I was teaching.  I didn't have the wooden sticks that go with it though.  I solved the problem by making some out of cardstock and laminating them for durability.  In one of my classrooms I know I used cheap vinyl placemats to make the pieces that I needed since we didn't have enough of the wooden ones.  I have also seen people sell them on ebay for reasonable prices.

Once I showed him what to do and told him to look at the numbers to know what order to put the pieces in, he had a fun time with the activity.  Of course he wanted to show me after he built each letter.  That meant the activity didn't really buy me any time away from him, but maybe in the future.

I figured that I needed four big lines, 3 short lines, 2 big curves, and 2 little curves, but I made extra pieces while I was at it.  That way if I lose one or two I am still okay.  It also means that TB can work along side his brother, which of course he wants to do.

Quick and Easy Project

What great works of art!  Very good choice of colors.  I am sure that those are the first thoughts you have when you see these masterpieces.  Okay, maybe not, but this entertained Justin for quite some time.  The triangle pet puzzle was something that my mom sent.  I think she got it from Michael's.  Justin thought he was so cool making a puzzle all by himself.  He very carefully removed each of the three pieces, colored them, and replaced them.  He even named the animals.  I don't recall their names, but I do remember that they were original and that they rhymed.  The coconut tree is a leftover that I had from when I taught kindergarten.  They were on sale at Michael's for 2 cents each or something ridiculous like that so I bought as many as the special allowed and made my husband do the same.  I had "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" trees for class projects forever and STILL have a ton left.  They are great to paint or color with marker.  There are lots of different shapes, perfect for an easy craft project.

Now the problem is Justin carries these around with him everywhere.  They are special to him.  I hope they lose their specialness soon so I can put them in a transition box.  I am TRYING to keep clutter to a minimum, but I don't like to throw things out too quickly and have upset children.  The transition box is a perfect resting stop on its way to the garbage.  It can still be brought back to life if needed.  And, if things do get thrown out, the time in the transition box gives me the opportunity to say that they lost it.  Let's face it, if it was forgotten about that long it was lost.

So Much for the Tent Fort

Okay, so my boys LOVE crawling under things and being in small spaces.  They love blankets and pillows.  I decided that the perfect way to have them in heaven for hours would be to make our dining room table into a tent fort.  Nothing special or difficult, just blankets over the table and some blankets and pillows underneath.  Chairs definitely pushed out of the way to avoid any mishaps.

It entertained them for about 5 minutes.  They were most intrigued with what I was doing.  Blankets on the table?  Is Mom crazy?  In I crawled and they followed.  They sat on the pillows and covered themselves with blankets and then Justin asked what we could do now.  Ryan kept trying to stand up and would hit his head and scream.  Lovely.  So much for them enjoying it.  Actually, they did enjoy moving the dining room chairs around the room.  Guess I should remember that fun activity for the future!

Ryan DID find something he enjoyed doing though.  I was cleaning some marker off of the floor with a wipe.  He decided that cleaning the floor was the best activity that I had provided for him all day.  He probably could have done that  for hours!