Our Toy Guidelines

Guys I started listening to Christmas music today!  It is totally unlike me to listen to it this early, but it just sounded fun.  It wasn't Jingle bells or anything too obnoxious it was calm, relaxing, piano music.  While listening I felt a deep and overwhelming gratitude for the birth of Jesus Christ.  His birth was just the beginning of all of the beautiful miracles that his life brought to this earth.  I am so grateful to know my savior and feel of his love daily.

So needless to say I am excited for this Christmas season!  Something that also comes along with Christmas are presents.  I know many of us stress over shopping and buying gifts, but for me this is a fun part of Christmas.  I even started my Christmas shopping back in September since I was so excited for it.  Today I am pretty much done with my main Christmas shopping.  I just have to press 'buy' in my virtual shopping cart in Amazon on the last of the gifts.  I have probably spent more time on it then is necessary, but most of my "shopping" was online during nap time so I feel ok about it.

This summer we spent a lot of time dejunking our house.  We worked on refocusing our goals on only bringing things into our house that brought us joy.  Along with dejunking my New Years resolution for 2015 was make my home a healthier place to be by getting rid of some of the chemicals that surround us.  This goal has been a year long process and I will share the progress that we have made in cleansing our house in a future post.  But I mention these goals now, because they have really affected our outlook on kids toys.  McKay and I have discussed things and we now have some guidelines that we like to keep in mind as we shop for birthday presents or Christmas presents for our kids.  A few of you asked, so I thought I would share our guidelines here.

* P.S.while these guidelines ARE working for us now I have no idea if we will keep them all forever.  I haven't worked with kids over six years old very much so I have no idea if their needs and wants will cause us to change some of these.  Just thought I would throw that in.  :)

1. No Batteries
This has been a rule at our house since day one.  McKay has always insisted that we don't buy battery operated toys and for the most part I don't argue.  Usually batteries limit the toy to being just a "push and watch" toy which we don't love.  Also batteries are expensive.  The few battery operated toys that we do have I keep in good working order and try to replace the batteries when they run out since toys are always more fun when they work properly.

2. When possible, buy wooden/metal/cloth toys instead of plastic ones.
We are trying to reduce the amount of plastic that we have in our house especially infant/toddler plastic toys since they are most likely to go in babies mouths.  McKay doesn't think this rule is a big deal, but it feels important to me so I am trying to choose the wooden versions of toys instead of the plastic ones.  Beyond just the chemicals found in plastics I feel like the wooden toys are more appealing to the eye and are usually built better.  We still have a lot of plastic toys, but it feels good to not be getting more.  A big exception that I see us making in the future to this rule is Legos.  I love them (probably wont love them spread all over my house) and hope my kids will too as they get older.  So we will be getting legos/duplos even though they are plastic.

3. Quality over Quantity
We focus on getting good quality classic toys that both boys and girls can love for a very long time.  We look for solidly built toys.  Sometimes that means buying a child less number of gifts since the ones they did receive cost more.  We are happy when we find nice toys secondhand, but we are also (Or I should say 'I') not afraid to spend money on something that we feel will last for a long time and will be well loved.  I know someday we will feel like we have WAY too many toys.  We are not quite there yet since our kids are still young, but I feel it coming.  Hopefully limiting the toys that they get now will help us slow the inevitable of an over abundance in the toy department.  Plus I am not afraid to get rid of toys if my kids don't play with them.  Any random happy meal toys that make their way into our house gets to be loved for a week or so and then I toss them out.  I toss them out in secret and my kids have never asked me where the toy went.  Bigger toys that they don't play with get sold on Craigslist/Facebook.  Sometimes they see me selling something and they ask about it, but I just explain that they don't play with it so we are letting someone else have it.  Luckily so far they have been satisfied with that answer.  Just last night I gave away our collection of Mega blocks since they never play with them and they were happy to give them to their friends.    

4. No character toys.  Meaning we try to not buy toys (or any clothes for that matter) with a Disney or TV show character on it.
 Instead we usually shoot for generic animals or shapes.  For example I bought the kids some backpacks for Valentines day this year.  Instead of getting the Cars themed one or Princess Sofia one I got a Frog and Butterfly ones.  This was actually a rule at my house as a kid so it seemed pretty normal to me.  McKay liked it too so we went with it.  There are a million Disney themed toys out there and while they are fun in the moment they often loose their interest over time.  I really want these toys to last for a long time so that maybe my grand kids can play with them.   Also themed toys and clothes seem to usually be more expensive and lower quality then their generic counterparts since you are paying for the brand.      

5. Buy toys that encourage creativity and can be used in multiple ways.
I debated about including this rule because it is still a work in progress at our house, but I love the idea of it.  Not all toys will fall into this category, but I would love to have a few of these sets someday.  When I taught preschool we had tons of toys that were open ended toys that kids would create amazing structures and buildings with.  The top toy in this category was Duplos.  Every 4-6 year old classroom had them and every boy played with them every single day.  Definitely a keeper in my book.  A few other favorites from my preschool days are-
Classic Wooden Blocks (this is the only set that we have so far)
Wedgits
Stacker Pegs
Zoobs

Magna-Tiles were not really around when I was teaching, but they are definitely on my list for next Christmas.  I have only heard good things about them.

The last guideline at our house is keep toys organized.  Some homes just have a "toy room" and as long as the toys stay in the room it doesn't matter where they go.  At our house every toy has a box for all of its parts and every box has a spot or shelf that it goes on.  This system helps keep toy pieces together and helps them be more appealing for our kids to want to play with them.  It also helps makes clean up easier since the kids know where everything belongs.  No random toys scattered all over the house.  

Well those are the toy guidelines at this house, and they are the rules that I used when shopping for the kids Christmas gifts.

I feel like Christmas shopping is so different these days because of the internet.  Amazon is my best friend followed closely by Pinterest (cliche I know!).  Thanks to these two websites I keep things pretty organized with future gift ideas for each member of my family (including future babies!).  Everyone in the family has their own wishlist that I have created on Amazon and whenever I see something they might like I add it to their wishlist.  I also have a wishlist for children's books that look good and preschool games/activities that I would love to add to our collection.  When a birthday rolls around or Christmas I just consult the wish lists for ideas of what to get them.  Then once I choose what I want to buy I shop around to find the best price.  Often amazon has good prices or deals, but other times I find things cheaper at Target, Zulily, or if I am lucky- second hand.    

Another aspect of children's toys are grandparents.  Grandparents are awesome and SO willing to buy presents for grand kids.  I am so grateful for all of the help and love that my parents and McKay's parents have shown to our kids through special gifts.  But grandparents don't always have the same toy guidelines that we do.  I am not one to stand up and tell a grandparent what they can and can't buy, but there have been a few things that have worked in our favor on this subject.

-Last Christmas McKay's step mom decided to do a toyless Christmas for the grandkids.  This decision came after going into a few strangers homes to clean their carpets (they are carpet cleaners) and being overwhelmed by the shear number of toys that the kids had.  So instead of toys she got the kids special plates and bowls to use at meal times, backpacks, temple and Christ pictures for their rooms, coloring supplies, jeans, etc.  A toyless Christmas was great and the kids still loved their gifts from grandma and grandpa without them having to be toys.  McKay's family does not exchange Christmas lists.  It is a "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" kind of idea.  So I don't really have a say on what my kids get from them, but they are great and you can tell Grandma really tries to buy things that the kids will like.  

- My family is the exact opposite from McKay's family.  Christmas lists are your best friend and my mom asks for a list from every member of the family including the grandkids, usually in early October.  So I have started emailing her each child's wish list from Amazon (and I usually send her my wish list too haha!), which is simple and quick and then we just make sure that we don't buy them the same things.  My mom loves getting the suggestions and having a list makes her shopping easier.  Plus then my kids get things that are geared towards their personality and interests.

-We are not afraid to get rid of things. I repeat.  We are not afraid to get rid of things.  I know I said this earlier, but if a toy isn't a great fit for our family we just get rid of it!  The hassle of storing obnoxious random toys is not worth it to us!  If my kids are given something that we don't love; I let them keep it for a while (usually about 6 months, so that I don't feel too guilty) and then we sell it.  Some of the toys are even ones that I have bought, thinking that they will love them and then they just don't.  For example:  McKay and I re decorated a huge doll house for Adalyn last Christmas.  We were so excited to give it to her, thinking that she would love it.  The girl hasn't played with it once this year unless I am sitting there forcing her to.  haha!  I think it is just too big (or she is too young, I can't fully tell) since she will often play with the dollhouse people and furniture just not the house.  So we are going to get rid of it and move on.  Yes it is kind of sad, but I don't want such a big toy just sitting in my house unused.

Anyways I think we have heard had enough toy and "what to buy" lists on this blog to last us for a VERY long time so I will be done now.  :)

Good luck with all of your holiday shopping!  Happy November!