Toys! What to Buy, What NOT to Buy

[Francine]

I will be relicensed next week after a two year break. When I closed in 2008 I never thought I would open again so I sold everything. Before, my girls were both young and all of our friends had young kids so getting kids was easy. This time around I'm going to have to advertise in the newspaper, although I do perfer word of mouth.

I have been picking up a few toys here and there but I haven't wanted to go hog wild unitl I know what ages I'm going to have. I would perfer to stay in the infant toddler group but I realize that just getting started I might not be able to be that particular. I can't very well start inviewing with no toys though so I need to start getting serious about this.

What are your kids favorites, what don't they touch? What do YOU love, what drives you crazy? If you were going to buy 5 things, what would it be?
I do have some things but my girls are 15 and 21 now, it's not like they have toys around to share this time around so I am pretty much starting from scratch. Help!

[DBug]

For the longest time, I had collections of toys that had lots of pieces -- play food, puzzles, etc. The kids love them (especially 3+), but then I started getting lots of p/t babies and toddlers. The babies and toddlers LOVED dumping out all the pieces, but getting them to clean up is like banging your head against the wall! So, I've been concentrating on toys with a minimal number of pieces -- shape sorters, toy phones, Little People houses (w/o the furniture, just the people), cars and trucks, and of course, the trusty train table (the Step 2 one with the molded track -- the train cars are the only loose pieces), dolls with homemade cloth diapers (but no clothes), books, etc. I get out puzzles and Duplo only occasionally now. This way I can still have the little ones cleaning up when they're done playing, but it's not such a huge job for them (or me!). I still have play food & dishes, but only about 10 pieces.

We have two clean-up times during the day, but the kids leave at such different times, we don't have an end of the day clean-up time. With these toys, it only takes me 5-10 minutes to clean-up after they've all gone home (and the parents really appreciate not having to wait around while their kids tidy up).

[momofsix]

Favorites of the kids are:books galore-- the hard ones are best, cars and fisher price parking garage, kitchen and food(especially food that has velcro that they can "cut", rescue heroes, little tikes dollhouse,they love activity/game type things but need adult help so these don't come out very often right now. Early walkers love a push toy to walk behind.
That's all I can think of right now, but I'll think on it some more!

[lmdc]

toys that the kids (ages 15 months to 3 years) play with daily are the toy kitchen stocked with lots of food, bowls, and small brown paper lunch bags (they come up with so many uses for the bags), riding toys, puzzles, books, kiddie sized cleaning equipment (broom/mop/mop bucket, etc), cars and balls of various sizes. definitely check craigslist in your area, and it's getting close to rummage sale time, which is where you can find a lot of good deals if you watch closely. good luck!

[lmdc]

oh, and dolls...the kids LOVE playing with the dolls, and use the stroller and highchair all the time (target has nice ones for $10 each, by the way, although i had to put tape on the stroller to make it safe and to keep it from folding since it's meant for kids ages 3+, but other than that, great stuff)

[mac60]

Because I have limited space and my dc area is my family room, I try to keep things to a minimum.

Kitchen set
3 unit shelf with toys, not lots of pieces or dumpable
Little tykes farm set
basket of stuffed animals/dolls
2 plastic tubs with lids of toys that I can stack
I also have a 2 door storage unit with all my dumpable things in crates and plastic shoe boxes stored behind closed doors.

[gkids09]

At my daycare, we keep children ages 1-5. The kids LOVE dress up clothes, and wear them daily. We have plastic hard hats, safety goggles, dresses, suit coats, caps, purses, high heels, etc. That is probably their favorite. We also have a kitchen and plastic dishes and food. They also take stuffed animals and pretend like they're their babies (even though we have dolls). They also love cars, but they make a huge mess. Trains, blocks, and farm animals are a big deal. Good luck!!

[momofsix]

I thought of a couple more--for the younger than 3 group they love the fisher price piggy bank, a jack-in-the-box, also one of those toys where the kids have to push a button, turn a knob, slide a lever and so on to make an animal pop out (not sure what they're called) and anything they can dump out and fill up again. The kids also love playing with those cheap plastic sets of animals, I have ocean, farm, rainforest and zoo--well worth the money!Everyone loves play-dough and crayons, markers, paint... Happy shopping!

[Francine]

I've been at work all day, I couldn't wait to get home to see what everybody had suggested. Lot's of wonderful ideas!
Thank you so much!

[wejo928]

toys

You can go to our local subsadized childcare agency and borrow toys for 2 wks. I do that and if the children really like them I will then purchase them. They also lend out cribs, carseats, walkers and more.
I also look at yard sales and thrift shops.
I hope this helps.
Wendy-jo

[boysx5]

kitchen set
food
legos
puzzles
books
tupperware is one of their favorites

[MarinaVanessa]

I have some for the "What NOT to buy" list.

Bouncers, excersaucers, bouncy chairs, walkers, swings, those little chair thingies that you put babies in that are supposed to keep them sitting up and pretty much anything that they can't get into or get out of on their own. I was reading an article that I now wish that I could find about how these types of toys cause floppy baby syndrome. These types of chairs with toys don't allow infants and toddlers to develop their leg and back large motor muscle skills properly. Stay away from them!! Here in CA were not even allowed to have them in daycares.