Indestructible Toys?

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

One thing that really helps is proper care and use of toys. If I see kids abusing or being purposely destructive to toys, they are not allowed to play with them again until I know they can do so without breaking or destroying them.

I refuse to buy anything plastic. The plastic things I have now are temporary until they can be repaced with wooden toys. They might be more expensive but overall they are worth it.

Oh, I do that. But all it takes is one plummeting drop off the shelves for a wooden firetruck to lose the back door or shoving a toy off the window seat for it to have a piece broken off of it as well. So, while supervision and rules are important in a lot of the instances here ... I can't even prevent it. It's MADDENING!

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I don't see my kids abusing them and all of a sudden they come up to me holding the pieces.

One of them was a triangle shape that goes to a Melissa/Doug set. They managed to break the tip of and not straight across but at a slant!:confused:

One propellar off of a wooden plane keeps coming off. We have glued it with everything and it keeps breaking off! The thing is, its not breaking its still a whole piece just won't stayed glued in the hole for some reason.

I am looking at my shelf of broken toys right now.
Melissa & Doug toys are pretty much junk. They don't hold up to constant use from 12 children. Either they look junky after awhile or they actually break/fall apart.
A Kidcraft blender has a chink taken out of the side of it (the holding area) because a child dropped it.
A Plan Toys dollhouse furniture piece has the top missing because it was shoved off the window seat. It was wood glued back together and came apart again.
The Ryan's Room wooden firetruck's door is broken due to being sent off a shelf ledge.
The wooden Kidcraft toaster accidentally went over the side of the kitchen and broke. I was able to piece it back together and have the popping up mechanism work again, but I am keeping it away because they continue to shove small toys inside of it (dinosaurs, pretend cookies, etc.) and they get lodged and are a pain to get out.
A Wonderworld construction vehicles pivoting top came off. Glue and all won't help. All of the other Wonderworld vehicles are doing GREAT, though.

We like the dumper,fire engine, police car, and loader.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

*teach the kids how to play with toys correctly and take away anything they cant handle CHECK!
*purchase old school toys from yard sales and antique malls. Fisher Price is great! GOOD IDEA!
*be careful about the brand of wooden toys you buy. like someone else said, many of the companies produce inferior products! THAT'S THE TRUTH!
* put in cloth toys if you can, especially for the younger set. cloth books and blocks are great options, even swaths of fabric for dress up holds up better than the cheapie dress up costume sets MY 2'S REALLY ENJOY CLOTH BOOKS AND ALL OF MY CHILDREN ENJOY PLAY SILKS AND SCARVES (WHICH WE ALSO USE FOR DANCING). WE DON'T HAVE DRESS UP CLOTHES.
*keep your play room minimal so the kids are less tempted to trash an overflooded toy room because they are over stimulated and dont have respect for items, due to the sheer volume. I HAVE SHELVING UNITS THAT ARE MEANT FOR PRESCHOOLERS. DO YOU THINK PUTTING 1-2 TOYS IN EACH SECTIONS WOULD WORK WELL? RIGHT NOW SOME OF THEM CONTAIN MORE THAN THAT (ESP. THE BUILDING CENTER).



The basket idea scares me. I have 3 children that are hoarder-like in nature. They try to pile everything in the room near them, despite constant redirection and behavior management techniques employed. Any time there is a bucket, basket, box, etc. they attempt to put as many small toys as they can in there (like the toy animals, blocks, Lego people, etc.).

[cheerfuldom]

love your set up! but yes, I would downsize toys even more and see what that changes. you can rotate every weekend or something.

[SunnyDay]

Have you been happy with how your furniture has held up? I love the look of your chairs (and the rest of your space!)

[chickenfarms]

I just got rid of all my bins and went to tubs with locking lids in a corner. I have a horrible group of dumpers, so we get out one group of toys at a time (little people, dress up clothes, dinosaurs, cars, dishes, etc). The only toys that are out are some babies, larger trucks and books.
This has been the best thing I have ever done! We also have had many problems with broken toys. I have a group of boys that are really rough on things.