What Toys/How Many

[daycarediva]

I have VERY limited toys. I downsized a while back and it was the BEST thing I ever did.

First thing to go was the TV and all the hundreds of DVD's and movies.
Next to go was everything that had lights, sounds or batteries.
Then I ditched EVERYTHING that was a theme. Dora, Sesame Street, Batman, Sponge Bob, etc.

Now going through my rooms I have:

A LARGE collection of plastic/rubber animals
Huge bin of wooden cars, boats, trains and trucks
Big tote full of dishes and plastic pretend food
Wooden puzzles (only about 8 of them)
4 baby dolls. (ALL different races/ethnicities)
Dress up clothing (about 6 different outfits)
Giant Waffle Block set
Large Duplo block set
HUGE wooden block collection
Musical instruments
25 hand puppets
Art supplies
books

In the infant/toddler room I have:
Large collection of Little People (probably about 50 of them)
Large foam blocks
Soft cars/trucks to push
15-20 different sized containers and bins
board books


I do have areas set up too where I have discovery bottles, play silks, counting and sorting bears and cards, magnifying glasses, sensory bins, and things like that but I rotate a lot of what I have so the kids dont get bored of the stuff and the clutter of too any toys doesn't drive me batty.

I try to keep as little out as possible so that the kids appreciate what they do have to play with and when I notice the interest waning, I will rotate stuff up and it is just like getting new toys as they always get super excited as if they have never seen the toy before.

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I have 8 kids total, and have about 12 bins of things and they are almost exactly what BC said. I have all toys on two small shelves that stay put, then each month I rotate out dramatic play (kitchen, babies, puppets, dress up) and one shelf of toys that corresponds to our theme. This month is music, so we have lots of maracas, rain sticks, drums, castinets, etc.

I scaled back this summer, cut out everything electronic, character and really focused on toys with more than one use.

Favorites are blocks. It's the ONE THING I NEVER rotate out. EVER. We have TONS. Lincoln Logs, Duplo, Megablocks, Waffle blocks, wooden blocks of various shapes/sizes, large cardboard blocks, waffle blocks, and I just bought gears blocks to add in (monkey set and underwater set).