What's in our toy rotation

I mentioned in my last post I am very particular about what I keep in our rotation for toys. Anything that doesn't get played with regularly is seriously considered, and many great toys have come and gone over the years simply because they weren't the right fit for our play environment.

With that in mind, I thought I'd give a glimpse into what we do have in our rotation.

Dramatic play

Costumes: knight outfits, police suits, a vet costume and all kinds of dramatic play inspirations, with a separate bin for all the paraphernalia, random bits and bobs they use to imagine.

Stuffed animals: these used to live in their bedroom, and while they keep their special ones in their beds, it helps to corral the rest of them here. I like to keep their bedroom just for sleeping.

Play kitchen dishes and food: usually more of the dishes are in the first basket, but the kids have the actual kitchen set up right now. I used to keep this all in the play kitchen, but find it helps contain some of the random mess if they have to grab it from the closet first.

Dollies and calico critters: this is some of Faustina's collection of doll things, but she's always carting something around

Musical instruments: shown here is only our bells, as the children were in the middle of playing with the instruments when I posted this. I keep them separately, mostly because the bells are more of a specific play item.

Others: we also have a little Catholic mass set that they love to play with, along with a big basket of simple play silks.

Dressup costumes & accessories

Stuffed animals

Play kitchen dishes & food

Dollies

Playmobil

All of our Playmobil is seperated by sets, and they are allowed to play with one at a time. If they mix them, they know they are in charge of sorting. It may seem like a lot of work, but they play with it so much better this way.

First: the smaller sets we have are farm, rescue, and house.

Second: the knights are by far the most played with item we have. Our five year old has played with this set every day to some extent for the past year, at least. This set consists of all their How to Train Your Dragon items, as well as any other knight or soldier sets they have. This is often combined with the boat shown, or the castle.

Third: the castle is one of our biggest items. It rarely gets set up as it was originally intended, but the kids make their own configurations and use it a lot that way.

Fourth: the Playmobil vehicles get used with one of the other sets, most of the time with rescue. I used to have the vehicles separated by category as well, but have liked the simplicity of how they all fit together in this big basket.

Other: in the block play area we have another subsection of Playmobil 123, which is mixed with the duplo and is always available. This is something my four year old and two year old play with all the time.

Small play

Schleich model creatures: I have the dinosaurs/sharks separated from the rest of the animals. This is naturally what the kids wanted because they often take the sharks and dinosaurs in the bath, and it just made sense for them to be able to easily grab.

If I had a little more space, I might consider separating the animals into categories as well, such as farm, carnivores, etc. As that is how they play with them.

Cars and roads: there was a time in my oldest's life where the collection of cars was played with almost all day every day. It's definitely still a well-loved item. As for the Way to Play roads, in all honesty, they aren't a favourite, I wouldn't run out and get them.

Extras: this little treehouse is a favourite for the knight Playmobil, and the car garage, obviously, gets used often with the cars.

Others: the last two items I will mention are are the magnetic tiles and the blocks which are in the block play area. The magnets get used all the time, but the blocks have always been a bit of wishful thinking on my part, the kids have never been super drawn to them, honestly.

Lego

Last of all, the lego recently moved into this closet. It was downstairs and always out of control, so I decided to make room for it here. I have yet to decide if this is a good solution longterm, but so far the kids seem pretty happy to have new boundaries around this material. Everyone in the house knows when something isn't serving the family well.

Some of their big sets are stored in their closet in their room - they have a few large Star Wars ships and other vehicles which they are in charge of.

That's a run down of everything we have in our toy rotation closet. Let me know if there is anything else you would like to see, or any questions you have:

As always,

Olivia