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| Eliza found new "toys" in the pantry |
With summer just on the horizon, many parents might be panicking at the thought of what to do over those long months, especially if they have school aged kids along with "littles".
While Eliza was having speech therapy this morning, a great idea occurred to me. It is free and it encourages new imagination.
The Summer Toy Swap!
We all know the toys that our kids seem to ignore or have lost interest in. They become more clutter, pieces get lost and we keep swearing that we won't need to buy any birthday or Christmas gifts for MANY years....
Here is what you do!
Get a group of mommies together who want to participate. Have them find the toys which aren't getting much attention paid to. Clean them up and put in a clear plastic storage tote. Depending on size and skill levels, you can spread them out into more totes. Be sure to put a check list of all the contents and how many of each piece. After all totes have been created between the mommies, get together and do a swap. Be sure to set a swap time limit until the next swap happens when you then swap for a different tote. With knowing the ages of the kids in your group of mommies, you will have a good idea as to what might interest the other kids. This works especially well when you have young/older kids who've outgrown some toys and haven't been donated or yard sale'd. Or even having opposite gender kids where all the bigger hand me downs don't work for that gender.
Kids are happy to have something different to play with...
Mom's are happy to have kids entertained with out having to buy more toys...
No more EXTRA clutter!
You might even be able to do the same with large outdoor toys depending. A few ideas for totes are:
Sensory box w/ theme
Action figures
Wooden trains and tracks
Puzzles
Play Balls
Toddler sensory
Video Games
Movies
Arts N Craft
Coloring books
Barbies or Dolls
Board Games
Books
The ideas are limitless...and once your original toys come back, your kids might take a new interest in their old toys :)
We do a "toy swap" type of a deal at our church, the families LOVE it!
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