Simple Toys
I know it seems crazy, but this is what my two children played with for about an hour and a half today. The little white thing is the cap off of a magic wand that somehow was pulled apart and the orange things are hooks that hang on Dylan's tool bench. Okay, it helps that the house was basically clean, TV was off and my attention was on the kids, but still. Preston was just happy to play with me. He climbed all over me and laughed at anything and everything. I think he put the little cap in my mouth (he likes to try to feed other people) and I spit it back out at him. Oh my word, this was the funniest thing in the world to him. So jumping, climbing and laughing at my spitting out a little plastic part of a toy was what kept him entertained. But he's a simple little guy most of the time so it's not completely shocking. The unusual part was how long Dylan played without needing any help from me. I was playing with him at first and then he took off on his own. The orange hooks served many purposes. I was his horse and he put them in my mouth like the bit on a bridle (are those the right terms), then he rode on my back and put the hooks inside my pack (which was my shirt - he just tucked them in on my back), then he was an alligator and they were his sharp teeth (I think he also pretended to be a komodo dragon with teeth at one point). I'm not sure what else he played because that's where my involvement ended. After that he was sitting and playing different things with only those two toys. I heard him say something about floating down a river once, but couldn't tell you what exactly that was about. I wasn't about to interrupt his solo play to figure out where his creativity was taking him. After this experience, I'm pretty sure we can (and should) downsize our toy room a bit. How do you tell your kids you don't want them to get toys for their birthdays? Maybe we just tell everyone to go in on something together and they can get one thing instead of a million things. Apparently we only need a few simple items to entertain ourselves. Actually sometimes I wish it were still like that. You just had one toy, a bunch of people and the great outdoors to entertain you. Anyway, it was a fun hour or so of pure and simple joy!
I know it seems crazy, but this is what my two children played with for about an hour and a half today. The little white thing is the cap off of a magic wand that somehow was pulled apart and the orange things are hooks that hang on Dylan's tool bench. Okay, it helps that the house was basically clean, TV was off and my attention was on the kids, but still. Preston was just happy to play with me. He climbed all over me and laughed at anything and everything. I think he put the little cap in my mouth (he likes to try to feed other people) and I spit it back out at him. Oh my word, this was the funniest thing in the world to him. So jumping, climbing and laughing at my spitting out a little plastic part of a toy was what kept him entertained. But he's a simple little guy most of the time so it's not completely shocking. The unusual part was how long Dylan played without needing any help from me. I was playing with him at first and then he took off on his own. The orange hooks served many purposes. I was his horse and he put them in my mouth like the bit on a bridle (are those the right terms), then he rode on my back and put the hooks inside my pack (which was my shirt - he just tucked them in on my back), then he was an alligator and they were his sharp teeth (I think he also pretended to be a komodo dragon with teeth at one point). I'm not sure what else he played because that's where my involvement ended. After that he was sitting and playing different things with only those two toys. I heard him say something about floating down a river once, but couldn't tell you what exactly that was about. I wasn't about to interrupt his solo play to figure out where his creativity was taking him. After this experience, I'm pretty sure we can (and should) downsize our toy room a bit. How do you tell your kids you don't want them to get toys for their birthdays? Maybe we just tell everyone to go in on something together and they can get one thing instead of a million things. Apparently we only need a few simple items to entertain ourselves. Actually sometimes I wish it were still like that. You just had one toy, a bunch of people and the great outdoors to entertain you. Anyway, it was a fun hour or so of pure and simple joy! 
2 comments:
Horay! I'm so excited to find you have a blog. Your family is so handsome(for the boys).
I try, before birthdays and Christmas, to tell my kids we'll be getting rid of some toys so we have room for new ones and then I do it while they are gone. I've tried letting them "help" me downsize, but they are too attached.
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