Extending Toy's Shelf Life: How to Keep Playthings Interesting to Your Child

Early-childhood educators select and arrange toys that will encourage the construction of knowledge. During this constructive play, children are building skills leading to a feeling of competence, and increased competence motivates the child to continue playing.

The idea that children construct their own learning is based on a comprehensive theory of intellectual development introduced by renowned Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget.

“Piaget’s theories have helped educators understand the value of constructive play or self-regulated learning,” says George E. Forman, author of Constructive Play: Applying Piaget in the Preschool.

In order to facilitate constructive play or self-regulated learning, early-childhood teachers pay attention to four key principles when providing toys for children:
• quantity of toys
• types of toys
• organization of toys
• kinds of adult involvement with toys.

Parents can encourage constructive play and persistence at home by adopting and adapting these same ideas from the classroom.

Quantity of Toys
Teachers do not make their entire collection of materials available to children at all times. Janet Brown McCracken, author of Play is FUNdamental, a brochure published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, says: “Children can be overwhelmed with too many choices, and are easily bored with too few.”

So teachers select a portion of the toys and store the remaining materials where children cannot see them. Later, the toys that were put away get rotated into the selection and others are rotated out. This rotation happens several times throughout the year.

Here are some tips for maintaining an appropriate quantity at home:

• Control portions. Select a “reasonable” number of toys to have available. A reasonable amount fits comfortably on a single toy shelf.

• Rotate toys. Store the toys that do not fit on the shelf out of sight. It may sometimes seem as though a child has outgrown a particular toy, but after not seeing it for a few months, McCracken says, “the child will have matured, and will see the toys differently.” For example, a young child playing with blocks will build expansive, flat structures while an older child will build vertical towers complete with stairs and interlocking walls.