Plastic Toys

As I passed by the bedroom of a three-year-old recently I saw so many plastic toys on the floor that the room looked like an oversized toy box. The older children explained that the toys were Christmas presents. When my children were growing up I didn't handle this situation very well. We all remember the words I used to yell, which are quite embarrassing to me now. I also recall that all the energy I put into my anger show had no positive effect whatsoever. The neatness of the bedrooms deteriorated steadily over the years until my children grew too old for toys and/or moved away. I finally learned better coping skills after I began teaching children with learning and behavior problems. As a professional I didn't dare just get angry; I had to use my intelligence to discover real solutions to the problem of storing materials.

One of the first principles I found was the power of ownership. Since most of my students hated writing, pencils were seldom picked up from the floor and frequently lost. I solved this problem by writing each child's name on two pencils with permanent marker. After the students knew which pencils were theirs, many of the pencil problems disappeared.

Another important realization was that children can only keep a certain number of things in order. If there are too many items, the student quickly becomes overwhelmed and fails to keep any of them in order. Thus I quickly put away any extra pencils, markers, or other supplies a child might bring. When the child needed them I would give him as many as necessary

Another crucial aspect to the problem of keeping things in order was to have a suitable place to put them. Small school boxes placed inside their desks held most of what they were allowed to have in addition to paper and books.

If I had it to do all over again (which, of course, I don't) I would apply these principles to the toy situation at home. Since I no longer have young children, however, I won't be able to try out any of these ideas. I hope that some moms out there reading this will answer these questions after reading my plan: What features would you add to this plan? What features would you subtract? Why or why not? Do you use a different kind of plan that works for you?

This is the plan:

1. Put all included toys and games belonging to one child in a bag or box with the child's name on it. (Books, train sets, or other "group" toys may not be included.) Label each item with a color-coded label bearing the owner's name. (File folder labels would work.)
2. Have each child choose ten toys (or other number that you choose) to leave out and play with.
3. Put each child's chosen toys in some special place. Make the remainder inaccessible in a crawl space, etc.
4. Instruct each child that no one, either inside or outside the family, plays with his or her toys without permission. The owner is responsible for keeping his or her toys in their special place. If a toy is found out of place after clean-up the toy is put into the inaccessible container for that child's toys. If an unlabeled toy is found out of place after cleanup, it is put into a grab bag in the inaccessible place.
5. Children who are too young to understand the whole plan can be helped by an assigned older member of the family.
6. Every so often on a rainy day get out the toys from the inaccessible place, have the children put back all their toys, and choose ten (or other number) again. The newly chosen toys can be the same or different.

I think that a plan like this would teach children valuable lessons about controlling their possessions effectively. Knowing how to keep possessions in order leads to efficiency and peace in adult life - very valuable lessons, indeed.

Moms out there, tell me what you think. Contact me at: newskill7@msn.com or call me at: 703-691-0191 (home), or 703-501-9013 (cell). I'm eager to hear from you.

Mary Sue Laing, M.Ed.
Resource Teacher, St. Ambrose School

by Mary Sue Laing, M. Ed., New Skill, Inc. Academic Tutor