Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

This topic has 45 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 14 years ago by Sara B..

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April 20, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Melinda smith
Participant
We have three children, 9, 6 and 4.
We moved from a 1972 model trailer (yes–talk about no room) to a large farmhouse. Thank the Lord!
Our children share one large bedroom(yes just like in Peter Pan) and we are very strict on the toy issue.
They have mostly all of the blocks, trains, animals, cooking stuff in containers and we add to now and then. When they get overflowed we purge the ones not played with and give away. These are stored underneath the beds and under a coffee table near a window. If their is not a home for them they do not stay.
Puzzles and games are up high in closet and are treated as a Library treat. Check one out at a time.
Each child has an night stand and that is were his or her personal belongings live.
Their closet is off limits to toys (except a few in the top shelf), This allows all clothes to be brought to the closet and put away. Instead of three different dressers and running all over the house. The bottom of their closet has plastic three drawer towers for pjs, socks, and underwear. This is wonderful because we never have to fight with toys in there. Our kids can manage their own clothes. No closet doors either, tension rod and colorful curtains.
There is a large bookshelf in their room with dvds, books and some education toys. ALL DVDS are in ABC order.
They are treated as library books and checked out and when returned new ones will be issued out.
This past Christmas I took three white boxes ( med size) and wrote the kids names on them. When they were given a gift or candy and such, they took it and put it in their white box. It slid under their beds nicely. Stocking contents, church toys and candies, grandparents and family gifts and all nick nacks went into this box. All they would have to do is slid out their Christmas box and all their stuff was in one place. When they got new things they already knew where they would live. Our house stayed clutter free from toys and such during the holidays and it made it a breeze to keep the house tidy. Our children thought the white boxes were amazing, I would find them on their beds digging and looking through them all the time!
We often purge toys and send them to the bath tub -toy tub under the bathroom sink to be played with in a new way, or outside to be destroyed by large trucks and machinery. Our boys love this! Tea sets are used in the tub and outside as well.
Before every birthday and major holiday we take 5 kitchen trash bags and purge their rooms and make sure to leave lots of empty spaces on shelves and under the beds. The kids get really excited thinking of what it yet to come!
They always donate their toys to others. We have two large attics and their are no toys in them. If we start hording them I will find myself in a pickle. So it fits in their room or it doesn’t live here. I do keep a few small item downstairs for our 4 year old.
Go get your trashbags out and start purging! Tip: We don’t by HAPPY MEALS! If you feel want to donate to Ronald McDonald just put your money in the box at the register. Our kids cannot eat TOYS. Nor do they need the continous stimualation of getting something all the time. B days, holidays, maybe every blue moon for a treat but not everytime they eat something. Crazy world we live in..
April 20, 2011 at 3:04 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
One thing I wanted to mention – growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house and there were no toys there at all. Not even one! They didn’t have any, and I didn’t bring any. And I would be there for weeks at a time.
I spent time learning string games, doing puzzles alongside my grandparents, making mud pies, woodworking, baking, gardening, drawing, making neat figures with a pack of straws and a candle (they melt and hold together nicely), playing with cornstach and water – you get the picture.
In all honesty, I think I was happier there than anywhere. Too much stuff is not good!
Gaeleen
April 20, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Mysterious Lady in Pink
Participant
So Gaeleen, drawing on the experience and happy memories of time spent at your grandparents, has that had much of an impact on how you handle your own kids and their stuff? And if not, why not? Do you want things to be more like that time? I’m interested because I have a problem moving from the theoretical (“what a great idea!”) to the practical/real life.
April 20, 2011 at 4:51 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
I would say it definitely has. Our house is a lot like that time, though there are differences.
We have toys, but they are limited in quantity. We have eight children and three bedrooms, and consequently an ongoing battle between stuff and space.
Our toys are limited to: legos, blocks, a farm building, Schleich animals (these are really nice), some nice play people, a wooden tool kit, Knex (which I would get rid of in a moment, mostly because it’s hideous, however they do build nice things with it), trucks and cars, dolls/a few doll outfits, a few nice stuffed animals, some wildlife/farm Playmobil. We try to have toys that are leaning towards being realistic (for instance, I like Schleich horses, but not purple My Little Ponies. If you should select tasteful choices in music, art and literature, why not in toys too!).
I think everything we have encourages useful and imaginative play. And our kids make great string figures!
If we lived in a nicer climate, I think we would have less toys. Living in the middle of Alberta, Canada brings long cold winters that require indoor activities a lot of the time. It’s not that we don’t go out, but when it’s minus thirty-something outside, I’m not trudging around outside with a pile of small crying children for half the day. And we live in the country where the cold Alberta winds blow…. and blow…. and blow…. I’m no wimp to cold; I grew up in an even colder place, but it’s just not fun sometimes.
It is important to me that the kids are balanced. They have enough good toys to have a lot of fun on bad weather days, and not so many that they control our life or space, or take up a lot of time to look after. We spend plenty of time together, baking, woodworking, gardening, doing puzzles, reading, walking through the fields, etc. The kids have useful pastimes – weaving, knitting, rug hooking, piano playing, violin, etc.
I think the little guys like to play with measuring cups and a tub of water better than anything.
The kids are great – we involved them in the paring down process, and have never built back up. It was hard for a while to keep more useless toys from entering the home – most of the garbage toys came as gifts, so that had to be handled tactfully and sensitively, but it has been for the better.
Mysterious Lady, if you’re considering paring down, go for it! I doubt you’ll regret it.
Gaeleen
April 20, 2011 at 6:24 pm
LindseyD
Participant
Oh Gaeleen, I hear you about the My Little Ponies!!! My dd5 has one pink one, and I HATE that toy! I do not know why she likes it so much, but we’ve tried to get rid of it three or four times, and she’s always adamant about it staying. I agree with the measuring cups and water…my 5yo and 7yo STILL love to play in dishwater at the kitchen sink!
farmhousephotos, I LOVE the white box for personal things idea. I may have to use that one! My kids have friends six hours whom they write to and draw pictures for and then mail them. The friends send paintings or art projects to my kids too. Our kids feel so special to get things like this in the mail, but then it piles up, and I just don’t know what to do with it. I don’t want to break their hearts and throw it away, but eventually we have to choose favorites and purge the rest. I think they would enjoy having a box for these items that they can keep and go through at their own leisure.
Great thread!
April 20, 2011 at 6:32 pm
citycottage
Member
    We use the seasons of preparation to strip away the excess including toys. So Advent and Lent are perfect times to “make room for Christ” and a natural time to get everyone on board to make those tough choices. When the school year is completed and before it starts are good times for me to clean up the old and prepare for the new. I prefer to do these independently and NOT under the watchful eyes of the children.
    As far as what to do with the stuff you’ve removed and are not sure of keeping perhaps, introduce a box a week to observe what your children connect with and judge if it is useful, beautiful and lasting … worth keeping. After that, I judge it by our values and available space. We have an extremely small home and must become adept at keeping possessions from possessing us and overwhelming the comfort & beauty of our home.
     One mom shared a great tip with me about gifts, she keeps an Amazon wish list full of acceptable items to gift her children and this has helped passively communicate their tastes. She will say one gift from the list per child is sufficient. I liked that. Good luck & God Bless!
April 21, 2011 at 12:01 am
Sara B.
Participant
Oh, it’s been awesome! Only 1 full day of absolutely no toys (except a few stuffed animals – which they’ve hardly touched) and all they’ve done are lots of reading, arts/crafts, puzzles, creative play, acting, detective work, games and twirled on the sit-n-spin. It’s been AWESOME! Also, I implemented a 1 puzzle/game at a time rule, and that has been great, too! Yesterday we played Sorry together. Today a Dinosaur Adventure ($1 Target game) and Yahtzee. My 8yo was learning multiplication, 6yo addition. Loved the time I spent with them just playing! The 2 girls also did multiple puzzles. Ah, yes, THIS is more like it! 😀 Even my 4yo is getting much more creative and asking for her princess dolls less and less. Still have to work on the toddler’s toys……. 😛
Now how to get my extended family to stop buying twaddle and junk…… Ah, the eternal question, huh? 😉
April 21, 2011 at 2:00 am
Mysterious Lady in Pink
Participant
Sara, can I ask what you mean by not having toys?
I am really struggling with how much to let go — because it’s not just toys… it’s board games, educational games, the manipulatives that all seem to become toys if the kids are given any opportunity for that, the puzzles, the art supplies, the books. I have this dream of a simplified life but then it gets muddled in the details. And when I read what other people do on threads like this, I notice people often say something like, “Well we don’t have many toys, just a big bin of this and this and that and then we have this and this and that.” But then they often go on to talk about games and puzzles and more on top of that. And I think, hmmm… that’s like what I would say… and it IS a lot of stuff when you start adding it all up. Or at least in a house this size with 5 kids it sure seems like a lot.
I just want to come and take a peek in some of your homes and get really inspired by your good examples!! 🙂
And to Gaeleen: thank you so much for your thoughtful reply to my question. I love to hear specifics like what you shared! And we live in a long winter place, too (just shoveled snow earlier today, in fact!), so I appreciate the climate concerns.
You ladies are great!
April 21, 2011 at 3:09 am
thepinkballerina
Participant
Does anyone have girls, and they collect stuffed animals (the grandparents have contributed the most in our family)? One day to show the girls we have WAY too many, we counted all we had and came up with approx 150 stuffed animals (large, med, and small sizes)!! We’ve slowly weaned them down over the years because each and every one is so special. lol I finally have them down to ONE toy box full and I mean full of stuffed animals. Plus they each sleep with ONE Ugly Doll.
I just got rid of a box full of Little People playsets since dd age 3 1/2 doesn’t play much with them. We gave them to our church and the kids are having a ball with them! Also gave them cardboard brick blocks and Gears! Gears! Gears! Just stuff we didn’t touch much.
Most important toys in our home are stuffed animals, plastic animals, blocks, playdough, cars/car rug, wooden tea set, Pet Shop animals, and Polly Pocket. We also have a wooden dollhouse, jungle tree and wooden princess castle which are more fun if I put them away for a season. Little toys I put in small square tubs in the closet to pull out as well as puzzles and art supplies. They also like to draw and make paper crafts on their own. They’ll draw and cut out paper dolls but won’t play with them for long, so have to just recycle immediately so not to have a messy drawer of paper things. We don’t have much in outside toys, but that way they use their imagination more. My girls are into finding bugs and climbing trees or pretend play outside, which is all right by me. 😉
Tara
April 21, 2011 at 4:00 am
Sara B.
Participant
By no toys, I mean – no toys. LOL In the process of threatening to take them out if they were left on the floor over the past couple of weeks, we finally had nearly none left in the room at all (which is the only place we keep toys)! So, in an effort to sort more easily, I hauled the last bit out. Though they’re in the schoolroom in open boxes on a heap, they are not allowed to touch them (except the toddler, who is too young to understand that part of it yet). Now, I must say, they do sometimes head to their brother’s room – he still has his toys (for now). But the only things they play with are the rocking horse, the big Legos, and the blocks. They hardly even look at the other stuff. 😀
We have too many games. Way too many. They take up nearly their entire closet shelf (a big one at that). I know there are lots of twaddle games up there – I want to sort out those sometime, too. But not yet. Toys first. 😛 As for art stuff, my dh is an artist by nature, and so is our oldest dd, and the rest of them gravitate toward arts and crafts, as well. So that stuff is always growing by leaps and bounds, and getting used up almost faster than I can keep up with at times. Hee, hee! That I don’t mind in the least.
We have more than enough puzzles. We have lots of toddler puzzles. Wooden ones – good ones (I think). We have map puzzles, space and dinosaur puzzles, some twaddly Care Bear and such puzzles for preschool/lower elem, some 100 piece puzzles, and about a dozen or so 500- and 1000-piece puzzles (which someday I’ll get to, I promise! LOL). That’s plenty, imo. I am done buying those, I think. There is only so much good puzzles can do for a person, kwim?
Books…. Well, I am a book lover. I am up over 1200 books, and I’ve hardly bought any for this school year yet! I prefer to buy nearly all my books, for 2 reasons: 1)I have 4 children, and hope to have more in the future – that’s just way too much coordinating for my muddled mommy brain to handle, and 2)we’re in a small town with a very small library – so again, way too much coordinating for me with ILL. So, while I say you can never have too many books, you *can* have too many of the wrong kinds of books. 😉 So I have slowly been weeding out some of the twaddly books and the ones my kids just don’t like, while at the same time collecting the classics and truly good living books that we adore so much.
I think what I am looking to pare down to is imagination toys, with a few of the best-loved twaddle toys mixed in – for now. Blocks, legos, building boards, lincoln logs, some dolls, some dress-up, dinosaurs, plastic animals (and by that I mean mostly bugs – my 6yo is a bug girl), some cars/car rug like Tara said (my kids do love those)…. Stuff like that. Things they have to imagine with or build. It’s late, so I can’t think of what all they have right now. Oh, and tinker toys. And my 6yo’s marble race game. Oh, her and daddy just love to build those together!
My only problem now is, how do I pare down that much without my kids retaliating against me? I know that it won’t be fair to them to take away all their toys at once forever and ever. Right now they are of the impression that some will go in boxes for rotation, a few to yard sale, and the rest back in their room after a while. But that isn’t what is going to happen. I have yet to talk to my dh about all of this, as well. He has been working late this week, so he is too tired to really talk about much in the evenings. Hopefully tomorrow will be better since he is working regular hours so we can get to church the next couple nights.
I am so glad I started this thread! What a lot of wisdom and tidbits I have gleaned from all of you! I used to think “twaddle” was just for books. Wow, was I wrong! When CM said education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life, she really meant it! LOL
April 21, 2011 at 11:52 am
alice
Participant
I haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s posts completely, but I wanted to say a quick thing about stuffed animals. I have almost no tollerance for those!! My daughter really loves them…plays with them more than with baby dolls, but I only let her have about 4. And they’re small! 🙂
April 21, 2011 at 2:50 pm
sheraz
Participant
When you are getting rid of nice toys, books, puzzles, etc that are in good shape, maybe you could talk to your children about donating them to a hospital, women’s shelter, church or another organization that will give them to really needy people…most kids in a hospital get bored with TV and the hospital has a play room for the children patients. The women shelter children have usually left a very bad situation and lost all their stuff…new comfort toys and games are always needed.   Just an idea…it really helps my kids to feel better about paring down.
April 21, 2011 at 4:41 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
Lindsey, I apologize about the My Little Pony thing – I honestly didn’t mean to target anyone’s toys. I just remember having a couple of them when I was a child and watching some ridiculous TV show about them.
Tara and Alice – we also limit stuffed animals (I do not tolerate them well either). I think each child has one or two. That still makes 8-16 here! Ugh…..
I love books, but we only keep good ones. If they get a foolish book as a present, I buy them two good ones if they let me burn it 🙂
Mysterious Lady, we do have a fair bit of toys, but I keep only what fits in Rubbermaid bins – a full one for duplo Legos (these are popular), a full one for Playmobil, a small one for blocks, a small one for cars, a small one for Knex, a small one for toy animals. Although it sounds like a lot, they stack up neatly in one stack in my storage room. They are not all over the place driving me crazy. In spring/summer/autumn they stay in the storage room almost all the time. In winter they are out, but only one or two boxes at a time.
Each child also has a Rubbermaid container under their bed to fit their special things into – no more than what fits.
Sara – you’ll likely find it easier to pare down after you’ve put the things away for a time When they haven’t used them in a while, they may not even miss them, and will likely find some better ways to spend their time. After we put toys away in the storage room for some months, our kids ended up wondering why they even liked some of them in the first place.
Good topic!
Gaeleen
April 21, 2011 at 5:00 pm
amyjane
Participant
We talk with the boys about all the children in the world who do not have toys. Before we moved, we always took our toys to a woman’s shelter and the kids knew that they were going to other children. I think the key to helping our children to part with things is them seeing you do it as well. So when I decide it is time to purge – the whole house purges and it becomes a family thing that we all do together.
Just a thought,
Amy
April 21, 2011 at 5:19 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
You are so right Amy! We keep to a minimum with all our things – there’s nothing like good example. Still trying to get my husband on board, though….honey do you really need TEN winter jackets?? I know it’s cold here, but honestly…