Toy checkout system questions

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  • February 23, 2012 at 8:34 pm
    jmac17
    Participant

    On the other thread about organizing toys, a few of you mentioned a checkout system.  The theory sounds wonderful, but I’m struggling with how it works in reality.  I’m afraid I’d spend more time monitoring and working the system than I do now just getting them to clean up.

    For example, here is a very typical senario in my house.  At the beginning of the day my children might take out the following:  Child A – Lego, Child B – Barbies, Child C – Little People, Child D – Food and dishes for the playhouse, Child E – crayons and paper.

    So, within 5 minutes, Child C loses interest in the Little People, and joins in with Lego.  Child B decides the Barbies should attend a tea party, so joins in playing with the food and dishes.  Child E thinks the Barbies look interesting and carries the crayon in her hand over to the playhouse, leaves it on the floor, and joins in with Barbies and Food.  Meanwhile Child A gets bored with Lego and wants to return it to check something new out, but Child C is still playing with it.  Of course, the Little People are just sitting around now. 

    In that 5 minutes, Mommy tried to get a load of laundry in the machine, and comes back to Child A complaining that they can’t put the Lego away because it’s being used.  While we deal with that issue, Child E goes to the bathroom and leaves a Barbie and some food in there, and Child B stuffs a backpack full of lego, pretending they are treats for her horse, and takes it up to her bedroom.  Child D wanders to the kitchen for a drink and leaves whatever toy was in his hand on the kitchen counter.

    So, my next step is …?  Who is responsible for cleaning up what?  What if an item is still in use?  Must everyone clean up at once?  And what about the items that are left all over the house?

    Also, is this not limiting creativity?  What about the chance to use the building blocks to build a house for Barbie?  Or the marble run to make a roller coaster for the little people?  And what if the children want to dress up for the tea party, but no one has checked out the dressup clothes? 

    Sigh.  As much as I’d love to tame the toy monsters, I just am not seeing how it actually works.  If any of you with experience have ideas that I haven’t considered that make this system practical, I’d love to hear them.

    Thanks,

    Joanne

    February 23, 2012 at 10:22 pm
    Sara B.
    Participant

    Here’s how I set up mine:  I have a pocket for each child (I just made it out of construction paper and taped it to the cabinet door in the schoolroom).  Then in an index card holder, I have each name as a divider.  On index cards I have each type of toy written, for each child.  So one for Barbies, one for Cars, one for Dress-up, and so on, times 3 in my case.  Each card also has their initial on it so we don’t get them mixed up.  Wink  Just to clarify, only kids ages 3 and up get a pocket.  My youngest will be 3 in June, so I’ll get him started on that then.  Right now, I’m trying to teach him to just pick up in general.  Tongue out

    Whenever Child A gets something out, she takes the card out of the box and puts it in her pocket.  This way I know who got what out and no more arguments about who exactly played with it, etc.  Before she can check out something else, toy 1 must be put away completely and checked by Mom, then she is free to check out toy 2.  If she gets out toy 2 before putting toy 1 away, Mom gets both (whatever is out).

    Also, if Child A and Child B want to play together, but they want 2 different things, that’s fine.  Child A checks out 1 thing, Child B the other, and they can play together all they want.  When it’s time to get something different, each child is in charge of whatever is checked out under her name – even if they ended up “switching” as they played or both played with both toys equally.  Since they can only take out 1 thing at a time, it also encourages playing together and getting along (fights also result in Mom owning the toys).  Sometimes all 3 are playing together with 3 different things (like blocks, cars, and animals).

    The system did take some time to implement as we got in the habit of it.  And it does take diligence on Mom and Dad’s part so it doesn’t fall apart (ask me how I know Undecided).  But once it’s going strong, and Mom and Dad are in the habit of paying attention, it works really remarkably well!  🙂

    Hope this explains it well enough!

    February 23, 2012 at 11:17 pm
    Tristan
    Participant

    Toys at my house only get changed once a week. Period. Each child can choose 1 small set of toys (3-4 things) or a set like Legos with no other toys. They can play with those toys for a full week, or work together to play with siblings and their toys too, expanding their options if the siblings want to play together/share. I can’t/won’t spend time daily or several times a day letting children change what toys they have out. Having to use the same small set for a full week means they have to get creative with them by the end of the week out of self defense…LOL.

    And now that we’ve done this for a long time my children will even be found choosing their sets on toy change day together(consulting one another) so they’ll have more options. My children are: girls age 10 and 6, boys age 7, 4, 3, 1, newborn.

    February 24, 2012 at 1:38 am
    Sue
    Participant

    You know, when I first read the original post and Sara’s reply, I was torn about what would be fair. After all, if child A is through with the Legos and child C wanted to play with them (or already was playing with them), why make child A put away something that C is just going to take right out again? But then I thought, what about the Little People child C had not put away?

    Then I realized, yes, child A should put the Legos away….and child C can take them right out again (after putting away the Little People). Why? Because it is teaching them the habit of putting away what you take out….period. And it reinforces the automatic sense of responsibility that comes from acting upon a habit over and over again.

    After all, in adult real life, we would never leave the nozzle trailing on the ground at the gas pump just because the next guy in line is going to be using it. We hang it up like we’re supposed to! It’s just a habit for us, and we know it’s what we’re supposed to do, so the next guy in line doesn’t think it’s strange that we didn’t leave it loose.

    February 24, 2012 at 2:09 am
    jmac17
    Participant

    Thanks for the input Sara and Tristan.  It gives me some ideas to think about.  Niether Sara’s or Tristan’s system would work completely in my situation, but your systems may help me figure out what will work for us.  It’s not that our current toy habits are terrible, we just do things very differently.  The organized, neat freak side of me was attracted by the appeal of less mess, so I started wondering about it.  I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

    Sue, thanks for your comments too.  I do need to think about which habits we are developing. 

    Joanne

    February 24, 2012 at 3:04 am
    Sara B.
    Participant

    Joanne, my system is based off of several other’s toy check-out systems.  🙂  This is what I found worked for us.  Happy toy clearing!  LOL

    February 24, 2012 at 3:38 am
    thepinkballerina
    Participant

    I didn’t read the other thread (yet) but like the idea of a card system so each child (and parent) knows who got what out. Almost daily I come into a room, see a few tubs of toys otr and have to ask, “Who got these toys out?”‘and then proceed to remind them ( again) that when we r finished we put our toys away especially before we get something else out.

    Now with that said, normally I don’t have my girls pick up completely until we are getting ready to eat, go out, read, etc. And because at least 1 girl will goof around while the other 2 are doing all the work putting things away, I made a rule that if u aren’t cleaning, you’ll clean up all of it by yourself. That fixed the problem quickly. Also since each child may have only gotten out 1 thing but they may play with everything that is out,  I tell them to first pick up what they got out then pick up something else, even if they may not have gotten it out, so that the job gets done more quickly. I remind them that sometimes I put some things away that I didn’t get out (ie laundry! )

    But if they play alone they are only responsible for what they got out. Hope that makes sense.

    Tara

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