The top 10 toys in our minimalist home (and why we love them).
Over the past year of living as a minimalist family, I’ve become a professional observer of toys in our home. I’ve come to know what toys our girls play with daily, weekly, or just once in a while.
I’ve built up my “toy-decluttering-muscle” (and so have our daughters) and am quick to pass unplayed with toys on to new homes where they will be loved.
With the holidays approaching, I’ve been giving toys more consideration. What toys would we like to add to our collection and why?
To make holiday toy purchases more intentional, I began looking at the “most played with toys” in our home. What toys continued to withstand rounds of decluttering? And why?
I believe children don’t need a lot of toys and actually play better in an environment with fewer toys. At the same time, the right toys promote language, motor, cognitive, and social development in children. We’ve been selective with the toys we keep in our home.
Here they are: the top 10 most played with toys in our home and why we love them.
1. Magna-Tiles
These are by far the most consistently played with toy in our home. Our girls build everything from castles to rocket ships with these colorful, magnetic shapes. They promote imaginative play and help develop visual spatial skills. These are a keeper.
Our five year old and two year old both love Play-Doh. Cupcakes, cookies, and ice cream molds are favorites. They will role play birthday parties and make many sweet creations. And if we have sparkly Play-Doh, all the better.
I love this Lakeshore toy and used it a lot in past jobs as a Speech-Language Pathologist. It contains miniatures and matching picture cards from six different language categories, so it is great for vocabulary building. Our girls love matching the figurines to the card or just playing imaginatively with them.
This game is a family favorite. Our two year old is even able to stick the swords in the barrel’s slots to try to pop the pirate. It develops fine motor skills, teaches turn taking, is great for modeling future and past tense verbs (“The pirate will pop.” and “He popped out!”), and is simply fun!
Here is another favorite family game. It also teaches turn taking and develops fine motor skills as children master launching the monkeys onto the tree. I use it to model present progressive verbs (“The monkey is jumping.”) and teach colors.
6. Uno (or other card games)
Uno is a favorite of our five year old. It great for teaching numbers and colors. Our two year old is starting to enjoy simple memory card games, which are great for vocabulary building and fine motor skills (turning over the card).
7. Doctor’s Kit
Our doctor’s kit is a simple hand-me-down, but is played with regularly. Dolls and stuffed puppies are often patients as our girls care for them. I love the vocabulary that comes with this toy, such as veterinarian, stethoscope, and even anesthesia (yes, the dolls often need surgery).
These are great to take along on a car ride or to a doctor’s appointment. When playing with our girls, our five year old likes to draw things and have me guess what they are. Our two year old never tires of telling me or my husband what to draw (usually dogs or ducks). The four-color background on these are especially fun. Our five year old has started using them to practice writing letters and words.
Having girls, this toy is a hit at our home. They love to get dressed up and serve their dolls tea. A tea party also can make snack time a lot more fun. When I play tea party, I love to model question asking (“Would you like tea?”or “Do you want a cookie?”) and pronoun usage (“Pass a cookie to her.” or “She wants tea.”).
10. Ball (5 inch)
We have an area of our living room set aside for playing ball. No pictures are hung here, so our girls can kick, throw and catch the ball freely. I usually have one ball out at a time to promote turn taking or joint play. Playing ball develops gross motor skills and helps increase the number of verbs in our two year old’s vocabulary (kick, throw, pass, dribble, catch).
Hopefully this list will inspire increased intentionality when looking at toys this season. Or maybe it will even inspire a Christmas gift (the games are so fun to play as a family!).
Let’s keep our gift giving simple and intentional this holiday season. And let’s keep in mind that some of the best gifts we can give our children are time spent playing on the floor with them and undivided attention.