One of the easiest ways clutter makes it’s way into our homes is via our kids. Birthday party loot bags, dentist visits, a trip to the dollar store or well meaning visitors. You can end up with five new toys in a month and chances are five toys didn’t leave your home that same month. This is yet another area where it pays to be intentional. Be choosy about what you buy your kids and what comes in the door. Choose open-ended toys and you’ll get years of use out of them plus need a lot less of them. I’m going to in share my top eight favourites and explain what open-ended is. Curbing purchases and making them intentional ones will help you avoid toy clutter, save money and create less waste.
Generation of Cheap Stuff
Children of this generation have access to way more than we ever did. It’s easy to come by – amazon! It’s inexpensive and everywhere. There are so many little, bitty toys in the world that are available for next to nothing. Dollar store toys have elevated themselves by copying what’s popular. So instead of paying $15, you’re paying $3. Forget your sand toys at home? Buy more. They really, really want that set of cars, it’s only $2. It makes the argument to not buy harder, we all want to give to our kids, so it just requires more effort on our end. No wonder they end up with so much.
“They also allow risk taking and relieve children from the possibility of making a mistake. There are no mistakes with open-ended play.”
So how do you make good choices about what your kids play with? How do you figure out what will stand the test of time? Look for open-ended toys. What is an open-ended toy and why is it so great? I had never heard this term until I was a couple years into my teaching career. It came up while reading research on play-based education. Although I had witnessed lots of play with these materials, I didn’t have a name for it. I imagine the same is true of you.
What is open-ended play?
Open-ended means there is no end to the play, for example, a puzzle has one way to do it. Kids can create, find multiple uses and build an infinite amount of skills with this kind of play. There aren’t rules and it’s child led, they are the boss of their play. Versus giving them a something that makes sounds or has a clear purpose.
What are open-ended toys?
Open-ended toys don’t have a specific end or way to play with them. It’s up to your child’s imagination to make them into existence. Loose parts can be food, lava or a fence at a farm. Animal figures can be escaping a zoo or climbing a mountain and magnetic tiles can be made into any structure the game demands. They foster creativity, flexibility, imagination and problem solving. They also allow risk taking and relieve children from the possibility of making a mistake. There are no mistakes with open-ended play. How amazing is that? They allow play for play’s sake and no boundaries. An incredible opportunity for exploration and understanding.
Some examples are things like:
- Figures; animals, people
- Baskets, bag, things to carry items
- Play silks/fabric pieces
- Building blocks
- Loose parts
- Farm or a dollhouse
- Balls
- Play food
8 open-ended toys that last
They do not need to be expensive, although the ones I’ve listed are. I really do believe in quality over quantity and few over many. That being said, you can totally find less expensive options to give your kids open-ended materials.
Instead of the grapat loose parts you can find inexpensive wood blocks or rings, check out thrift stores for someone’s old button collection or grab a bag of glass gems from the dollar store. Instead of play silks, you can cut pieces from a bed sheet. Be creative and buy second hand. There are great deals to be found. Magnetic tiles are sadly one that is tricky to do frugally but you will get so many years out of them. Ask family members to contribute for Christmas, you’ll end up with fewer toys and something your kids will LOVE. Or watch out for coupons for toy stores. Mastermind has a perks program with a 30% off coupon once a year.
Here are 8 of my favourites:
1. Loose Parts
2. Animal Figures
3. Magnetic Tiles
4. Wooden Rainbow
5. Play Kitchen
6. Play Silks
7. Tea Set and Play Food
8. Easel
Inexpensive alternatives
There are so many other options and certainly ones that are free or very inexpensive. So please don’t feel limited by some of these options. Some ideas are:
Loose Parts
- Interesting recyclables make great loose parts. I collected oodles of the screw tops for applesauce pouches from when my daughter was little. They make an awesome open-ended material.
- The dollar store carries packages of little wooden blocks and different shaped pieces and if you’d like to dye them, it’s really simple.
Play Food
- I’ve made a number of pieces of play food for my daughter and bought a lot second hand. I wanted to stick with wood and felt over plastic but found some great tutorials and felt is easy to work with. If you can sew, play food are fun, quick projects and then you can create pieces in response to what your child loves to eat as well! Look at thrift stores for little wooden bowls and containers that can be dishes.
- I used these tutorials as inspiration for food I’ve made for our daughter
- Bag of sugar
- A beet and some cherries. You can dye a few wooden beads with food colouring.
- These noodles are really quick and easy!
- Peas and cookies
- There are certainly inexpensive animal and people figures and again, second hand is a great option. I’ve found most of ours at Value Village or through local buy and sell groups. The dollar store also has tubes of animals. Michael’s always has their 40% off coupon to help you create a collection.
- We got our Ikea play kitchen as a first birthday gift and DIYed it with a great tutorial I found on Pinterest. It has been an Ikea staple for years, so you could absolutely find one on Craigslist and give it a coat of spray paint. They also have a newer, small model which would be great in a small space.
- Instead of play silks, you could also use those great muslin blankets that are now available at a number of price points. But also, because they are so popular, are easy to find second hand. They are light and could also be dyed if you wanted.
Be Intentional
I hope that this helps give you some inspiration as well as making it easier to start culling toys. It’s very easy for them to mount up, so no guilt required. I promise with some intentional thought and choice you will see your kids more engaged in deeper, richer play with less toys. And check out my blog on having less toys for some ideas on how to start.
Also I’d love to hear what your favourite open-ended toys are. What do your kids love to play with?
