We removed all of the toys, games, collections and clutter from our kids rooms (Jaida is 10 and Blake is 8). They are thrilled, I am thrilled we all love having empty space. They have been finding other things to do, creating games, reading, playing piano and sports. We wondered what would happen when their little cousins came over and there aren’t any toys to play with. What would a toddler and preschooler do without toys?
An interesting thing happened.
My wonderful niece and nephew came over for a visit. She is 4 and he is 2. They are very sweet little people that love to play at our house with all of their big cousin and the big kid’s stuff. On a regular day, they will start in Jaida’s room and pull out the lego. After moving almost all of the lego sets onto the floor, they find the shopkins. They will marvel at each shopkin, pulling them out, smelling them, holding them and then placing them on her bed. Then they move onto the hexbugs, the beanie boos, squinkies and the calico critters. Once all of the toys are out of their places, they move into Blake’s room. You get the idea. These kids are so cute we don’t even care about the massive dump that just happened in the kids rooms.
Today, before they came over, their mom told them that all the toys are gone for now. This didn’t seem to bother them one bit. As usual, the first place they went when they arrived was Jaida’s room. I don’t think they even really noticed the toys were gone, they went straight for her bedside table and started pulling out her things. First was her journal. They were opening it and asking what is was and what it said. Then they found her jewelry. They were fascinated with each necklace and bracelet, carefully opening them all and taking the charms off and placing them all on the bed. Then they found her piggy bank. They wanted to take all the money out but we didn’t want them playing with that. Since there wasn’t anything else in the bedside table, they moved into her closet. Where there used to be toys and crafts and clothes, now there is just empty space and clothes. So they pulled the scarves and shoes and sweaters out of the cubbies.
And so on in Blake’s room. And then the drawers were opened in the living room and the few things that remained in those drawers were also pulled out. And then they moved downstairs. Instead of pulling out all the toys in the toy room (which are no longer there), they found all of the pillows and blankets and sporting equipment. They entertained themselves with blankets and pillows for a long time.
I think all the kids had just as much fun today as any but there were not any toys to play with. I kind of suspected that would happen, that they would figure out something to do. What was surprising to me was that there were still piles of stuff all over the place! It was very easy to tidy – the number of pieces was significantly less than a normal toy day.
So what is the lesson here? That I still have too much stuff in my house? That kids will find things to do regardless of the number of toys? That young children can create the proper conditions to prove the chaos theory? Or maybe just that we gotta enjoy the curiosity of little kids?
