Boys are on holiday and it’s time for a toy cull. But rather than my usual 2 box - 2 bag trick, I think its time to get the kiddywinks motivated. And as I’m feeling a little sleep deprived and surly I’m bring out the big guns of kidnapping and blackmail.

There is a truly excellent ransom note generator which is spot on for jobs like this, now all I need is the right phrasing and to kidnap some stuffed toys;

If you wish to see Big Ted, Flip and Ducky again, you must leave a pile of old toys outside your bedroom door by the end of this morning.

These will be collected by Daddy ‘the Fence’ Dad who will take them to the charity shop for recycling. Only leave toys you can be parted with. In return BT, Flip and Ducky will be sitting on your beds come teatime.

—

Update
This afternoon we’ll sit together and sort the toys because it didn’t work. Boy’s thought it was like a convoluted game of hide ‘n seek; now they think kidnapping is cool. So I’m off to hide my laptop.

tag... play for today, be helpful, toys

Somedays you have to be ruthless, and in a quiet child-free moment you’ve got to clean it and mean it.

I am very lucky in what I do, I look after little kids, I make a nurturing environment, and I play; a lot. But this brings play-detritus. If you’ve kids you’ll have it too, check in the bottom of the toy box, or the chest, or the cupboard and you’ll find little bits of miscellaneous plastic. Quite often, and for no particular reason, it’ll contain at least one florescent yellow bit, a minimum of two crayons, a magnetic fishing set and - more insidiously - free junk toys from junk food outlets that you don’t visit.

The problem is that amongst this play-detritus is bound to be that tiny doo-dah or wotsit, that is need to activate the Mighty-Mega-Metal-Mummy-Monkey™ or something and you’re bound to throw it. Thus becoming a meanie forever, or at least as long as childhood memory lasts. From such bitter experiences I’ve developed the T.T.T.B (two tubs, two bags) system, which - I’m hoping - can be extended not just to cover toys, but Mrs. Welikeplay’s shoe collection and even yarn stash.

Tub 1
For the instantly recognisable. Things like lego blocks/heads, magnetic fishing sets and jacks.

Tub 2
For the odd and unusual and the things that you can’t honestly be bothered to sort. This it to be given to the kids to sort through, they’ll know which wotsit goes with the aforementioned Mighty-Mega-Metal-Mummy-Monkey™ and which jigsaw piece goes in which box. There’s got to be at least an hours of entertainment here.

Bag 1
For the complete but junk toys that might be able to be offloaded at the local charity store… though beware, I’m fairly confident I have two of these bags sitting in the attic from before we moved two years back.

Bag 2
Bin it. Half crayons, lint, perhaps anything with the Golden Arches probably™ed on it’s label.

There must be better ways to fill child free moments.
TTFN with your TTTB… enjoy.

tag... play, toys

My own children have been a bit obsessive about collecting marbles for a good few years now. In the occasional, and slightly ritualised, visits to the local toy shops they are drawn time and again to these shiny treasures with vows of great behaviour proffered should they get one or two to call their own. I’ve resisted the urge to make them the de facto currency of the welikeplay shed, but their may still be mileage in that idea.

As yet they are still collectables, rattling around in a large Roses tin or skipping down improvised marble runs, but it occurred to me yesterday that they should learn how to play the game. But I missed out on this, my schooling included yoyos, trading cards, conkers but no marbles; so I turned to The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Things to Do , a great resource for the play-pro and not as gender-specific as it purports. Unfortunately No1 child’s copy has gone to live where the lost things are, so it was time to Google it.

for rules… read on »

tag... play for today, 5up, 8up, collecting, toys, traditional games

… I found our old “Bounce Bounce Tigger” game. And as there were two really little ones around, I pulled it out and changed the batteries. Now this toy is a lot like Buckaroo I remember as a child; except rather than a spring-loaded donkey, it has a Tigger which you need to load up with picnic hampers ( know as picnic hamsters round here), pots of honey, scarves and a grinning bee. Put too much on and Tigger pops up scattering his stuff and making boing-boing noises. This started the giggles, which in two years old kids is contagious.

read on »

tag... play for today, 2up, toys