Do you spend money on toys and games only to find them in the garage a couple of weeks later?
For example, my 10 year old son really wanted Bakugan. He has several Bakugan and played with them quite a bit for about a week. Since then he doesn’t know where more than 2 of them are and when I ask him to get them out and play with them he says they are not fun to play with without a friend.
My 3 year old plays with toys, games and arts & crafts a little more than my 10 year old but switches between them often. She’s 3 so I understand that’s normal.
My thought is that my 10 year old has too many toys and can’t decide which toy or game to play with so he’d rather sit and stare and the ceiling, roll a ball, or torment his sister.
Oh, he did play with his slinky for a long period of time this morning. A grand total of about 40 minutes over the course of 4 hours.
Ugh, it’s so frustrating having to constantly remind a 10 year old that he has toys to play with!
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that the kids love rolling a ball, coloring, and reading. The good thing is that when I pull the toy or game out a month later it’s like new and they play with it for a while again. When I think about it, the toys they really wanted are worth the money spent because they are like new over and over again. It’s just that I thought the kids would stick with a toy they begged for longer than a week. I think I was wrong!
So what do your kids play with regularly? Toys (what toys), games, blocks, food (ha!), other something else?
My 9 year old son loves his Lego, but he also likes to have a friend around to play Legos with him. Sometimes with kids that age it doesn’t matter how many amazing toys they have at their fingertips – nothing appeals at the moment. I’ve found that the playthings that get the most attention are things that my son creates himself: a skate park for his Tech Decks made our of cut-up and taped-together shoe boxes, a bow and arrow he made from a branch he clipped in the woods, and even a ceramic “electric guitar” he made at a paint-your-own pottery place. He’s been carrying that around for weeks and puts on pretend concerts with his friend.