There was a time when I thought that kids were just fine playing with pots and pans and yogurt containers. That was before I became a mom, of course, and before I started buying every toy that caught my (then) sleep-deprived attention -- sort of a way of "keeping up with the (playdate) Joneses." Soon enough, I found myself living in an apartment overrun with admittedly useless toys, barely able to walk 2 feet before tripping over a yapping mechanical dog or a rolling plastic pig. AAAHHH!!! How to tame this chaos?
And, just in time, I remembered that my now friend, Dr. Teresa Signorelli, a child development specialist, had written a very very useful article on the very same subject. I found it so useful and so inspiring that I actually got rid of a lot of C's toys and went out and bought her a whole new batch of age-appropriate toys. I organized her play space, streamlining it, and compartmentalizing it (sort of) according to the different areas Teresa outlines in her article. Now we have a happier kid (and even happier parents)! A highly recommended read. Here are the links to the article and to her website:
Here's my last thought: since you're going to buy toys for your kid anyway (unless you've lucked into a useful hand-me-down situation), why not be strategic about it, right?
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