My 2.9 year old doesn’t have enough toys?

The absolute winner in my house DD5 and DD2 is magnetic titles - ours are the brand magna-tiles but there’s loads of different ones out there. You need a good amount to build anything, but they are fantastic, educational but lots of fun.

Awwww it doesn’t sound like many toys at all. I feel a bit sad for him.

my 3 yo has quite a lot of toys but won’t let me pass anything on as it’s all ‘precious’

we have:
50+ hot wheels cars
3 hot wheels race tracks
car mat carpet
6 construction vehicles eg diggers
BRIO train set
8 puzzles
playdough set
eisel and paints and chalks.
big box of felt tips, pencils, pastels, wax crayons
play kitchen
magna tiles
noahs ark with animals
stomp rocket
button puzzle game
hungru hippos
wooden blocks
magnetic fishing game
dolls house

This is what I was thinking. Children play with what they have, and what they find, and use their imaginations. Often the children with the most are the ones bored. I didn't have much at all, DS didn't have a lot. He wasn't watching much television either, he was out a lot playing at the playground, on his balance bike, in the woods, climbing trees. At home he was happy to play with the same toy for ages. He'd make a den from blankets, jump from sofa to cushions. He was rarely bored

This is my son too. He would be out 24/7 living in a tent if we let him. He's at nursery 3 days and the rest of the week we're out and about often for the whole day. He's happiest in the woods, at the beach, or on his bike.

But I do like to provide him with a variety of toys at home. I think it depends less how many toys they have but more what type of toys they have. Quality over quantity.

That doesn't mean the toys need to be expensive "aesthetic" looking things. More that they need to be durable, timeless, and open-ended. It's good to cover a range of categories in toys for kids. I think if a child of OP's age has a selection of construction toys, small world toys, role-play toys, books, arts/crafts, gross motor and fine motor toys then that's fine.

The kids I see who don't know how to play independently are the ones with a random jumble of toys that can't be played with together- often bonkers plastic things that beep and flash and only serve one purpose. Whereas a box of magnetic tiles can be tunnels for train sets, houses for teddies, ramps for cars, a castle, a barn for toy farm animals and so on.

At that age I think they benefit from more variety. They get bored and it's good to keep bringing in new types of activities.
I think childten love:
Duplo/ lego
Brio trainset
Toy kitchen
Play food( the kind that's velcroed and you can take apart and re assemble)
Toy tea set/ pots and orange etc
Toy kitchen
Cleaning set ( the Melissa and doug one on a stand has been enduring)
Puzzles
Magnetic tiles
Books
Drawing and messy painting stuff( the ultra big roll of paper is great)
Playdough
Boys and girls love a Toy buggy to wheel around their favourite doll/ teddy/ cat which needs rescuing
Then things like matching pairs games ( orchard toys are great)
Skittles or other ball stuff and everywhere a scooter or balance bike

There's such as thing as too much, but there's also such a thing as not enough variety, it s finding an in between that keeps them entertained and their mind going.

This is what I was thinking. Children play with what they have, and what they find, and use their imaginations. Often the children with the most are the ones bored. I didn't have much at all, DS didn't have a lot. He wasn't watching much television either, he was out a lot playing at the playground, on his balance bike, in the woods, climbing trees. At home he was happy to play with the same toy for ages. He'd make a den from blankets, jump from sofa to cushions. He was rarely bored.

I’m not a parent so have less frame of reference here than others, but was surprised so many think your DS doesn’t have enough toys. Generations of children grew up with zero toys pre manufacturing so it’s not like they are an innate requirement that you’ve failed to give him. Kids can play with anything that’s safe and also use their imaginations. Not that it isn’t nice to get him more toys, but I definitely don’t think you should feel bad about it OP!

I'm forgetting about other things like we have a mud kitchen in the garden and also bath toys.

Bath toys are great because we also use various scoops and containers in the sand pit or out in the garden too.

He also has a little tin in his bedroom that he calls his "treasure tin" and he puts things in that he finds like shells, acorns, conkers and so on. It's not all about the toys you buy them but providing them the opportunity to collect their own special things. He has his own torch and we've gone on late night adventures to the beach with it, or we make dens with the bedsheets and read books by torchlight. He's crazy about that torch. A big part of childhood is having your own toys and belongings that are precious to you.

Doesn’t seem enough to me but I was a sahm and lockdown hit when my oldest started school nursery so we needed more things. If your son is at nursery a lot then you would need fewer toys.

I would look at different areas your not meeting at the moment or where you could have more eg board games (orchard games are great), maybe more complex construction toys (magnetic tiles), more small world (farm animals, dinosaurs, elc happy land), more crafts and mark making (pens - crayola washable, paint, scissors, paper, glue), role play (outfits, doctors or building sets), gross motor skills (balls, bike, scooter), sensory play (playdoh, kinetic sand, tuff tray style activities you can do this in a washing up bowl).

I have to know

Do you mean 2.9 as in 2 year 9 months or 2.9 as in .9 of a year so 2 years nearly 11 months?

For bigger toys which children grow out of or get bored with

Have you tried to look for a local toy library?

If you have the space I’d definitely look at something for role play or small world play. My younger DC is 4 now but over the last year or so he’s loved dressing up, his toy kitchen and shop (with play food), and his Playmobil/Peppa Pig dolls house.

My nephews have a mud kitchen which looks like great fun!

Ooh. And look at open ended toys like Grimms and Grapat.

We have quite a lot of those sorts of things, Grimms rainbows, large stepped pyramid, Grapat small pieces, nins etc. and they can be used for all sorts of things.

Brio train set was always a winner in our house.

Maybe he might enjoy a mud kitchen then?

I think it depends how much TV they watch more than anything. If you don't have the TV on much they need to fill the time. If it's on whenever you're home or they have tablets they will watch it and play much less. I'm guilty of using TV to minimise mess and fighting far too much, but when it goes off is when they actually use their toys

Even boys need stuff to do indoors during the half hour or hour gaps when you're cooking or after dinner before bed or whatever.

My boy likes all the small world and pretend play just as much as his sister. They both like jumping off the furniture too. The main difference is my boy is much more inclined to fiddle about with stuff and often break it or take it apart. My girl is more inclined to organise her toys, put them in bags and boxes and very rarely breaks anything

I also think we have a lot and then I go to friends houses and 🤯🤯🤯

I think a lot of that comes down more to too many toys that can't be categorised. If you have baskets of themed things "farm", "blocks", "train set" and so on, it's easier to store and do toy rotation. Also easier to tidy and get kids involved in tidying because they can see where things go.

I see friends' houses full of all sorts of random toys that just sort of beep and flash and don't do much. I think they end up being a nightmare to store.

I always found that my kids used to have lots of toys but would always revert back to the same thing which was usually colouring. He sounds like he has plenty but have you got a charity shop near by? You can pick up all sorts of things there and because they’re not in boxes it’s amazing what children will hone in on. If they don’t play with them much it’s not a massive expense and you can always redonate them.

Loads of great ideas here.
I also find toys everywhere hard to cope with but I have 2x toddlers and we have a lot more than that what you've said, but still half of what some friends have! You can still keep toys contained to a certain area and I love the kallax boxes so I can't see them! Some in their rooms and some downstairs.
I don't feel like we have enough toys to rotate, that's something I definitely want to do more of as they get older.

Also if you buy second hand, you can move it on again if he doesn't play with it, or buy bigger items and not feel obliged to keep them forever. I see our local charity shop as being like a toy hire place. They also really love choosing their own toys from the charity shop if you have one with a decent toy section nearby. Facebook marketplace is also great for toys.

My boys didn't play much with toys in the end tbh, the only things that were probably worth were:

• Balls - if he's a boisterous, outdoorsy kind of boy, your going to need loads of these
• Balance bike
• Scooter
• Duplo
• train set (just about earned its keep)
• a big truck you can run up and down with

When older:

• nerf guns (sorry)
• Lego
• trampoline

The rest was probably a waste of money. What was essential was trips outside the house everyday - park, playground, farm park, zoo, swimming etc.

Sometimes wonder if it's parents of girls with all these toys in the house - never had the need with my sons, they were more 'gross motor skills' orientated. Seems to be the same amongst their friends too.

Agree with this. Our DD is a very similar age and has all of what your LO has, plus:

• dressing up box
• play kitchen (and foods/ saucepans etc.)
• flash cards
• balls
• car garage
• dolls and associated role playing items
• balance bike
• tea set
• easel and paints
• post box (and letters/stamps etc.)
• wooden rocket ship
• dolls house (and furniture/ dolls etc.)
• musical instruments (although I would not recommend buying a recorder, you'll regret it...)
• Duplo
• slide

We don't have lots of space or money, but buy things second hand online or at car boot sales. Ask relatives for presents or to gift experiences/gift cards so we can buy presents. Also buy all through the year so it's not an expense all at once.

I think a wooden train set is great idea. I'd also go for farm set with animals, farmer and bits and pieces and a tractor and trailer with hay bales. Then think about combining what he has to play with him. So use his blocks to make fields for the farm animals and a house for the farmer, use the tractor to take bales to feed the animals, build a dairy to milk the cows, pretend to shear the sheep, have a cow escape etc. Have the digger come and do some digging.

Build the wooden train set together, use his blocks to build a station and some houses, have the train drive around and stop at different stations to pick people up, pretend a tree (block) falls on the line and the train has to back up while the line is cleared by the digger etc

Make a dinosaur zoo with the dinosaurs and blocks, feed the dinosaurs with the tractor and trailer, have some people come and visit the zoo, have a dinosaur escape and call the police and have the police come and get it back in. Have the digger dig a big trench round the dinosaur cages so the can't escape.

Kids can learn so much from this sort of small world play.