encouraging toddlers to play with toys more - how?

[titferbrains]

DD is quite demanding at the mo, she's 21mo, constantly on the move. All her toys are in baskets, she doesn't really look in them any more.

Do I need to buy more interactive toys? I find a lot of toys very "bitty" ie they look nice in the box on their own, but then you get home and you find a mini potlid in one place, a wooden piece of fruit somewhere else... I don't buy a lot of toys because she is amused by such random things. But I am wondering if I need to take a lot away so she'll take more time playing with what she can see.

Any thoughts?

If you've got a lot of toys, put most of them away and bring them out on a rotational basis. Then they're 'new' and fun rather than just clutter. The old story about kids liking the cardboard box rather than the contents is very true.

Sort through the baskets so that all the pieces of one set are in the same basket, then put most of the baskets away someplace else, and as Chili says switch between them from time to time. They'll be far more fun that way.

"Interactive" toys usually get even less attention than the normal kind, as they are more imited in what you can do with them.

sort the toys into "sets" -musical toys one box, role play toys another , puzzles another ect.
make sure all the "bits/small pieces" are together for the right toy.
ROTATE the toys , twice a week change the boxes so there is always something "new".
Actually having time to play with your child , even if its just half hour squeased in between the laundry and running to work will make a difference.
Nothing sadder than a child who doesnt get to play with their mummy, but who has a mountain of stuff imo.

she doesn't seem to be old enough to keep anything together or to particularly play with one set of toys eg picnic set or just blocks etc. just wonder if there is something else I should get for her that she'd enjoy. she likes sitting at her new little table and chairs. it's hard because she can communicate but she can't ask to do anything in particular. I want to stimulate her but not sure what she needs right now.

titfer I find the best way to engage DS (who is not quite 2 so a similar age), is for me to play with him, especially with a new toy. Once we have played with something , ie. tea set or whatever a few times then he understands how to play with it and then his imagination gets going. I don't think you can just leave them to their own devices in the hope that they will get on with it.

Sorry if you are already doing this, but your posts don't mention anything about you playing with her.

I'm also in the process of reorganising our toy storage so that trainset all stays together, lego in another box, instruments in another, cars etc in another. Helps them to focus I think if there isn't just a mountain of stuff everywhere that doesn't go together.

Our dd doesn't have many toys at all because she never played with them - she likes playing with a small version of whatever I'm doing. So if I'm cooking she gets a wooden spoon and a pan on the kitchen floor, if I'm doing housework she gets a cloth of her own. One of her absolute cast-iron favourites is a bowl of water on the kitchen floor and a series of things to dunk in it.

yes ali i think yr right there
I use big tubs I think smaller boxes that are easy to get into might owrk.

I know what you mean about playing with them. I do with her but ~I think I am a bit impatient sometimes.