3YO obsessed with toys with wheels, should I encourage other things?

[mamadiva]

He has always loved his cars, trains and anything with wheels really but people have started asking about christams presents for him and everything I can think of involves bloody wheels!

Should I get other things like action figures, blocks, kitchen anything really because surely playing with cars all the time can't be doing much for his development or am I being mad in thinking that there is any point getting anything other than wheely stuff?

You might find some ideas on the Amazon or ELC websites. You can search on the different age ranges.

I'd go with what he obviously likes. DS1 never got into action figures. Wheels obsession normal to me for boys!

It won't do him any harm to have loads of wheeled toys - totally normal to love that kind of thing. But then, if he doesn't have any other kinds of toys, he can't start enjoying other things too IYSWIM? So, it's probably worth getting him at least a few other things - if nothing else, they can be train passengers...

I've just finished a parenting course which talked about something called play schemas. This is basically when children get really interested or obsessed about playing in certain ways, perhaps lining toys up, or wrapping things in fabric. Apparently it's really normal developmentally as the child will continue playing like this while they are still learning from the activity.

It made a lot of sense to me when I thought about the ways my DC play.
I've tried to find some useful info via google, and this sheet seems a pretty good summary, but there;s lots of other info out there.

I would stick with the wheeled toys but add to them so the activity can be extended.You could have a toy ambulance which will have people on stretchers and you could then have a doctors outfit and play hospitals etc.You could have a farm set with tractors and have all the animals etc.Also for outdoors children love ride on tractors. Its all about adding to the interest to make it more fun. For xmas presents why not have a theme like the farm so everyone could buy extras and add to it. We did this with the playmobil farm one year and then did the police station the next.

Hi all thansk for replies.

DS does have other toys but becuas ehe likes cars/tractors etc so much everyone, me included, got into the rut of buying such toys all the time.

It's only now I'm realising how obsessed he is by those toys and nothing else seems to have any interest at all.

I think I will try and get rid of a lot of his toys though because most of them don't get played with at all and then build up a collection of stuff he may be more interested in and that may provide some role play activities to encourage whilst still what he likes .

Is the Playmobil stuff any good? We were going to get DS a garage this year but maybe a playmobil set would be better...

Don't worry. DS2 was obsessed with toy cars at that age He used to line them up in long 'traffic jams'. Now he he does not play with them at all (age 7).

... although he says he wants a Ferrari when he grows up and he definitely has a soft spot for young blonde women. I think I can can see where this is going already so maybe it is a bad thing.

I think the wheels thing is pretty common for boys (my 3 included).

I would try a toy kitchen if you want to have something else - mine loved playing with those whenever we visited friends although we never had one of our own.

If you have a toy cull - do it when he is not looking

I like danthe4th's idea of extending the theme. How about drawing pictures of cars, jigsaws of cars, building lego cars, making plasticine cars or even making car-shaped cakes?

throckenholt - toy kitchen. Yes a big hit with DS2 as well as cars.

I feel your pain. I have two completely car-obsessed pre-schoolers. We have had some success with train sets (still wheels, but y'know, at least not more blardy cars) and they love their bikes too (also wheeled, I realise).

Do they have a play mat (the type with roads on)? My two adore theirs, and ds1 makes up stories about what all the cars are up to, with an occasional helicopter landing on the roof of the fire station. You can also get road puzzles.

The kitchen idea is a good one I think. Or perhaps a shop? We have a toy cash register from ELC and they often take tins of food and play at shops. You could get play food too if you wanted then it could be a cafe or a shop.

Lego is also good (the bigger blocks). You can get things like a petrol tanker or construction vehicles, and they can take them apart and reconfigure, especially with extra blocks - we get some quite interesting vehicles (enormous towers on the backs of trucks, petrol-tanker-ice-cream-vans, you name it) and I figure they're at least using their imaginations

Playmobil is good, Duplo is good.
One of DS1's schema was networks. He loved to tie ropes to stuff and pull it around, use one item to pull another or many, etc. You could buy skip ropes for that purpose.
Balls of any sort (spherical wheels) also a hit.

DS likes:

Duplo
Playmobil
Knex
Meccano
Garage
Toy kitchen
Toy farm
Workbench
Brio train set