The Toy Collection Agency

I have been getting very frustrated with my kids when it comes time to tidy up and leave the house. I like to tidy the house before I go out so that if I am tired when we come back there is nothing I need to do. My  children love pulling all their toys out and playing with them. They are even reasonably happy to pack up in a desultory way. The thing that really bothers me is how they pack up. There will always be one or two things that are left behind - trains left out of the train box, cars left lying in the middle of the floor, pencils that have rolled under the table and have been left behind. I end up spending my day putting away all the odd toys that have been forgotten

I had a talk to the boys about why this was happening and what we can do to make mornings easier for us all. Kit thought that we should have an op-shop bag that all the toys left out are put in. James thought that he should be able to get the toys back after a few days.

So we have instituted the Toy Collection Agency to combine both ideas. Once the boys have tidied their room and invite me in to check, I will put anything that has been left out in a tub in the laundry. They have a week to do extra jobs so they can earn their toys back. 1 job = 1 toy. If they don't want to earn the toys back then we should give them to the op shop.

To make this easy, we painted a small box gold and placed a magnet on the back.

Then we printed out a list of jobs for the children to do. The criteria for the jobs is that they must be jobs that I wouldn't ordinarily ask them to do.  My boys had a lovely time coming up with jobs they think would be a help to me (and a few of them are jobs they really want to try).

Finally we wrote a reminder on the box for the children so that they remember what it is they need to do to earn their toys back. Now it lives on the fridge where it is easily accessible.

So far we haven't had any toys left out :-)

Car Trundle

As anyone with children will know, it feels like toys multiply whenever you're not looking and suddenly you are tripping over toys every time you turn around.

My biggest problem has always been finding a home for cars and trains. They are so small that it is easy to miss one or two when packing up. I seem to be standing on them all the time. Given that I like walking around the house in bare feet (or my sock slippers), it was only a matter of time before I had to find a solution. After stepping on a car for the 3rd time in a morning, I took myself to the shed to try to see if I had any containers that the boys would find easy to open and therefore find it easier to put the cars away. I didn't have any containers but the big piece of wood that fell on me as I opened the shed door did attract my attention. When my gaze wandered over 4 wheels the idea of a car table came to me. Wouldn't it be so much easier if I made a trundle to store the cars on, and we could just push it out of the way under the bed when the boys finished playing with it?

I dragged the wood out, screwed the wheels onto it and flipped it over to see if it worked. By this time Christopher joined me and wanted to know what I was doing. When I said I was making a car table, he pointed out the obvious fact that there was nothing to stop the cars rolling off the trundle. Hmmmm...I needed sides on it. Back to rummaging around the shed and I found some long pieces of wood that I could nail  on and form a shallow box.

My part was done. I undertook to keep everyone away while Christopher painted the whole table blue. When the first coat dried we drew the road on to the table and painted it black. Christopher then found a sponge and sponged green paint everywhere else. The final touches were applied the next day when I put the white markings on the roads and we moved the table into the house.

Just need to put all the cars on it and we
can push it under the bed until the boys
want to play with it.

This is currently the longest lasting of all the toys that the children play with in our house. I wonder how many more years it will keep them entertained quietly for...