Reddit reviews American Educational River Stone Set
We found 2 Reddit comments about American Educational River Stone Set. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Great for improving coordination and balanceEach side of the stones vary in steepness and difficultyMay be stacked for easy storageRubber rim prevents slippingContains 3 large stones and 3 small stones
My kiddo is almost 3. Here's been my overall philosophy (sometimes successful, sometimes not):
All purchases will be high quality where possible (unless disposable, obv). This has made me a toy snob, though, so beware. (I hate cheap plastic toys, stuff that makes noise, etc)
Anything I used a lot (like burp cloths, bottles, clothes, etc) I bought enough so I didn't have to be washing them constantly. They grow out of them, and then it can all be donated.
I had a small amount of "active" toys at a time. More were stashed away, and from time to time I'd "rotate" them. The active set got exchanged for "new" stuff, to keep his playtime from getting boring and stagnant.
Toys are chosen more for "re-playablility" than anything else. Blocks, toy cars, stuff like this, books.
Everything gets cleaned up each night, and when he got big enough to help it was part of bedtime routine. (I'll relax this rule later for things like puzzles and lego projects that are in progress)
"Mom, can I buy [x]" is always a no. Unless it's a book. Later when he has an allowance, he can make those choices for himself.
His room is bare of toys. I'm lucky to have a big enough house that play areas can be elsewhere in the house. When he's awake, obviously toys go in there (he plays all over the house), but when it's nap or bedtime, they all go in the toybox in the playroom. I'm hoping that keeps the idea that his room is mainly for sleeping, and so if/when he gets out of bed at night he won't find much to do and will go back to sleep, hah!
It is sometimes tough; he has a lot of family that want to shower him in toys at birthdays and christmas. Usually I'll stash at least half of what he gets, donate some, etc. It's really helpful when they're very little to have that stash of "new" toys or books when you have a long car ride, or some other thing where they need to be distracted, or you're just having a bad day.
Curtailing my own impulses to spoil him is tougher. I like toys, and there are some really cool ones out there. I struggle, but I try to operate on the "some in, some out" philosophy to keep the toy explosion manageable.
I have no idea whether this is because of me, or some other personality trait, but he's pretty good at playing with one thing (or sometimes a set of things, like a couple construction vehicles) for long periods of time. He doesn't bounce around to a lot of different toys all day; usually he'll have one thing he wants to just do all day. It did really seem like he was better able to focus and really get in to an activity if a million other toys weren't laying around.
When he's a older, I'm planning on having an "unbirthday" party 6mo from his actual birthday each year. It'll be a day to donate to other kids anything we're not playing with any more. I want to try to teach him some altruism, and also the idea of "letting go" of things. I haven't decided yet how to reward that day, so it doesn't seem like a dreaded "omg I lose my toys today!" thing.
So there's a bunch of my rambling thoughts on minimalistic kids. Good luck!
Bubbles or a bubble wand machine only require one hand, a plush wand (wizard or fairy), Walking play balance paving stones! , Horsepole! , or a teeter!