In the years I've been open I've always had varying ages but this summer I had all bigger kids (2 and up) and now I have all 2 and under. I'm struggling with this group. They are exhausting me..

I've been thinking maybe my playroom is getting boring and needs some shaking up. I had taken a lot of the toys out of the room at the beginning of the school year.

I've been checking the group and all the old thread's on pictures of everyone's daycare setup. Trying to decide if I have to many toys out, not enough.

I'm toying with the idea of moving a floor to ceiling bookshelf we own from our garage to the playroom. This way we would have alot more floor space in the small room I have.

I noticed the majority of the pictures I looked at most everyone had toys on a shelf and a whole lot more toys out than I do. Do any of you find it challenging to keep the kids from knocking down toys just for the sake of watching them fall?

Right now I don't have very many toys out. Set up in the following sections:

Kitchen with a 3 drawer cart. Top drawer- Kitchen toys. middle drawer- toy phones, keys, diaper bags. Bottom drawer- a couple dolls and towels.

Musical toys, a mirror, and an elephant ball popper. A ride on alphabet train.

Quiet nook- with puzzles and books.


We do have plenty of outside time. We do a circle time and Carol's Affordable curriculum which they LOVE!!

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I have a lot of toys out and a young group. They like to dump them out and although I can get them to help cleanup somewhat, it's really left to me if I want them sorted correctly. It's really starting to get to me. I was considering getting containers that they need me to open for them.
I think the big shelf is a great idea, just consider the types of containers you put all the toys in to avoid the dumping.
Another option is rotating the toys you have out. Doing this once or twice a week makes a big difference.

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This is a bit off topic, but did you say that your 2 and unders loved Carol's Affordable curriculum? I'm struggling with my 25 month old. She doesn't have the slightest interest in anything resembling curriculum, even though she is really smart. (pretty adept at her abc's, counts to 15, sings several songs, knows left and right, speaks in full length sentences and will string 2 related sentences together. "I'm too busy to do that. You do it." is the latest.)

I'd like to try a ready made curriculum instead of the casual stuff we've been doing for the past 1 1/2 years, although it seems to have been working pretty well. Mom though, wants papers and "school work".

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I have 3 2's right now and a 20month old. I have an ikea shelf with storage buckets that have snap on lids. I take one out they all play. We clean up and I put it back. If they want a different one, we repeat.

I would do something with lids on it. ONes that they cant get off very easily.

I also have a ton of little people and I keep those up unless we are using the playsets, then I take them down.

I can control the environment this way with the one at a time box open and it continues to keep the room a safe place to play for the kids.

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Last year I used Funsteps. This year it's the Carol's.

Funsteps sends more quality material. Colored posters to hang on the wall that are made out of card stock, and a craft for 3 days a week. That being said it is a little more expensive and for my group I found it a little overwhelming for them. They weren't picking anything up from it.

If mom want's papers Carol's is the route to go. They have work sheet for every day of the week but it's flexible. I set mine up for Mon-Wed so I can use Thursday to prepare for the next week and Friday is a free day. My kiddos have also seemed to learn a lot more. I think it's due to the simplistic way everything is presented.

Thanks I think I may work towards this. Hubby didn't seem to keen on the idea at having to move this book shelf...It is rather large

Until then I brought up a smaller book shelf and traded out the ride on train for the little people collection...It seemed to do the tirck At least for this afternoon anyways!

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I am in the same boat - all my new ones are between 12-24 months and it is EXHAUSTING me!! I think I changed more diapers today than I did all summer with my old group.

I have a lot of toys out too and find they tend to just dump things and move on. We are trying to learn to clean up but its hard at this age. I have those fabric bins with toys and really don't want to rearrange my room so I was thinking about getting more plastic bins with lids and storing more of those toys (figures, blocks, etc.) in the basement for a while and maybe buying a few more larger toys that will still fit in those cubbies so they don't look empty but aren't "dumping" toys.

And for curriculums I really thought they'd be too young - I have one 2.5 year old but all the rest are under 1.5. Is Carol's good for 1 1/2 year olds??? I just feel like I won't even be able to corral them all at the table long enough to do anything right now.

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Both of them love it. My son is talking already so he repeats everything during circle time that they learn even if he doesn't recognize them on his own. My other 18 month old doesn't talk a whole lot yet but she will sit there the whole time and watch. They will both act out the songs we sing even if they can't actually sing them. Occasionally they will get up and roam around but I just let them, they normally come back for the next song or activity, etc. If there are just worksheets I will make them a copy and let them color them. The only time I don't have them participate is when we are doing things with glue, glitter, things like that. It's just me and I don't have enough hands to direct the older ones and make sure the little ones don't eat it

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