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akpayne 11:36 AM 04-09-2012
How often do you switch out your toys? I am trying to come up with some sort of schedule. I have been doing it every week and that is very time consuming so I was thinking of switching to every 2 weeks to give myself a break. How often does everyone else do?
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familyschoolcare 11:37 AM 04-09-2012
Originally Posted by akpayne:
How often do you switch out your toys? I am trying to come up with some sort of schedule. I have been doing it every week and that is very time consuming so I was thinking of switching to every 2 weeks to give myself a break. How often does everyone else do?
Why a schedgule why not wait untill the children seam bored.
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familyschoolcare 11:38 AM 04-09-2012
Sorry, I realized I did not answer the question. At this time I do not have enougph toys to switch out.
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snbauser 11:40 AM 04-09-2012
Some are changed based on when we change themes while others are changed when I think the kids are tiring of those toys.
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MarinaVanessa 11:44 AM 04-09-2012
Wow, every week is a lot. I switch mine out about every 3 months or so. I used to do it every month but it was a lot of work and my DC kids don't seem to lose interest until about every 3 months or so. I keep all of my toys in bins so even when I do rotate my toys I don't set them all out at once. So one week Ill set a few newly rotated toys out and put the rest aside and the next week I'll swap a bin out etc. so that I never have a bunch of newly rotated toys at once.
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EntropyControlSpecialist 11:46 AM 04-09-2012
Once a month. Just for fun!
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MrsB 11:58 AM 04-09-2012
I definately don't have a schedule IME if I switch them out too much, they tend to focus on a toy too much and it causes too many problems. I store them if I see them get bored with it, or they focus too much on it. I have certain things that are special that I get out if it pertains to our monthly theme. Then they go away at the end of the month and they get switched out with new things for the next monthly theme. I also kind of base it on what level the kids are at, so that the toys are always challenging them. No sense in leaving out a ton of puzzles that they have all mastered. Same with say my princess dresses. My girls are all master princesses and would wear them nonstop all day all the time. So they will get put away for a good chunk of time.

By the way, the princess dresses have been an awesome motivator for potty training the girls. I have 3 that just turned 3 and when I told them they have to use the potty to be able to wear my pretty dresses they are all completely potty trained here at DC. Now home is another story!
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cheerfuldom 12:07 PM 04-09-2012
I rearrange our daycare room every few months and just add new stuff whenever I have it to add. That said, I don't have a huge amount of toys (its all out all the time) and I find that usually kids that are bored, have TOO much toys, not too little....or they dont have the right kind of toys.
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EntropyControlSpecialist 12:09 PM 04-09-2012
I'm actually in the market for some more science based toys. Any ideas?
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akpayne 12:19 PM 04-09-2012
Thanks everyone! They dont seem to get bored of anything, but maybe thats because Im not giving them a chance to. I love the idea of incorporating toys into a theme- what kind of themes have you done?
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snbauser 02:59 PM 04-09-2012
Originally Posted by akpayne:
I love the idea of incorporating toys into a theme- what kind of themes have you done?
Some of my stuff that I rotate are things like I have letter puzzles so rather than overwhelm them with 26 puzzles, I only put out the letters we are working on that month or I have a set of 4 puzzles for the seasons and I only put out the current season. Or for the little animals figures they love to play with in the blocks, I have sets - dinosaurs, farm animals, arctic animals, etc that I put out when we are working on those themes or it is that time of the year. I rotate our books based on what we are studying at the time. I also have different types of manipulative blocks (bristle blocks, duplo's, lincoln logs, magnetic blocks, small colored table blocks, wooden tree blocks, etc) that are only put out 2 or 3 at a time. I don't put all of my dress up or play food out at one time either. I have a bunch of different larger sized trucks that I only put out 2 or 3 at a time. I rotate between our car garage, our wooden train tracks, and our road carpet. I change out our puppets and felt stories based on either the season, interests, or what we are learning about.

I have been lucky enough to get several grants over the 9 years I have been licensed and have become really good at getting donations from my parents and hitting up consignment sales and garage sales to collect what I have.
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cheerfuldom 03:12 PM 04-09-2012
Originally Posted by snbauser:
Some of my stuff that I rotate are things like I have letter puzzles so rather than overwhelm them with 26 puzzles, I only put out the letters we are working on that month or I have a set of 4 puzzles for the seasons and I only put out the current season. Or for the little animals figures they love to play with in the blocks, I have sets - dinosaurs, farm animals, arctic animals, etc that I put out when we are working on those themes or it is that time of the year. I rotate our books based on what we are studying at the time. I also have different types of manipulative blocks (bristle blocks, duplo's, lincoln logs, magnetic blocks, small colored table blocks, wooden tree blocks, etc) that are only put out 2 or 3 at a time. I don't put all of my dress up or play food out at one time either. I have a bunch of different larger sized trucks that I only put out 2 or 3 at a time. I rotate between our car garage, our wooden train tracks, and our road carpet. I change out our puppets and felt stories based on either the season, interests, or what we are learning about.

I have been lucky enough to get several grants over the 9 years I have been licensed and have become really good at getting donations from my parents and hitting up consignment sales and garage sales to collect what I have.
It sounds like you have a great toy selection! I would love to get to the point where I can do toys that follow our themed lessons.
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daycare 03:13 PM 04-09-2012
I change the toys every week at the end of the week when I clean them. Only if the kids seem bored with them. If they love love love the toy, I clean them and then put them back in the daycare.

Other things like my centers, get changed out every other day.

I take note of what they are not using and pull it right away. Otherwise it just sits and takes up space or some kids will dump it...

Also, every month I have a new theme. So I make over the whole room with whatever it is that we are learning about......
at the end of the month away it goes...
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MrsB 07:02 AM 04-10-2012
Originally Posted by snbauser:
Some of my stuff that I rotate are things like I have letter puzzles so rather than overwhelm them with 26 puzzles, I only put out the letters we are working on that month or I have a set of 4 puzzles for the seasons and I only put out the current season. Or for the little animals figures they love to play with in the blocks, I have sets - dinosaurs, farm animals, arctic animals, etc that I put out when we are working on those themes or it is that time of the year. I rotate our books based on what we are studying at the time. I also have different types of manipulative blocks (bristle blocks, duplo's, lincoln logs, magnetic blocks, small colored table blocks, wooden tree blocks, etc) that are only put out 2 or 3 at a time. I don't put all of my dress up or play food out at one time either. I have a bunch of different larger sized trucks that I only put out 2 or 3 at a time. I rotate between our car garage, our wooden train tracks, and our road carpet. I change out our puppets and felt stories based on either the season, interests, or what we are learning about.

I have been lucky enough to get several grants over the 9 years I have been licensed and have become really good at getting donations from my parents and hitting up consignment sales and garage sales to collect what I have.
Things that I put out on a monthly basis that pertain to our theme or what we are learning are books, puzzles, felt board, etc. They usually relate to my theme or what we are learning that month. In addition my sensory bins usually corelate with the theme or holiday.

So last months theme was gardens

I only had out the vegetables and fruit from the play food.
My 2 sensory bins were moon sand w/ sunflower seeds & garden tools and ribbon pieces and silk flowers.
The color was orange so I only put out the orange blocks and the orange cars.

This months theme is space
So I have a bunch of different size rubber balls to play with as planets. In the dramatic play area, I have space suit costumes. I also have a ton of not working walkie talkes that I put out. All week they have been wearing them and I have several card board boxes as their space ships and been talking to on their walkie talkies. If I hear "infinity and beyond" one more time!
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Blackcat31 07:09 AM 04-10-2012
ALL my toys are out and available to the kids at all times.

The only things that are added and removed are things that directly relate to the topic or theme we are currently working on.

But even then, some of the things stay out anyways but we just use them differently. For example, the animals are out at all times. Sometimes though we use them to sort or count and sometimes we use them to talk about baby animals, zoos, habitats, foods they eat etc and all other times the animals are simpy played with during free play in any manner the kids choose.
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