You don't need expensive toys

I used to buy my kids a heap of stuff. It is so tempting to want to give them everything but now they are at an age where I want to encourage their imagination and scale down on all the usual toys. Since doing up their new bedrooms (almost done now) I took all their toys out to the container outside and now that it is time to bring some of them back I am thinking very hard about what I want to give them. Especially since I have seen the valuable use of imagination since they have not had many toys inside.

I don't regret giving them a lot of toys when they were little. I think it is important for toddlers to have toys to help their with motor skills and to help them develop their imagination and also to give me a break from constant entertaining, but now that they know how to share, they have great imaginations and they have developed their own individual likes, the toys I give the kids will be selected a lot more carefully.

We bought the trampoline before winter last year so they could get some exercise during the cold months and they spend a lot of time on it. The only mistake was buying all the netting that went around it because our place gets too windy and it kept blowing away.