Dear Marianne: My husband and I have 2 daughters ages 3 and 5. They have so many toys and it's hard for me to get rid of them because so many of them are from family and friends but it's overwhelming! I think they have too many toys-do you have any suggestions of how many toys a kid plays with in a day and how many do they really need? I don't remember having so many toys as a child-just a few favorites. Then it's hard to get them to clean up b/c I think it overwhelms them. What do you think? Phil and Angie, Blue Springs, MO, parents of Marlee 5 and Jaimee 3
Toy Tips® Ratings measure the effectiveness of stimulating a particular developmental skill on a measurement scale of 1 to 5.
1 being acceptable and 5 being exceptional.
Toy
Tips®
introduces our newest contributing editor, Spencer
Christian, the most famous TV Weather Guy. Marianne
and Spencer met on the set of Good Morning America in
1993 while doing toy segments together for the show.
Now, they are back together testing "weather"
toys and providing Spencer's weather lessons for kids.
Read Spencer's latest column <here>
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our readers. If you
ever have a comment,
question or concern,
please email me at
marianne@toytips.com
Thanks for caring
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Marianne
Toy Tips to Parents: Time to Unplug
Don't over stuff the toy box with tech toys. When is technology too much technology?
While tech toys are popular and some can be educational, the latest round of newcomers at Toy Fair makes it clear we're going too far into technology assisted play. It seems technology now permeates almost every kind of toy category on the toy shelves. Parents run the risk of stocking the playroom with items that undermine the important developmental aspects of childhood play.
