The following is a guest post by my 8-year old son, Salem Becker.
Buying an 8-year old a toy can be tough. It can be a difficult choice for them because there is a lot of new stuff in the toy stores everyday. A kid’s mind changes a lot. We like something one month but something different another month. If you don’t give away toys you don’t need or want, you’ll end up with too many toys.
And having too many toys can be a little bit of a problem. Because…
- It takes too long to pick them up.
- You forget where some of them are.
- You might not have enough room to keep them all.
- If you have too many toys, you might not have space to play with them.
If you need help finding good toys, here are some things you might like…
- Don’t buy really cheap toys. Because they just might break right away like the things that I get with tickets at Pizza Putt. Those toys usually break right away.
- Don’t always buy small toys. Because it’s really easy to lose some.
- Only buy things you really want. Just because your friends have it doesn’t mean you really want it.
- Only buy things you are interested in. For example, if you are going to get a couple of cars, you should get the cars that interest you. If you don’t like tractors, then you shouldn’t get a tractor-car.
- Buy toys that you can play with other people. If you don’t like playing by yourself, get toys that you can play with other people. If you are an only child, you can always play with your parents.
- You should probably buy some video game that you would like. Because if you are by yourself, you can play it by yourself. And if you are having a play date with other people at your house, you can play it with them. But only play it for a certain time – not too much.
Having too many toys is a problem, isn’t it? I hope you find this helpful.
I hope as well that you found his view of the world to be both enjoyable and helpful. And I’m sure he would warmly welcome any comments you might have…
Darcy says
Thank you Salem! My five year old Kieran would also agreed with your wise and knowing advise. If all kids caught on so early, then we might be in a different space with adults having so much stuff.
Also a side note that it is incredible to see in my travels throughout the world what creativity kids have to make so toys out of so little. Most classic is a wheel on a string toy that goes round and round when they run, or using bottles or jugs to make toy cars or sleds. Very fun to see what you can do with so little!
hakem says
thanks salem,
It’s useful, great thinks, great ideas..
Rita C says
This was a terrific post. I read it to my seven year old son. He has too many toys, not enough space to play with all of them, and not enough room to store everything. We have a room dedicated to mostly his stuff. We ended up donating half his toys (with his consent) to a wonderful organization that makes toys available to kids at Christmas time so that they get something. My son felt good about having less stuff to clean up, and I think he felt good about giving to kids that don’t have as much as he does.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your blog post to my son.
LD says
Very impressed with your writing skills. I am going to read your thoughts to my sons who are 5 1/2 and 7 years old. I am working hard to get them to realize the truths that you seem to already know.
Lisa
Marty McAuliff says
Excellent blogging!
#3 is the best reason:
“Just because your friends have it doesn’t mean you really want it.”
Every kid should understand this.
I didn’t when I was a kid and ended up “copying” my friends sometimes and ended up with a bunch of junk I didn’t really like to play with.
(Grown ups ought to learn this rule too, but its even harder for them so its good you know this stuff early.) Good job!
Mike says
Salem – Nice job! Great way to spend a snow day. Hopefully since you wrote your dad’s post, you got to spend more time with him during his day off and your snow day. Like you, I think it is important to only have the toys that you really are going to enjoy. Love your point about getting toys you can do with other people.
As I have traveled to different places in the world were kids have few toys, I have noticed that often the kids with fewer toys are the most happy. They tend to be more creative in playing with what they have, and don’t seem to mind not having the latest toy.
Keep up the great work!
Living the Balanced Life says
Salem,
Great ideas! Sounds like you are a wise kid! My grandson thinks a lot like you! He also finds he likes to just make up games and play with his 5 younger brothers and sisters!
Would love to hear more from you in the future!
Bernice
A break from our regularly scheduled programming…
RLR says
I’m going to let my 7-year-old read this!
Elena says
Salem, Thank you for your wonderful ideas. I am teaching my 5 year old these very lessons. Some of them I have to remind myself!!
Our goal for this week is to fill a few bins for donation. Then organize the rest!
I look forward to reading more from you.
Cheers,
Elena
Steven | TEM says
It’s tough for kid’s nowadays to embrace the minimalist way with all the stuff they have to choose from (wow, I feel so old, I’m 22 and I’m saying “kids nowadays).
:)