Anyway.
Part of this purging was going through the girls' toys. My goodness, they had a lot of toys. That right: HAD. I involved them in the purging process and they willingly said goodbye to many toys that they no longer played with. Did my best to explain that their old toys would go to a place where children who didn't have any toys would have access to them. Hopefully we're getting the idea of charity across.
So as we went through the girls' toys, the thought crossed my mind several times that maybe a gift-giving suggestion list might be a good idea for me to post. Feel free to ignore it if you so desire or if you don't find the list helpful.
Gift Guide:
1. Homeschooling text books. (Email me if you want a list. Oh yes, I have a list.)2. Wooden blocks--the shaped kind, not the alphabet kind. We already have the alphabet ones.
3. Dress up clothes--hats, gloves, fancy scarves, fancy dresses, fancy shoes, capes, masks, fabulous costume jewelry. Miss Bubbly wants a Peter Pan costume, a pirate costume, and a cowboy costume for her next birthday--she's mentioned this several times in the past three months.
4. A chest to put all the dress up clothes in!
5. A globe. The one we have now is three inches in diameter--it's not easy to point out countries like Uzbekistan...can't see the name.
6. Quality art supplies--good paint brushes, paints, paper, colored pencils, and so forth. And a box to put them in.
7. Books, books, glorious books!
8. Bookshelves. (Just kidding.)(Mostly.)
9. Movies! Specifically, the kids love Toy Story 2 (Miss Bubbly would watch it every day if she could), the Barbie movies (which are smarter than you'd think they'd be), Kung Fu Panda, and Meet the Robinsons.
10. Toys that allow the imagination to soar, crafts to stretch their creation skills, that kind of thing.
11. Stickers. I hate to say this, because then they end up all over the house, but the kids love them. Foam stickers especially.
12. Clothing, of course!
13. Anything handmade. We like reasons to be sentimental about gifts.
I really hope this guide is helpful. If it is, let me know and I'll keep it updated. Well, as updated as I keep things.
Anyway, so now we've got a manageable cache of possessions and nothing extra, which is nice. I like having closets that actually have a little wiggle room in them. (I should probably work on paring down my costume collection next. Gulp.) And look for pictures in the next entry! Miss Bubbly's been amusing herself with foam stickers and impersonating The Joker from The Dark Knight (not that she was aware of it).
4 comments:
This list is a good idea. My husband and I started on-going lists as google docs. That way, we can save it and keep updating and any time someone needs to see it, we can just send the link and give permission. Just thought I'd toss that in there for you. :)
Great list...I am paring down our dress up collection, maybe we will send some things your way!
My m-i-law had all these crazy clothes that she dumped on us, so they all went into a barrel - old costumes and actual grown-up dresses, capes, scarves - and my kids did every Halloween for fifteen years out of that thing.
I hear you on the million toys. I threw away about 3 giant bags of toys. Also, the wooden blocks are the BEST. They've been our favorite toys since we found them at a thrift store and bought as many as we could.
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