When It Comes to My Kid’s Toys, I Went Back to Basics and Here’s Why

Hiding toys from yourself is a skill. It should be listed front and center on the motherhood resume. Like, below “creates magic” but above “snack dispenser.” Mainly because, in my house and I suspect yours too, toys are everywhere.

Once you have kids, family and friends consider your house an upcycled utopia for toys, rarely stopping by with empty hands. After they depart, the neon thing with blinking lights and the banshee singing voice will take up shop in a bin or a basket, dropped someplace where you plan to step. And then? Never to be played with again.

Guidelines For The Purge of Flashy Trash

I knew life with three kids all under five was going to be bananas. I wanted to scale down and find a way to be more intentional about the toys surrounding us after just giving birth. As a family of five, I didn’t want the kids’ toys to overtake our space but instead complement our lives — which is to say it’s not the number of toys that matters to me, but the quality.

Ideally, toys in our home could be used at a variety of ages and stages (let’s call this: sibling collabs) and should teach them something. And, of course, the toys should be fun. To begin my purge, anything that didn’t rise to the occasion of fun, appropriate, not broken, and wouldn’t turn my kids into emotional tornadoes if I removed it, had to go.

Basic Doesn’t Have to be BASIC

We’ve long been fans of the Montessori-inspired Play Kits by Lovevery. I kicked off our subscription when my second son, Marcus, was mid-way through his first year. Something I didn’t anticipate was my older son, Russell, loving the collections too. Toys by Lovevery have been a staple in our house ever since.

With the purge finished under the cloak of darkness, it’s like Lovevery knew I was also looking for the kind of toy that would occupy two busy boys and — I say this in the most loving way — keep them away from their freshly baked baby sister. Trying to find your groove as an expanding family will give you whiplash.

The Block Set By Lovevery

Created for kids 18 to 48+ months, Lovevery’s new Block Set is perfect for my boys who are two and a half years apart. With 70 pieces (don’t panic; they all fit neatly into a bag or a box that converts into a pull car) that work in conjunction with one another, kids have more than 20 stage-based activities they can do with the Block Set — which adds up to years of play.

Blocks are fundamentally essential for the growth and development of young minds. Plus, for many of us, blocks are our first introduction to STEM — kids can stack, roll, count, build, sort, connect, and categorize their blocks in a variety of ways that range in complexity. The Block Set by Lovevery is not filled with dull cubes or the magnetic kind that seem cool up until you realize they don’t teach your kid physics — you know, that things fall down.

The Block Set’s wood pieces come in 18 different rainbow hues, and also include — like I mentioned above — a wooden storage box that converts into a pull car, tiny wooden people, a cotton bag for flexible storage, and a stage-based activity guide that gives parents suggestions on how to introduce their children to the fundamentals of blocks.

That’s Great But What Do The Kids Think?

The Block Set isn’t just a hit with my boys, but also with Marcus’ friend, Lola. On a recent playdate I brought out the Block Set and the kids went to TOWN. It was all smiles, a lot of sharing (I know, right) some independent play, and exactly zero infant sisters harmed in the process of two happy toddlers playing with the kind of energy normally reserved for rocket launches.

I’m happy we’re back to basics — building blocks, car pulls, and nothing in sight with flashing lights. My sons (and I’m not even the least bit shocked by this) have not asked about the toys that no longer occupy our house. It turns out, we really did not need them at all.

The Block Set by Lovevery is quite possibly the most comprehensive block set ever designed. With over 70 pieces and 20+ stage-based activities, The Block Set is designed by childhood development experts for years of learning. Buy The Block Set now.