Use Every Piece

Some fun new ways to play with old toys

ADDED July 06, 2008

One big goal of this site is to breathe new life into existing "stuff." That is, we don't want you to buy new toys to keep the kids occupied. Rather, we want you to find new fun ways to use and enjoy the stuff you already have!

This activity is meant to do just that, to help your kids have more fun with the stuff already in your house. It will work well with any toy that has a lot of different pieces: Legos, Tinker Toys, blocks, train tracks, etc.

There are three different things to do here: Sections, Use Every Piece, and How do you put them away?

First, don't just take the toys out of their container. Even that can be part of the fun and the learning. Instead, make sections. Group all the rectangular pieces together in a area, and then all the square ones, all the round ones, etc. Or make sections based on another characteristic, such as the pieces' colors. If you guys are so inclined, count how many pieces each section has. And sometimes you might suggest playing with one section only. ("What can we make today with just the red pieces?" for instance.)

Once the sections have been created and inspected, you're ready to move onto the second part, Use Every Piece. This one is pretty self explanatory (what you do is . . . use every piece.) However, it isn't as easy as it sounds -- it can in fact be quite challenging. The tower (or house or castle, or whatever) isn't finished until your kid has used every piece! So your kids really need to figure out what to do with each piece and how to fit it into the construction.

Finally, and this last one is quite popular with parents everywhere: How do you put them away? You can put the big pieces away, then the small ones. You can make a different animal noise for each different piece you put in. You can put toys away fast, or you can put them away slowly and carefully. There are a lot of options here -- and it will be a success, as long as the kids are the ones doing the putting away!

Have fun (with what you've already got)!

ages 3-12, educational, good at home, longer activity,