When registering for baby items for my twins, I was gravitating towards matching toys, but, luckily, my common sense told me otherwise.  We received different bouncy seats, swings, johnny jump ups and other small toys and this worked well because when they got bored, we could just swap toys and they were ready to play all over again.  The only identical items we got were the exersaucers and playmats.  When they got bored, they just got bored and we had to move onto other things.  Any mom of multiples can tell you that the short period of time they are occupied with these toys is important for us to be able to cook, clean, do laundry, etc.  When you have bored multiples, you can’t get any of that done and keep up with toddlers who are exploring or young babies who are crying.

When you have multiples, your toys multiply as well and with good reason.  In addition to the benefit of being able to swap toys, you have the opportunity for your children to explore a variety of different toys together and individually.  Also, if you have one riding car and three kids who want to ride it, that is just a recipe for disaster!  We have found that two riding cars and two push toys have been the best gifts for them.  They literally will chase each other around for hours on end and will stop, switch toys and take off again.  They have also already learned to negotiate the toy swap and to learn that, even if the other one doesn’t want to swap, they still have a similar toy to play with.

This doesn’t mean that I suggest having a two of every toy.  After all, they need to learn the importance of sharing, playing together and playing separately.  Some of the items that we have chosen to buy by itself have included alphabet blocks, stacking blocks, little people accessories, the Peek-a-Block Incrediblock and musical instruments.  They usually do well playing and sharing with these.  When there is a disagreement, we have turned into a learning experience so that they know they can’t take toys away from each other or keep all the toys to themselves.

We also keep a wide variety of books on hand.  Sometimes they want to read at the same time and sometimes one reads while the other one plays. When I am reading to them, I have them take turns bringing me books and they both sit on my lap at the same time.

While we try to buy them individual gifts for special occasions, they always end up sharing them.  For now, we have not entered into the “mine” stage.  This summer we are going to put a sandbox, playhouse and climb and slide in the yard.  Again, we thought this would be great since they can play together or separately, whatever they choose.

As you prepare to register for toys your multiples or head to the store to buy toys, I hope you find these tips helpful.  It is good to mix up the toys and have a variety of the same type of toys as well as not duplicating some of the toys.  You want them to be happy and learn to play well together, with others and by themselves.  Much of this is learned by how they play at home.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006 at 4:51 am and is filed under Multiples. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.