How long do you leave your child's (playmobil lego etc) creations?

[Outdoorsy Type]

I struggle with this. I have a friend with an always immaculate house. I know one reason is because her kids have to pick up all toys at lunch and before dinner.

 

With my kids, I feel guilty making them dismantle the Playmobil or Lego worlds they create. I also don't like telling them that Playmobil can NOT be played with at the same time as, say, Lincoln Logs. The problem is that clutter grows. Before long I feel like we can no longer HS in the HS/play room because it's too disorganized. Then I spend hours with the kids picking it all up and organizing it. :tongue_smilie:

 

So, what do you do at your house? :bigear:

[Moniksca]

We pick up toys before dinner and then before bed. I don't clean during school time so things may look crazy during school time but I'm busy schooling so I can't be bothered with the mess. They are allowed to keep their creations until the end of the day then it needs to be put away. ds has a shelf in his room where he often keeps his lego creations. He also got an 1100 pc ninjago set recently and that has been sitting on our dinner table. It took us so long to build that I'm unwilling to take it apart.

[West Coast Mom]

As long as they are actively building or playing with their creations daily, I let them stay out. They go on binges of building and playing for days on end (in between school work and life activities) and packing it up twice a day kills the creative nature of their play. When they’ve stopped with their current infatuation with building, I make them clean it up. Any favorite creations can go on their shelves in their bedroom.

 

However, we don’t homeschool in their play area. If we did, I’d probably have a problem with the mess and want to contain it. I’d find a way to let them keep it out, but limit it to a corner of the room. Or, make them build in their bedrooms, on the porch, or somewhere else. I like to see them really dive into their building endeavors and I make a way to allow for it. Our main rule, since we have babies in the house, is that Lego and other smaller building materials are not allowed downstairs.

 

ETA: As for the immaculate house - never going to happen around here. Picked up, neat, clean - yes. Immaculate - not in this season of life.

Edited November 2, 2011 by slpchris
Adding info

[Xanadu]

Each of my kids has a clear rubbermaid type container they place a selection of legos in to build with and *constructed* items are placed in the same container to move from the living area to a shelf in their room....If its too big I offer to help move...If it falls apart mid move they learn an important engineering fact...:lol:

 

Seriously though...my kids know to build where it won't interfere with living/schooling area (at least for big things) and if they do (they ask first) then they need to clean up all the remaining pieces and remove the smaller constructed items when finished.

 

We have 4 of those 3 drawer carts filled with legos (My son inherited all his uncle's legos, plus he's been getting them for years so it has added up) All the carts are color coded (all the red pieces in one, yellow in another and so forth) When they want to build they take their clear container over, fill it with a selection and build...(After a while when their individual clear container is overflowing they have to sort back at least 1/2 into the the rolling carts)

 

This keeps the legos organized, the kids don't argue about someone else touching their legos/builds ect....They are able to clean up after themselves and I don't have to deal with tears over me destroying one of their creations......They've learned if its left out I toss it into the *to be sorted* pile without much care for all the hard work. After happening once to each kid they've never left another creation just lying around.

 

Playmobile is another story...Every few weeks I take out all the playmobile (they pick either egyptian or romans since those are the 2 sets we have) I set everthing up on the long formal dining room table (only table big enough for everything) and I let them play with it for a few days. (which they do almost non stop) when I see interest waning, I pack everything up....and pull it out again in 2-3 weeks. Its just too much stuff to have out all the time...there is no place for it, and when we tried the playmobile bin we lost important pieces and had parts all over the house and my vacuum cleaner...This just works better for us.

[Guest submarines]

I struggle with this. I have a friend with an always immaculate house. I know one reason is because her kids have to pick up all toys at lunch and before dinner.

 

With my kids, I feel guilty making them dismantle the Playmobil or Lego worlds they create. I also don't like telling them that Playmobil can NOT be played with at the same time as, say, Lincoln Logs. The problem is that clutter grows. Before long I feel like we can no longer HS in the HS/play room because it's too disorganized. Then I spend hours with the kids picking it all up and organizing it. :tongue_smilie:

 

So, what do you do at your house? :bigear:

 

I'm like you. I don't like limiting their creativity, and I never understood the "only one toy at a time" rule.

 

If it takes you hours to tidy up, you might want to rethink how the toys are organised. When it gets too cluttered. I takes me 15-20 minutes to toss the toys back to where they belong.

[JenneinCA]

I allow their creations to stay out as long as they fit on the train table. Basically the train table is their creation space and anything goes there. The floor is fine during the day, but everything must fit on the train table at night.

[abbeyej]

A "play table" was one of our best kid-purchases *ever*. Playmobil or Legos can stay out on it for as long as kids care to have it. But those pieces *only* live *on* the table or in the bins underneath. The mess is completely contained, but it gives kids the freedom to be creative over a longer period of time.