Toy Library - get fresh educational toys each month

Do your children only play with their newest toys? Are there toys that are still "developmentally appropriate" for them sitting on the shelf, totally ignored just because they've had them for several months? Are you frustrated by how quickly your children get tired of their toys - and by the high cost of the toys that are most beneficial for them?

All these reactions are perfectly normal and understandable. In fact, your children's reactions are appropriate, and even beneficial - because they can learn more from new toys than from familiar toys, they spend more time with the toys that are new. Catering to this preference for new toys is one way we can help our children's brains develop optimally and learn faster. How can we do this without breaking the bank and filling our homes with toys that aren't being used?

The Toy Library is an attempt to answer this need. Families can purchase an annual membership which will enable them to check out toys worth up to a certain amount (determined by membership level) for one month. Members will gather once a month to check in toys, socialize while toys are being sorted, and then select toys to check out. By purchasing a membership to the Toy Library, you guarantee your family a steady stream of new toys all year - toys that would take 9-12 times the money to buy.

"Toys are important, but sheer number matters much less than variety. The trick to effectively stimulating a child is to stay one step ahead of his or her habituation, which is incredibly potent, even early in infancy. It's a good idea, therefore, to rotate different toys and play materials every week or so. Put them away if you can, or at the very least, move them from one room to another; that old Duplo set takes on new life when it suddenly appears on the kitchen table. An even better trick is to trade toys with friends or neighbors. With just a little creativity, parents can find plenty of ways to stimulate their children without breaking the bank on new toys.

-- Lise Elliot, Ph.D., neuroscientist and author of What's Going on in There? : How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life

The Toy Library stocks a wide variety of non-electronic, evidence-based toys that help children learn and develop skills in developmentally-appropriate ways. Toys are sturdy, well-maintained, and clean. Classics like blocks and other building toys, manipulatives, and other educational toys are included; members' suggestions of toys they would like to see included in the Library are gladly accepted.

Our selection expands frequently. Some examples of toys that are or will be included in the Library are:

• Rattles
• Tummy time toys
• Baby "gyms" for back time
• Toys for crawlers to chase
• Walkers
• Stacking towers
• Shape sorters
• Blocks
• Legos
• Duplos
• Other building toys
• Alphabet blocks
• Puzzles, all the way from chunky puzzles with large pegs to 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles -- won't it be nice to be able to rotate through a selection of appropriate puzzles instead of choosing only one or two to buy?
• Manipulatives
• Musical instruments
• "Play silks" and other fabrics and streamers for children to dance with
• Peg board
• Lacing cards and beads
• Small pitchers (to practice pouring)
• Montessori vocabulary and phonics cards
• "Child-sized Masterpieces" - classic works of art on cards children can handle and look at, with activity suggestions
• Math activities and ideas
• Games requiring strategy