Is your playroom feeling a little cluttered? My kids love playing together and collecting toys. Our toy bins can get pretty full when we have just a few toys from a variety of sets. I like to encourage my kids to collect specific toy sets and limit the toy clutter. Here are a few reasons why it can be very helpful to collect high quality toys.
Learn how to take care of nice things
My girls love their American Girl dolls, which is special because I also played with American Girl characters when I was younger. The American Girl collection includes dolls, outfits, accessories, books and even building play sets. Each American Girl story highlights valuable character qualities and many introduce girls to specific eras of history.
When my girls have a few nice things, they tend to take care of their toys better and enjoy them more. For example, my girls keep their American Girl dolls displayed on a shelf when they aren’t playing with them. I teach my girls how to clean up after playtime by organizing all their doll accessories in a storage bin. We organize their 18″ American Girl doll clothes and shoes in one bin. Their 14″ WellieWishers outfits and accessories go in another bin. My kids definitely benefit from learning how to organize their toys!
Collect toys in the same set
Also, toy sets can be much more meaningful together than separately. Instead of having a collection of ponies, bears, dolls and licensed characters from kids TV shows, it’s a lot more fun to build one toy collection. My girls often add to their American Girl collection with gifts from their birthdays and holidays. I encourage our family members to give our kids gifts that help them build their toy collections. My son enjoys collecting Legos and wooden trains. Parents can help their kids choose toys to collect which fit within their interests and stage of life.
Save up to add to your collection
My girls are old enough now to understand the value of saving up for toys. Teaching kids how to save their money is a valuable skill. When my daughter wants to buy something, I typically ask her if she thinks the purchase is a good value. In this way, my daughter is able to evaluate her purchases and intentionally expand her toy collection, rather than spending money on impulse buys.
Get excited about new releases
One of my favorite things about the American Girl collection is their historical doll releases. Each collectible doll release often includes several sets of darling outfits, accessories and even furniture. I’ve always thought that everything from American Girl is great quality and beautifully detailed. My girls also love collecting the 14″ WellieWishers seasonal outfits and accessory play sets. Of course, they love looking through the American Girl catalog. American Girl sets are great birthday gifts because any new accessories coordinate with my girls’ existing doll collections.
Make memories that outlast playtime
Finally, kids will make lots of memories while collecting a toy set, and they can give their collection to their own kids someday. I still have many of my old toys, which my girls now play with. My girls are blessed to be close in age and able to play together. While I don’t often play pretend, I enjoy making custom doll outfits and accessories for my girls to play with. These DIY doll mermaid tails are a simple sewing project anyone can make!
The American Girl Collection
My girls absolutely love the 14″ WellieWishers doll collection from American Girl. Since the WellieWishers release in 2016, American Girl has added several rounds of new outfits and accessories to their collection. The 5 pals Ashlyn, Camille, Emerson, Kendall and Willa are fun to take on an outdoor adventure with this adorable camping set! The set comes with a WellieWishers tent, lantern and s’mores supplies. The WellieWishers pals can take their sleeping bags (sold separately) out for a night under the stars.
Of course, the American Girl BeForever dolls also come with their own outfits and accessories inspired by historical time periods. American Girl stories are an interactive way to learn about history as girls explore each character’s world.
Finally, girls will enjoy building these American Girl Mega Construx play sets. Each WellieWishers play sets comes with building instructions and beautifully detailed pieces. Girls can use these play sets to create imaginative storylines with the miniature characters.
American Girl offers something for everyone! I love watching my girls play with these timeless toys. We make special memories when I help them dress up their dolls or we design custom American Girl accessories. For special occasions, American Girl dolls, outfits and accessories are great gift ideas too!
Hi, I’m Katie! I live with my husband and 3 kids in beautiful Coeur d’Alane, Idaho. I love Jesus, coffee, DIY projects, photography, homeschooling my kids, traveling, and serving people. I’ve previously worked as a graphic designer, web designer, journalist and barista. I started Create. Play. Travel. to share some of our creative projects and family adventures. I hope you enjoy the highlights of our creative family life!
Love this post! Brings back happy memories of when I was a child and used to collect things like Sylvanian Families and trolls 🙂 x
Teaching our kids to collect toys and How to value things are really important for kids nowadays.
If I was a little girl today, I know I would be totally about collecting the American Girl dolls. These are super cute and I know my nieces love to collect them as did our daughters when they were younger.
Collecting is always a fun hobby! My son loves collecting too! I remember collecting beanie babies when I was younger 😂
This is so true and something I really need to take to heart. My daughter is almost 8 and she has so many toys, but she can never find ones she wants and she can never keep things nice. Thank you for these helpful tips!
i remember these dolls from when i was a kid. they’ve really come a long way since then!
I don’t have children yet but parents with kids would really benefit from these tips!
What a fun post! I encouraged my kids to too and my daughter loved collecting the historic American Girls.
I didn’t realize how popular American Girl dolls are. I know a few people that collect unique toys. I think collecting toy sets is a cool idea and great investment!
These dolls are so adorable. Seems like your kids have so much fun!
My kiddos love collectible toys. I love brands who offer a collection with multiple price brackets, so my kids can add to their collections with pocket money and save bigger items for special occasions.
These dolls are beautiful! My children don’t really need to be encouraged, my boy is a natural collector, he loved to have all the cars of the Disney movie Cars, and also played a lot with them! I have to encourage him to actually play because he would spend the time to clean them and put them on display all neatly like a museum!! LOL (he’s only 6!! and he’s been collecting since age 3)
Those are very nice tips to share with. I totally agree with you! Great to teach kids collecting toys and learn how to value each piece.
Collecting toys is so much fun. I always encourage my kids to collect toys because it can help them to be close to each other.
I hadn’t thought about the benefits of collecting toys before. I have two younger sisters and could totally see them doing this.
That actually makes a lot of sense, especially since the kids will “bond” better if their toys are part of a bigger collection. And by bonding they’ll also look after their toys. Wish I’d thought about that when my kids were small.
These are great tips. I actually bought toys for my kids not only because I want them to play with their toys but I want them to learn how to take care and value their things.
These are so cute! My daughter loves American Girl. You’re right it does teach them a lot!
Amazing advice! Instilling these values in the kids is very important. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent advice, and you’re right – it is important to teach kids to value things. Fantastic idea to collect the toys.
I think toy collections are a great idea. It wasn’t until my kids started collecting the toys (or Pops! in one case) that they really started to value their things.