The plumber paid us a visit a few weeks ago to work on the kitchen sink. When the job was done, he made his way through the living room on his way to the front door. He stopped, did a double take and looked down at the floor. “Are your kids playing with bottle caps?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yes,” I replied. “I mean, who needs toys anyway?”
The plumber laughed and squatted next to the boys in a very congenial manner so he could get a closer look at the proceedings. My two oldest boys seemed very pleased to have piqued his interest. Joseph began to explain the setup. “Each bottle cap represents an army,” said young Napoleon. “We group them together by color and then pick our armies before the battle starts.” He displayed his favorite, the gold-and-white Stella Artois.
“I’ll be durned,” said the plumber. And then he began to point at random bottle caps. “Yep, I’ve tasted that one,” he said, picking up a green Bud Light Lime top. “Your husband must like that one a lot,” he laughed, gesturing towards a hefty pile of Boulevard Wheat caps.
It was a very special moment.
But it just goes to show you that children don’t really need toys. From infanthood onward they vastly prefer to play with (and destroy) car keys, remote controls, pens and paper, books and magazines, utensils, toilet paper, pet food, and……bottle caps.
And I have to admit, my oldest son is a genius. The clinking sound of the metal caps is quite pleasant, and studying the eclectic assortment of colors, logos and emblems is kind of addicting once you get started. Did I mention that metal is also very durable? And that my son rescued these bottle caps from sitting in a trash heap?
What do your little ones find around the house to amuse themselves with?
Haha. I often tell my husband that I’m done buying toys for Kian. He has toys galore but prefers to play with shoes, my vacuum cleaner attachments (which makes me crazy since I can never find them when I need them), plastic hangers, and a variety of other non-toy items.
Yeah, we say we’re done, too. And then we go to the local toy store “just for fun” and end up leaving with a few bags. What the heck?!? ~Anne
I use to collect bottle caps and but them on my ceiling they use to stick perfectly in the stucco. My 1 year old has more fun playing with the DVDs and the remotes and pots and pans then he does with his actual toys
Lol I love this!!! I know how you feel too. My 2 year old has all the toys in the world yet he always plays with boxes, and is forever trying to plunge the toilet. Yuck lol!
We have a bucket full of toys for my 8 month old boy but his favorite thing to do is pull himself up to the end tables by our couch and try to get whatever is so interesting to us that we wont let him have: the remotes, our drinks, my husbands wallet, our cell phones, he wants whatever he is not supposed to have.
Our girls fight over who gets to play with the empty paper towel/ toilet paper / wrapping paper roll all the time.
Alyca, your comment made me laugh out loud! That’s pretty funny having children fight over cardboard toilet paper rolls. LOL ~Anne
That so creative of your boys! I can’t wait to see what my little one comes up with once he fats older. Right now, his favorite form of entertainment is touching and experiencing different textiles and other surfaces. He just giggles away at the upholstery at restaurants, which is great for us while we eat!
I would agree, however, with an 18-month-old I think she would put all of these things in her mouth. We are lucky because we have an older daughter that has toys and books that we give to her to use – so we have not had to ‘buy’ any toys, or we buy the $1 items for her bath and she used it for other areas. She also though is SSSSOOOO fascinated with pictures on my phone so I just give her my phone for her to look them over and then the free apps off of there, too. It cost some to get the tablets, but when I am not using it (which is often) I give it to her to play with the free apps. Thanks for the post, though, it is so true!
That’s so cute that she’s into the free apps! I just have a very adorable picture in my mind of a little 18-month-old girl and her phone. LOL Thanks for stopping by, Alison! ~Anne
I guess I should be collecting our extra bottle caps!
I was just thinking about doing a toy removal experiment with my kids. My sister put away a lot of toys for Christmas and they didn’t even notice or ask for them. I’m thinking I’ll put all but the most special away and make appropriate household items more available for play and see how it goes. We used to spend everyday at my grandmother’s, and the things I most remember playing with were buttons and old curtains [we tied them to make dress up clothes.]
Isn’t that amazing how quickly they forget how much stuff they have…..or need?
I have saved bottle caps for future craft projects, but I like this idea instead!
My youngest has taken an interest in matching and grouping things…so I am sure he would love to play with them. My kids have way too many toys, in fact, I gotten rid of some yesterday and I felt so relieved to see some of that stuff go.
This is a great idea! My oldest loves to play with “real” things. Every morning when he gets dressed he puts of his watch (an old broken one of my husbands that he sized to fit our son), his money in his pocket (a couple pennies), and his phone (an old broken cell phone). He wears/carries this stuff with him all day long. He loves to play with real tools and real keys, ect. He is only 3:)