Toys! Toys! Toys!

In Connor's bedroom are four toy bins: little cars, big cars, Super Heros, and Pets (stuffed animals). Inevitabley they become intermixed, and when Connor is trying to find a particular toy, he dumps all four bins on the floor, finds the toy he is looking for, and leaves the rest. When we ask him to clean his room, the toys go into whatever bin is closest to him. When he is finished, some bins are so full they have toys bulging out of them while other bins are completely empty. I try to ignore it, but when I've had enough of the mess, I go in his room and reorganize everything.

This morning I decided that he would help with the reorganization. I dumped the contents of all four bins on the floor and set the bins in a row.

"Little cars, big cars, Super Heros, and Pets," I told him, indicating which bin each would go in. I also set out a basket for toys that he wanted to get rid of (ha ha!).

Connor tossed a tractor into a bin. "This bin will be for tractors," he announced.

"No, that needs to go with medium cars. We only have four bins."

"Well, here's a little tractor, and they need to go together. I want to keep them together."

"Fine," I said. "Make a pile for tractors."

"Well, here's a truck," he said, picking up a logging truck. "Where can it go?"

"Why don't you put it with the tractors? That can be a pile for all work vehicles."

He considered it, then put the truck next to the tractors.

Ten minutes later we had sorted the small cars into race cars, cars, trucks, construction trucks, and other trucks. Connor picked up two orange cars and placed them next to each other.

"This can be a pile for orange cars," he said.

"Well, you need to decide if you want to sort them by type or color. Which do you want?"

"Color," he said emphatically.

"Ok, color it is," I said.

"Well, where can this car go?" he asked, picking up a multi-colored car.

"Just pick a pile, Connor," I said, feeling my patience wearing thin.

Connor decided on the orange pile, and carefully placed it next to the other orange cars. Then he picked up another orange car and studied it intently for several minutes. Finally he declared, "Well, this is really navy-orange, but it can go in the orange pile."

I laughed.

"Mom, we can combine the colors," he decided, pushing the line of yellow cars next to the line of orange cars. Then, pushing the line of red cars next to the line of orange cars, he announced "We can make a square! Or a diamond!"

At this point I realized it had become a game, and rather than organizing them he was play. So we went back to the original four bins. And an hour later, there is still a pile of toys in the middle of his room.