Plastic animals, I mean.

If your house is like mine, it’s teeming with plastic play animals of all kinds. Several different scales….not all matching….some old, some new….some with paint printed in the wrong places. Yet kids for some reason love these little molded plastic creatures, and for that reason, we have lots of them.

I bought three bags of plastic dinos for our prehistoric unit last year. One of G’s great-grandparents gave him a massive box full of zoo and safari animals. And then there are the random animals gained (or passed down) from fast food meals, cereal boxes, and grocery store vending machines.

Instead of having them spread all over the house in several toyboxes, gathering dust in the corners of these huge receptacles, I thought it might be fun to gather them all up together and put them into one spot.

I found an extra wooden toy crate and filled it up with every animal I could find, even the fish scattered within the net bathtub toy bags.

Would you believe it? The kids have been playing with this box o’ animals for five days straight. It’s as if they’ve never seen these toy animals before. There’s role playing, wild animal fighting among couch cushions, and even a school of scaly fish to keep the Ariel doll company. I have big plans involving a homemade backyard zoo, exhibits filled with all these little plastic guys. And let’s not forget the power of this combination: Plastic animals and Play-Doh.

New toys aren’t always the answer. Sometimes a little rearranging and moving around is all that it takes!