When my husband’s brother moved his family out here just over a year ago, I decided I needed to make our home a kid-friendly place.   Since we don’t have kids, we didn’t have anything for our nephews to entertain themselves with — but what we DID have was plenty of stuff that we DIDN’T want them getting into.

We learned that the hard way the first time they came over.   After that, we bought some toys for them, and set up a play area on the finished side of the basement.

I don’t think very highly of the types of toys their parents get for them — toy guns, what I fondly refer to as “noisy toys” (toys that have one purpose, and that is to make noise and annoy the adults), balls, and cars.  Tons of toys,  but nothing particularly wholesome.

So when we bought toys to keep at our house for the boys, we made sure to get some better quality toys, stuff that would teach them to use their imaginations and their brains.  For instance, I found wooden toys such as the old wooden blocks I used to play with as a kid, puzzles, books, and other stuff like that.

We also try to give them high-quality toys for birthdays and Christmas.  For example, last Christmas we gave them some kids furniture, since they didn’t have any (any!) furniture the right size for a 3 and a 4 year old.  I’d found a nice kids’ table and chair set on Craigslist, and spent time sanding and repainting it for them.

Our nephews obviously appreciate it very much.  When we visited last weekend, the older boy actually asked us to take him home with us so that he could play with our toys!

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