WFMW - Toy Swap

Here in Israel a favorite end-of-the-year activity is the class toy swap. Each child brings in a bag full of odds and ends they no longer want and sets up their own stand. All the children then start swapping and bargaining to their hearts' content, coming home with a weird and wonderful variety of "new to them" toys. It's all run by the children themselves. They decide what they're willing to swap for each item and do all their own negotiating (this is the Middle East after all, they're born negotiators).

Yesterday it was our turn to host our weekly playgroup. This group of kids, now ages 5-8, has been playing together since they were babies and has reached a level of comfort and independence that allows the moms to kick back and relax (or take care of the littlies that have come along over the years.)

When my son asked if we could do a playgroup toy swap I jumped at the idea and encouraged him to fill 2 BIG bags with stuff to trade (hey, I'm no dummy. And, I filled up an entire giant hefty bag of trash while I was at it too!). And with that my involvement ended. The kids all trouped in, bags in hand. To keep the chaos to a minimum (and to reduce the danger of small chokable objects spreading out to where the babies were) we had them set up their stations in my son's room, where they then spent the next 2 hours wildly trading back and forth, and all of it completely on their own. They had a ball, got rid of a load of junk their mothers were tired of looking at, and came home happily toting bags of new things to keep them occupied this summer.

Best of all, Itai ended up with less than he started with. He's happy with his new haul, and I'm delighted with all the decluttering I managed to do. Definitely win-win!

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