Top Highlights

• It is quieter when the insistent noise of popular culture, competition, and consumerism are turned down several notches.
• We did the same with books, packing and labeling the majority of them for storage, and leaving five or six of favorites, lined neatly on a shelf by Marie’s bed.
• we carefully added some. In one of the baskets we put a stack of brightly colored fabric pieces, some rope, and clothespins. We also made sure Marie had a table her size, a large drawing pad, and a box of big crayons. We gathered, washed, and folded an assortment of dress-up clothes that we put in one empty basket.
• children given so very many choices learn to undervalue them all, and hold out—always—for whatever elusive thing isn’t offered.
• One principle is vitally important, and it will be your most trusted guide to simplifying your child’s toys. Ask yourself, “Is this a toy my child can pour their imagination into, or is it too ‘fixed?” By “fixed” I mean is it already too finished, and detailed, too much of one—and only one—thing? Does it “do everything,” or can a child change it, m...