As I have mentioned before, I am not the perfect housewife. Couple that with my husband's previous job as a toy salesperson, my old career as a teacher, our inability to throw anything away, and you will find our home is full of great toys, scattered around in little piles.

Well that was the case until a few weeks ago. My husband and children all went to bed early, and I found myself in a house, with plenty of energy and little to do. What better time for a spring clean! I scrubbed and cleaned all the surfaces, and turned my attention to the toys.

I spent several hours organising them and grouping them, putting away the toys that were no longer appropriate (rattles and shakers) and placed matching sets into plastic containers.

Then as a finishing touch I placed one set of toys out on the floor and went to sleep. The next morning an interesting thing occurred. My normally TV-mad kids stopped in their tracks when they saw the toys so neatly laid out. No television came on that morning.

All day my children enjoyed playing with their things, opening up boxes, and sorting through their things. And I loved seeing how much more they got out of their toys.

Since then I have refined things a little. I now will make sure the living room is clean most evenings before I go to bed - and I set up a different activity each night for the children to use when they awake.

If I get out the duplo, I open up the box and set out some of the pieces ready to go. I might add a few farm animals and set it up to look like a toy farm. Or perhaps I will set out the doll's house, with a few little cups and saucers for the children to play house at.

Trying out new ways of sorting the toys has helped me realise so much of the effectiveness of our children's learning depends on an ordered environment.

As a messy and creative person, this tends to go outside of my comfort zone. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I will need to place a little more structure into our play, just as I have with our duties and daily routines. This makes the children more settled and they know what is happening. They also look after things much better.

Of course for many people, this is not new information. I admire those people who already know to organise the cars in one bag, and the dolls in the other. However, I do think leaving a toy or game out ready to go is an important part of the playing solution.

If you have a child like one of mine who finds it difficult to select a task, leaving out equipment helps them focus. It also prevents them from expecting television to be their chief source of entertainment.
I have noticed another important side benefit. I have always found playing with the children creatively difficult.

I love doing learning activities and reading books, but play has been difficult to master. Since tidying the toys I feel much more confident about involving myself in the children's play. It must be the tidier room!

Rachel Goodchild is a parent, educator and the author of Teaching Children the Joy of Reading by TCPublishing

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