Donating Toys to Local Kindergarten

As a parent of two little girls, one of my own concerns is to bring them up to become kind, loving people. And donating toys to kindergarten and other needy children where ever they are, can be one of the great ways to teach children to be kind towards other children, and adults too.

Another reason we are fond of expressing kindness through toy donations is because is fits our desire to cut down on number of toys our children own and in this way, encourage more play.

Kindergarten, Nursary, Day Care Center or Preschool?

Before I move on, I would like to explain something that might get you confused later on:

We live in Croatia and here, what we call kindergarten, is a place where kids age 1 – 6 are during daytime with early education teachers. So, we have under one roof nursery, preschool and kindergarten. Of course, these are different groups with different teachers, and programs for each age group are adjusted. Nevertheless, we have them all gathered under one roof.

Why We Choose to Donate Toys?

You can easily sell most of the well preserved toys, as you are probably aware. However, we like to give back to those who helped us.

My husband and I both work full time and both of our daughters have been signed and attended kindergarten since they were 1 years old. They would spend in kindergarten 5 days a week, 8 hours each day.

Kindergarten was a place they formed their first friendships. I’m sure that teachers in kindergarten knew pretty much everything what was going on in our home. Well, in everyone’s home. It’s like that with kids. Can’t keep anything for themselves, especially if you have 2 little chatty daughters like we do! Yes, we love them! And we know that they have formed a special relationship with their early teachers. And that’s awesome if you ask me!

Include Children in Picking Toys for Donation

Maybe because they spent so much time in kindergarten, we never really had to argue with our kids about donating toys they have overgrown.

First time this was going to happen, we explained what we would like to do and why by saying: “We have quite a lot toys. Some of them are no longer the ones that you play with. We would like to share some with kids in the kindergarten. Would you like to help us pick which one we’ll give other kids so they have great toys to play with?”. And we were on our way to purge our toys and choose the ones that will be given away.

At one point, I even had to stop them because they were piling up toys they still play with!

How to choose a time when to donate toys?

For us, it worked to pick a time when we expect a larger surge of incoming new toys. For example – birthdays and Christmas.

Children for birthdays, and also under the Christmas tree, usually are given toys. This is common especially when it comes to younger children, under age of 10.

For this reason, we encouraged our children to donate toys and ‘make space in their room for new toys’. Another reason that works well for kids.

Before Donating Toys

If you’re interested to donate toys, I would recommend checking directly with kindergarten principal or teachers which toys they would prefer to receive because it’s not the same in all kindergartens / preschools.

Our kindergarten is a public institution and as such, always lack money for most of things they need, including toys.

Which Toys You Can Donate?

What we have donated in the past ranged from:

• board books – they should be in good condition, especially when it comes to flip-a-flap books and similar (those parts tend to be easily damaged),
• building blocks – either plastic or wooden works, just make sure to wash them before donating them,
• wooden puzzles – each puzzle should have all pieces and in case their boxes are damaged, cut out the image puzzles should form and put the image along with puzzle pieces in a ziploc bag,
• extra art supplies like coloring pencils and markers – they don’t have to be complete sets, individual supplies in almost pristine state will be well received,
• play utensils, pots, and pans – anything that can be used in play pretend kitchen, they will welcome even children size kitchen if you don’t need it anymore,
• items for dress-up like masks, purses and scarves.

Things that are not welcome in our kindergarten are plush animals and electronic toys (mostly because they require additional care). Plush toys need regular washing and electronic toys need a regular battery supply.

Another thing I noticed used heavily in kindergarten is paper. Kids love to draw and when you multiply it with number of kids inside each class and number of days they spend there, it comes down to lots of drawing! For this reason, some of the parents who work in the office bring used paper they were to throw away – either papers printed by error, or simply not needed anymore. Since most of these papers are printed on only one side, kids can use the blank back side for their drawings.

But again, you should check with your local kindergarten before bringing toys to their doorsteps.

Of course, all the toys that are going to be donated should be in perfect condition and clean. Best is to pick those that are in “like new” condition.

Other Option for Toy Donations

In case you don’t have kindergarten around, or your kindergarten doesn’t receive gently used toys, here are several other options you could try and ask if they would be open for donation:

• children hospital
• church nursery
• orphanages
• homeless shelters
• teen mom support programs
• domestic violence shelters
• pediatrician / doctor’s office (for waiting rooms)
• early educational programs
• day care center

There are also several online options for donating toys like Toys for Tots and Project Smile.

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Raise a Kind Child!

• Read how other parents encourage their children to grow up kind
• Pick up a printable poster with simple RAK for toddlers and preschoolers

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