Frankston Toy Library, a wonderful service

My family and I visited the toy library tonight. My wife took my son a few weeks back and borrowed a couple of toys, but tonight is the first time that I visited the toy library. My local toy library is the Frankston Toy Library.

Quoting from the website,

Frankston Toy Library is a non-profit organisation, primarily operated and managed by volunteer to provide services and resources to families, community groups and organisations at a reasonable cost.

When my wife joined up, she paid $70 for a membership. This is an annual fee. Besides paying then annual fee, we must also commit to doing 3.5 hours of volunteer work. After visiting the library, I would consider the fee and the commitment to be a small token to the wonderful services that is provided by the toy library.

Let's explore the benefits of joining the toy library.

1. As my son gets older, his interests in different toys will change. The toy library facilitates this by allow us to constantly change his toys over a two week period. The variety of toys appears to be suitable for newborns right up to about the kindergarten aged kids.
   
2. If we are planning for a children event, like a birthday party, we can hire a party pack from the toy library. For my son's upcoming birthday party, we hired a party pack that includes a non-motorised marry-go-round, a crawl-through tunnel, a big seesaw and a climbing castle for a total of $10. If we had to purchased these separately, it would have cost around the $350 mark.
3. By doing volunteer work, we continue the wonderful services provided by the toy library so that other parents and children can enjoy them.
4. Some of the toys are very expensive to purchase, could be up in the hundreds. So by borrowing the toys, it is allow you to test drive the toys before purchasing it.
   
5. The selection of toys is enormous, I must have sighted about 40 different type of jigsaw puzzles or about 10 different style of bicycles. If you child gets bored with a toy, return it and borrow something else.
6. The staff at the Frankston Toy Library is extremely knowledgeable about the toys and the suitability of the toys to the child. So ask them if you are in doubt.
7. By allowing your child to play with different toys, it promotes them to learn by experimenting, sort of "learning on the job".
   

The Frankston Toy Library is part of the Toy Library Victoria, which is a umbrella group of toy libraries across Victoria.

The service provided by the toy library is a wonderful service, so lets support them by visiting them, donating our pre-loved toys to them and contribute to their on-going by volunteering some of your time.