In any daycare center, you need entertainment and education to make a child happy and a business successful while maintaining a safe environment. Toys and other playthings are meant to be safe but can lead to unsafe consequences if proper precautions are not taken. The greatest potential for an unsafe situation arises with toys that have small parts or intricate pieces. While marbles, dollhouse accessories, blocks and other smaller manipulatives are invaluable toys for older children, they do present a potential choking hazard for younger children. Therefore, whenever you are purchasing toys for your daycare center, be sure to assess the potential hazard they present and plan accordingly. As a point of reference, always use judgment based on the manufacturer’s suggestions of age limits and restrictions. You need not ban small toys from your daycare center - after all, smaller toys are important supplements to older children's development of motor skills and imagination. If your daycare center will be catering to children younger than three years of age, be sure to restrict access to toys with small parts by storing them in seperate toy bins and make sure there is always an adult on hand to supervise if younger children will be playing with smaller manipulatives.