Artistic Prodigy: Sims don't play with task long enough to fulfill task

I used to be able to queue up 3 play-with-toy or play-with-emotions interactions by moving the toys to the kid's inventory first, and it would work. Now it doesn't, but even if I do get them to play longer with that toy later, it doesn't count. It is almost like the first time counts for the object, but not for the aspiration.  

As Karfunkel said, the large stuffed animals and dollhouse usually still work, so I sometimes just start placing additional stuffed animals.