Toys are a big part of life for a little kid. Playing is one of the major ways that they learn about themselves and the world.
Building toys like blocks, Legos, Tinker Toys, and wooden railroad tracks, and marble mazes, help children develop spatial skills, gross and fine motor skills and an understanding of how things go together in the physical world.
Imagination toys like kitchen sets, doctor kits, doll houses, puppets and dress-up clothes help children to use their creativity, invent scenarios, and to explore what life is like in the adult world.
Games and puzzles help with problems solving, persistence, sportsmanship, turn-taking, and spatial skills. Toys like balls, trikes and bikes, and anything else that gets kids outside develop gross motor skills, and helps to keep their little bodies active.
There are many toys out there that do all of these things...and many that don't. Here are some tips to buying toys that your kids will play with again and again, and avoiding those that sit on the shelf.
Go to a Good Quality Toy Store Not the one with the big giraffe. A smaller boutique-type store cannot afford to stock every toy on the market. The selection may be smaller, but what you will find will be high-quality toys that are likely to have a great deal of staying power. In addition, the employees are much more likely to be able to give you good advice about what to buy than at the giant box-toy store.
However, that said, the big box stores are great for some things such as classic games, Legos, stuffed animals, and art supplies. Just know what you are buying before you go.
Go for Kid-Powered over Electric Sure the electric train that goes around the tracks all by itself looks neat, but after the tracks are set up (probably by you), there isn't much to do but watch it go round and round. If you get the wooden tracks, not only are there many, many different ways to set up the track, but your child is also actively involved in playing with the trains. That is why I like Hotwheels rather than Darta, and kid-powered ride-on vehicles rather than those little electric cars.
Aim for Toys without a Storyline There are many toys out there that are marketed in conjunction with characters your child already knows from TV or books. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I know my own kids got a lot of imaginative play out of their Thomas the Tank Engine trains. But it is also good to have some dolls, dress-up clothes, figures etc. that are not associated with an already established character so that your child can invent the character and the storyline herself.
Steer Clear of LPC LPC = Little Plastic Crap. You know, the stuff you buy in the dollar store, or that doll or action figure that comes with 10,000 little plastic accessories. The pieces are hard for little kids to work with. They get lost. They get broken. They get stepped on in bare feet. They get run over by the vacuum. Just say no to LPC.
Gauge the Age It doesn't matter how cool the toy is, if your kid has outgrown it, he won't play with it. Same is true for toys that are too advanced. Buying toys that kids will "grow into" does not seem to be a good strategy. Once a child has judged a toy not to be fun, it just sits there and is not likely to be given a second chance, even when your child is old enough to appreciate it. Better to save that toy in your closet and give it next Christmas.
Classics are Good The toy of the moment, whatever it is, is likely to be broken or left on the shelf a month from now. But classics like Legos, wooden train tracks, balls, wood puzzles, marbles, dolls (not the ones that do 50 different things, look like your child, or come with a designer wardrobe), balls, etc are much more likely to be played with until they are worn out.
Second Hand is Okay The truth is, little kids don't know the difference. They don't notice packaging, don't know if it is new or not. You can get significantly more toys buying at thrift stores (or garage sales if you thought ahead) than you can buying new. In addition, the stakes are lower. If you spend five dollars on a toy and your child doesn't play with it, it is a much smaller deal than if you spent fifty dollars. I would not recommend this for older kids, or for gifts you are buying for friends and extended family, but in these hard economic times it might be something to consider.
And finally, remember, it's YOUR Christmas. You don't have to keep up with the Jone's. Little Laura Ingalls got an an orange, a new slate, a handmade pair of mittens, and some sucking candy if it was a good year and she was grateful. Not that we need to go back to pioneer days, but it doesn't hurt to look at how much we buy for our kids and what message that sends to them.
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You are folding laundry, not thinking about anything in particular beyond matching socks when a Brilliant Idea pops into your head. Maybe it is a new way to teach a concept that your students never seem to understand. Maybe it is a way to load the top rack of the dishwasher so all of the glasses will fit. Maybe it is a remarkably simple and inexpensive way to fix our health care system.
because I recently found myself at a very small bookstore, in a very small town where I killed an hour while my BF looked in great detail at a sailboat that he wasn't going buy (just like the other 50 or so boats we've looked at, but I digress...), Anyway, after spending so much time there, I felt I should buy something and since I am way, way behind on my reading, I opted for the game in the yellow banana bag.
