Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Kids Toys - Set Free Their Imagination


By Dan Ellenwood

Deciding what toys to buy for the loved children in their lives is often not an easy decision for parents and grandparents to make. With such a variety of toys available on the market, it is easy to understand how it can become overwhelming.

There are toys that talk, dolls that wet their diapers, and computer games that claim to make kids smarter. Yet, even with all these high tech options, it is still the simple things that children return to again and again.

Why is that? Well, because the very fact that modern toys can do more that traditional ones means that they leave less to a childs imagination - and all children love to use their imagination. For example, a robot that has a lot of flashing lights, but only says stop, is not going to offer a whole lot of options for imaginations to run wild. At our house a cardboard toy box gets played with more often than the toys inside it.

Those toys which stand the test of time, you will find to be the ones that can be played with differently each time a child gets them out. Some examples are blocks, boring dolls, dress up clothes, and child safe face paint and make up. They are using the same toy each time, but each session can have a wildly different theme, or even no theme at all.

My kids, even though I have a boy and a girl, want to turn everything into a sword. Ninjas, pirates, whatever suits their fancy at the time. Before I know it, their electronic toys are gathering dust in the house, and they are outside hacking at each other with tree branches while one defends the tree house ship from the marauding pirate below.

That leads to a warning about using imaginative kids toys. They can potentially get violent. So as with everything, keep watch over the kids so things so no one loses an eye. The lack of boundaries on their imaginations can soon have them defending their turf from imaginary invaders, or toppling huge stacks of blocks, or trying to paint the cat like a skunk. Be warned, once these little imaginations get going, they really, really take off.

The younger they are, the more watchful you will have to be. Do not be fooled into thinking that they will just sit and hold whatever you give them. Just holding something is no fun at all! Within 10 minutes they will biting, pulling apart, standing, etc. whatever toy it is that you have given them. However simple, safe and indestructible you think something is, they will always try to find some way to injure themselves with it. That's just the way are!

I hope you've started thinking about all the kids toys you can get for your kids that will set their imaginations free.

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