[Aditya]

Toys: Weighing Junk vs. Keepers

Kids deserve real stuff to play with, not pretend things. Why give a child a plastic stethoscope that doesn’t really allow him to hear his amazing little heart beating? Why a plastic thermometer that always reads “102” degrees when the human body changes temperature constantly -- isn’t it amazing that our baseline normal body temperature can range several degrees? We want a child to discover that! And imagine how his eyes will light up when he discovers that his internal (mouth) temperature is different than his underarm temperature. (Let’s hope that’s as far as the exploration goes!)

Don’t tell me how to play!

My main toy-choosing criteria is “Does the toy tell you how to play?” I look for toys that encourage creativity and allow my child to express himself and solve problems. Visit any preschool and you will find that the most-used toys are the ones that fit those criteria.

When I taught pre-school, we’d rotate to different activity centers throughout the day. The hottest activities were the giant blocks and the felt board animals and the arts and crafts table. A few kids liked to zone out on the computer games, but those games discourage social interaction and physical/kinesthetic/spatial learning, which is a very important part of child development in pre-schoolers.