Remember when a toy was just something to play with? We knew children learned by playing but we weren’t hung up on it. Now the competition among toy manufacturers seems designed to encourage competition among parents to make sure their toddlers have a big edge on other toddlers before they reach the competitive world of kindergarten.

Nothing is just a toy anymore. “Encourages sensory explorations, develops fine motor skills, encourages gross motor activity, helps develop eye-hand co-ordination, visually stimulating” and that’s only a teether! Granted, it seems like a very nice and interesting teether, but I shudder a bit at the thought of Christmas future.

A toy to hang on the crib says “contributes to baby’s understanding of cause and effect, the link between baby’s actions and the resulting reaction: when she kicks the kick-pad with her feet (cause), she causes interesting activity in the aquarium (effect). An action that begins quite randomly gradually becomes intentional as she learns about her ability to make things happen. With practice, she learns that there is a link between the force of her kick and the motion she creates, so that when she kicks harder, the movement is stronger, causing the creatures in the water to bounce about more, and vice versa.” All true I’m sure, but by this time, I instinctively pledge to resist being sucked into over-analyzing toys and play.

(…) They have the most wonderful wooden blocks on-line (just Google wooden blocks for kids) but the block manufacturers don’t say “encourages sensory explorations, develops fine motor skills, encourages gross motor activity, helps develop eye-hand co-ordination, visually stimulating” even though blocks do all of that. They also stimulate the imagination (nobody tells you what to build); teach patience in dealing with life’s frustrations (when they all fall down); and provide opportunity for lessons in sharing and co-operation (helping build it again) and pacifism (it’s not nice to throw them at your sister). Block manufacturers need to get with the times. Grandmothers know about blocks, but a young mother might think she was not a good mother if she chose blocks instead of a laptop computer for her three-year-old.

Yes, they have laptop computers for three year olds, brightly coloured learning toys that I’d say are the very best thing if you want your children to get a head start on entertaining themselves while sitting down and moving nothing except their fingers. (…)

Source: ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada
http://thechronicleherald.ca/AtHome/998493.html