Whatever Happened To Traditional Toys
by: Robert
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Word Count: 565
We recently celebrated the birthdays of our two oldest children, both boys, and I was reminded once again of the many benefits of giving traditional toys rather than modern electronic toys. Many electronic toys are educational and make great learning aids. They can also be very entertaining to children. The reasons I prefer traditional toys for my children is more than just the educational value of the toys and how well they entertain my children, though these are a very important part.
Traditional toys promote creative thinking and build the imagination. With a simple block set, a small car, and a plastic tree, my son went on a jungle safari, he lived on a farm, and he visited a construction site. At the same time, my other son waited impatiently for a battery to charge for a remote control car. After a long wait, he crashed the car into the wall for about 30 minutes, only to wait again for the battery to recharge.
The packaging of traditional toys is generally much simpler than electronic toys. Within minutes we had opened the traditional toys the children received. Puzzles, blocks, and my daughters soft doll were ready for play with little effort. We had to cut through tough plastic to remove a video game cartridge and had to use a screwdriver to remove several tiny screws from the packaging of another toy.
The simplicity of traditional toys doesn't stop with the packaging. Once all the gifts were open and free of their boxes and labels, the traditional toys were ready for play. Traditional toys typically don’t require batteries or electricity to entertain a child like modern toys. As the children were blowing bubbles, we begin to work on installing batteries. A tiny screwdriver should be considered a necessary supply for all parents!
Every gift that required batteries finally had the correct batteries in place and everything was ready for play. We didn't have the right size batteries for a train set, but the toy would also work without the batteries, so the train could drive but there were no sounds. My younger son spent more time playing with this traditional toy train without sounds, than the train that did have batteries and did have working sounds and lights!
My older son tried out a few of his electronic cars and briefly played a video game, but he was soon spending his time playing with the traditional toys he had received. He built a model dinosaur and let his creation run through the plastic tree forest, he put puzzles together, and all three children spent hours decorating the driveway with sidewalk chalk creations.
Traditional toys provide children with a better quality playtime than most of their modern counterparts. While remote control cars and electronic games are easily broken and quickly thrown aside, traditional toys grow with children, offering years of enjoyment. All three of my children have played with the same wooden blocks for the past three years. These blocks have represented everything from simple towers to complex cities, and even trees in the deep, dark woods, and these traditional toys are still played with every day.
About the Author
Gary Is owner of Monkeyshine, a retailer of quality Traditional toys. Take a step back in time and visit our Traditional toyshop at www.monkeyshine.co.uk
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