Toys unplugged: non-electronic educational toys

 

Ten minutes inside the toy department of your favorite store can make you dizzy or even nearly crazy with sensory overload. There are bright colors, blinding flashes, a crazy array of shapes and textures - and most of the toys light up, flash, move or twirl parts, and make an astonishing lot of penetrating noise, sometimes without being touched, sometimes after having been prompted. As for the latter: if you have a child or children with you, you may rest assured that in no time at all they will find each and every toy that is equipped to make noise, and turn them all on at once. There's nothing you can do to prevent this: the children simply behave according to a cosmic law. Without them, our earth would be cloaked in silence.

 

But... although kids tend to go straight for the most noisy, flashy or obnoxious toys when given a choice, simpler toys are good for them as well. Every now and then they may even be better: giving your child toys that require more of them than just pushing buttons, offers them an opportunity to learn and develop physical skills.

 

 

To our mind, the main drawback of electronic toys is that they require little imagination. Sure, they may help teach your child stuff like the alphabet, numbers or shapes, but they do little to encourage creative thinking. fortunately there are many "older" toys that make up for this lack.

 

Alphabet blocks or ABC blocks, for example, have been around for many years. They introduce children to colors, numbers and the letters of the alphabet while at the same time allowing them to build things. They teach hand-eye coordination. Your child can use them to experiment with cause and effect relationships, filling and dumping and more. The more your child uses his imagination, the more fun toys such as blocks are. They can also been thrown at an irritating little brother or sister.

 

 

Most electricity-powered toys are designed for solo enjoyment, a statement that doesn't confine itself to adult toys only. Also electronic toys for children tend to be best suited to individual play. While, of course, it's good for kids to be able to entertain themselves, they also need to learn how to interact with others in order to pick up and develop social skills. Oldfashioned non-electronic toys lend themselves better for interaction than their electronic cousins. The oldfashioned wooden toy train in the picture, for example: it needs a driver, a station master, a conductor... see what I mean?

 

Going back to the block example, you or another child could help your child build something with the blocks. She can share the blocks with others. You can ask your child which block is which color, or which one has a certain number or letter on it. All of these activities teach your child how to cooperate and get along with others.

 

 

Playing with electronic toys usually requires very little movement - most activity being confined to the pushing of a buttons or tapping of a keyboard. On the other hand there are plenty of non-electronic toys that encourage children to be physically active. This is just as important from an educational point of view, and most toys designed to promote physical activity can, with a little creativity, also be used for learning.

 

 

Electronic toys tend to have shorter lives than their non-electronic counterparts, mainly on account of their flimsy construction. It's really astonishing that in our technologically and technically advanced day and age, manufacturers apparently can't come up with any contraption that doesn't split open at the seams when you only look at it.

 

But also in another sense, non-electronic toys can outlast the electronic ones: they are often appropriate for a wide range of ages. The same blocks and balls that your child played with as a toddler can still provide him with hours of fun after he starts to school. Electronic toys, on the other hand, are often designed with a specific age group in mind. Once your child has mastered the toy and is ready to move on, it often goes to the bottom of the toy box, or straight into the rubbish bin.

 

We are the last ones to deny that electronic toys often have educational value, but it's important to remember that your child also needs a variety of toys to stimulate his imagination and encourage the development of necessary skills. The types of simple toys that were around when we were growing up are often just as much fun for our kids as they were for us and they allow kids to learn while having fun.