Good toys, bad toys and Christmas
Thursday, 10 December 2009 00:00
With Christmas around the corner, I was reflecting on the toys that had been a hit and those that had fizzed.
Lukewarm toys
- Sports toys - golf sets, balls, etc. Much as I would like Sam to enjoy a healthy balance, his DNA is just not that turned on by sports. I once spent a small fortune on a baseball hoop and board that had digital counters. I hoped it would increase his love of ball games. It worked modestly but when it stopped working after six months Sam lost interest.
- Books - Nursery rhymes, usual popular children's authors and usual childrens' genre. Ducks don't talk, they quack and eggs don't sit on a wall. You eat them.
- Tricycles, bicycles and scooters. Yes, he knows what to do with them. But there's no excitement.
- Boy toys - Cars, trucks, aeroplanes, toolkits, diggers, fire engines. He does though have a fondness for Thomas and the different trains with their numbers.
Great stuff
- Anything with numbers, where the outcomes continuously change: calculators, computer games, Apple I-phone apps games with numbers, watches and digital clocks.
- Number based board games - monopoly, scrabble (the letters have numbers), snakes and ladders. There aren't any number puzzles that I can find past 20, so to keep Sam interested, I usually write number patterns over the puzzles.
- Books with numbers - maths school textbooks, maths dictionaries, and yay, some Zack Power books seem to work! I think it's because Zack has lots of digital toys, there are watches and time pictures.
- Large, indoor play centers and amusement parks - ok, not the kind of toy we can bring home, but he does love these, and there are no numbers! There's usually a fair in town around Christmas-New Year.
- Circuit boards and science experiments
This year's Christmas list could include
- Snorkeling set - not his choice, but I want him to enjoy more water sports. Maybe I'll also give him a water compass so he can be more excited about snorkeling.
- A pool table - the balls have numbers. If Sam likes pool, it will give him at least one socially all round game for his teenage years.
- Experiment sets - from CSIRO, Australian Geographic etc.
Maybe we'll make some numbers and put a different one up on the tree each night till December. We'll be the only house in the street with numbers on our tree but Sam will be very excited!
Just in...
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