A Rant about Action Man and our Top Toy List
March 9, 2005 at 3:41 PM
by Ashleigh
Anyway, Seb was given this thing and its horrible! It goes against my whole parenting ethos to have plastic, fighting or warlike toys. I prefer the kids' toys to be wooden and/or educational. So, if its not wooden it must be educational and even if it is wooden its better for it to be educational. Secondly, I don't like anything that fights or looks like a weapon. This thing is a soldier toy which I really have an issue with. I know that proponents of violent toys say 'oh well, if I don't give my kid a toy gun he will just make one out of something else like a piece of wood' but the point is that if they do play 'weapons' without the toys at least they will be using their imaginations. I don't quite see how a kid is supposed to play in any way with a hunk of plastic which is basically immovable, has no charm, no value educationally and can't be 'made' into anything or even dressed up!
This toy is going to find its way into the recycling very soon. I just need the right moment.
Our top toy list:
- Books
- Brio trains
- Lego and Duplo
- K'Nex
- Puzzles and games (from ones with pegs on for the little ones to the big 100 piecers for older kids)
- Wooden sorting toys, cars, farms and houses
- Fisher Price Little People (no they're not wooden but Joe likes them - Seb not so much)
- Play-doh (you can also make your own)
- LeapPad and LeapPad books
- Chalk and chalkboard
Here's a great article about kids' toys and commercialism. This excerpt is taken from the article and gives a really good set of checklists for how to choose toys:
This list will certainly help me in the future, even though I'm of the persuasion that when in doubt for a birthday gift for a child - give a book.Changing the Culture of Gifts
Alicia Daniel, field naturalist, teacher, and mother of two daughters, offers a radical checklist:1) Will this toy eventually turn into dirt-i.e., could I compost it? Stones, snowmen, driftwood, and daisies-they will be gone, and we will be gone, and life goes on.
2) Do I know who made this toy? This question leads us to search for the hidden folk artist in each of us.
3) Is this toy beautiful? Have human hands bestowed an awkward grace, a uniqueness lacking in toys cranked out effortlessly by machine?
4) Will this toy capture a child's imagination?"
To this list we might add: Does this gift foster my child's natural inclinations? Will it enable him to more fully engage in life? Does it help her reach her goals?