With the Christmas season fast approaching, I begin to wonder about what to buy my grandchildren. Christmas is the time that I usually buy them toys to play with during the year. Walk through any toy store and you see walls and walls of toys that are loud, toys that require batteries, have flashing lights, or that look like your child’s favorite movie character. Many of the boy’s toys have swords, bayonets, and guns to simulate wartime and violence. But what about those of us who want to raise children with imagination and curiosity? Toys are the tools children use in play; and play is the way they practice growing up. Toys can be divided into several groups, depending on the part of the child it helps to develop.

• Toys for physical or muscle development such as wagons, bikes, or boxes, puzzles, blocks, brooms, and shovels.
• Toys for sensory (touch, sight, sound, taste, smell) development such as water toys, musical instruments, bubbles, play dough and sand toys.
• Toys for make-believe and social development such as dolls, dress-up clothes, cars, trucks, games, and books.
• Toys for creative and intellectual development such as clay, crayons, paints, books, paper, and scissors.

Children need a balance of toys from each of these groups to ensure their whole development. (The Creativity Institute, Inc, 2010) Children need to have direct experience with the world in order to make sense of and learn about it. They learn about people and the world. They learn all these things by playing with toys.

 

I have been concerned in the past about the number of Chinese toys containing excessive amounts of lead entering the United States. Fortunately, Congress responded with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. The three-year-old law did not merely stabilize the CPSC by providing funding to build up the lab capacity and surveillance presence at ports. It increased the agency’s authority to issue civil penalties against those responsible for toxic toys and other dangerous products. And it also required makers of certain products aimed at children to first send those products to independent laboratories for safety testing. Products that are new as of August 14, 2011 will have to comply with the stricter lead standard of 100 parts per million. Older products have to meet only a standard of 300ppm. (U.S. Politics Today, Getting the Lead Out: Protecting Children From Dangerous Toys, September 2, 2011)

 

Knowing that CPSC makes sure we have safer toys, I choose toys for my grandchildren by thinking about their ages and interests. Infants are interested in looking at toys, touching them with their hands and mouth, fitting pieces of things together and making sense of their worlds.  I try to choose toys for them to look at, feel, chew on, hold, and drop.  Infants like push and pull toys as they begin to crawl and walk.  Appropriate infants toys include: rattles, squeak toys, blocks, crib mobiles, stacking toys and rings, push-pull toys, stuffed animals or dolls, nested boxes or cups, books with rhymes, simple picture books, noise making toys, small soft toys for throwing, strings of beads, and music making toys. Babyiture offers a Push Along Play Cartthat puts a tracking maze, a play xylophone, and a shape sorter all together into one adorable toy that is made of solid wood. On top of all of that, kids get to push it around from room to room as they play!

Toddlers are active and enjoy climbing, running, and jumping. They need toys to meet these needs. They also are interested in doing things with their hands as the small muscles in their fingers become more developed. However, toys for this age group should be simple and require little coordination. During this period, toddlers become interested in playing with others and in imitating grown-up activities. Toys like dress-up clothes are great for this! Toddlers also are interested in sensory materials such as paint, play dough, crayons, and chalk. One of the best ways to allow them to be creative is with an easel. Babyiture has a Child’s Easel with all the fun features of a regular easel, but takes up much less space. Give this to any young artist and they’ll be thanking you as they get hard to work on their next masterpiece. It has a chalkboard surface on one side and a dry erase surface on the flip side. Wooden strips hold the paper in place and it includes two plastic paint cups and an eraser. The easel folds for storage.

 

Preschool age children are interested in active physical play. They have more control of their muscles at this age and this can be seen in the move from a tricycle to a two-wheel bike. They enjoy realistic toys such as farm and animal sets, grocery store prop boxes, model cars, and trains. As hand coordination increases, so does the child’s interest in simple construction sets and more difficult puzzles. Some children at this age also are busy learning to read and write, give them play equipment that encourages these interests.

 

Early school age children start collections or hobbies. Toys occupy less time for this age group because children spend more and more time playing with friends in groups. Early school age children start to show more awareness of what girls and boys are supposed to do. Girls may play with dolls as ‘babies’ and pretend they are doing real housekeeping. The Uptown Espresso Kitchen provides girls the opportunity to play house with all the features that mom has available to her.  Often boys enjoy electric trains and construction sets. This is the age of active games, such as ball games, biking, hiking with the group.

 

No matter what the age, no house can have enough books. Children need to be read to from the day they are conceived all the way through their years in school. I always buy each grandchild a couple of new books each year for every occasion to add to his library. A mix of fiction and non-fiction is very important in a home. I bought them their own special chair, Time to Read Rocker, to sit in while reading. It has a Special Message: Time to Read Backrest that includes a working clock to keep track of little one’s reading time  (Uses 1 AA battery – not included) and a charming poem on the seat back: Once upon a Time I took a look and found my world was full of books Now I love to sit and read each chapter Rocking and Reading HAPPILY EVER AFTER . The chair comes with a comfy, removable padded seat cushion and includes a sturdy attached rack to keep books up and off of the floor. By choosing the right books, the right toys, I can nurture creativity in my grandchildren; offering them the tools for success in life.