10 educational toys for children that encourage free play
It seems obvious, but we often forget something so essential: Toys are for playing. And we never tire of repeating it: For playing.
The goal of a good toy is precisely to support, assist, and encourage children to play. They play to learn, and then practice managing it in their adult lives. Before playing alone, children should play with others, with a guide who teaches them, gives them space, and gives them the patience to do it on their own.
Too often we see TV commercials for fantastic toys filled with lights, with all kinds of sounds, laser beams, enormous doll heads, multi-colored bracelets, motion sensors and autonomous servomotors… Toys classifying and pigeonholing children's games, with pre-assigned colors, and children playing alone, never with their parents.
Unfortunately, these toys and advertisements aren't designed with children in mind, how they'll interact with the toy, what it will provide, or what they'll learn. Their goal isn't to encourage children to create their own games.
These types of toys relegate children to being mere spectators, passively watching the toy perform its light and sound show. It leaves no room for imagination or creativity, because everything has already been done, the story is complete and closed. THE END.
Real toys aren't closed, and they don't do everything. Children need to contribute their creativity and imagination to create the scenarios in which the play takes place.
The greatest toy in the history of humanity is undoubtedly still a stick. A stick that can be a broom, a magic wand, a horse, a knife, a pencil, or a fork. Our children imagine and decide. A stick activates children's imagination.
However, we must be careful, as our little ones are highly influenced by the marketing of large companies through all available media (TV, mailbox flyers, catalogs, billboard ads, etc.), and they have not yet fully developed their critical sense. Let us, the adults around them—parents, educators, grandparents, and those concerned with their development—help them choose the best toys, build them, learn to cook while playing, experiment with what they've learned at school, or better understand the complicated aspects of the world around them, such as why and how Mom is able to go away for a week to work in Brazil: with a plane and a globe, it's much easier.
In short, let's help children choose toys to enjoy and learn through play.
The greatest toy in the history of humanity is undoubtedly still a stick. A stick that can be a broom, a magic wand, a horse, a knife, a pencil, or a fork. Our children imagine and decide. A stick activates children's imagination.
However, we must be careful, as our little ones are highly influenced by the marketing of large companies through all available media (TV, mailbox flyers, catalogs, billboard ads, etc.), and they have not yet fully developed their critical sense. Let us, the adults around them—parents, educators, grandparents, and those concerned with their development—help them choose the best toys, build them, learn to cook while playing, experiment with what they've learned at school, or better understand the complicated aspects of the world around them, such as why and how Mom is able to go away for a week to work in Brazil: with a plane and a globe, it's much easier.
In short, let's help children choose toys to enjoy and learn through play.
