Hey teachers out there, it is the last week of July and pretty soon you will be heading back to school. I know that a lot of you use toys and games in your classroom which is AWESOME! Don't hesitate to ask for curriculum guides and lesson plans. I'm always glad to help you with them. Plus a lot of game manufacturers offer curriculum guides and lesson plans for their games and with just a little tweaking for your classroom can help make learning a lot more fun and engaging for students. Here is a great resource and website called Games for Educators to get you started.
http://www.g4ed.com/
Bee Active Toys wants to thank you and wish you all the best as your starting to think about and plan your classrooms for the next school year. If we can help you in any way, let me know.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Beer Bottles, Books and Bouncing Balls
So what is a blog about toys and a toy store doing talking about Beer Bottles you ask? Well give me a few minutes of your time and let me explain the connection. Now let me first also write this disclaimer for anyone out there that might have objections to what I am about to write. First off, this is all my opinion. I have no basis of research or other means to prove what I am about to say. Secondly, I, as a toy store owner do have a vested interest in getting shoppers to come buy at my store so I am biased in what I am about to say. Now let me finish telling you what the correlation is between beer bottles, books, and bouncing balls.
Back in 1991, I left college to become an apprentice at a machine shop which was the beginning of my training as a manufacturing engineer. (How I ended up as a toy store owner is another story to be told later.) The shop owner used to tell all of his machinists to only buy beer in a can, not bottles. Why? This 100 man machine shop made parts for the canning industry. He had a vested interest in the consumption of cans instead of bottles, because he knew that the more cans that were needed meant that his business was sustainable and his customers would return to him for more machine parts to make more cans. For some reason that always stuck with me and even today I tend to buy cans instead of bottles.
So how does that really apply to me as a toy store? How are you going to make the connection you ask? Things have changed a lot over the last 20 years. One of those changes is in the way we shop as consumers. Have you been watching the landscape in your local area? How many buildings are empty? How many brick and mortar retail businesses have closed up? This thing called the internet continues to change our society as we know it and one of the ways it’s changing us is in the way we shop. Never before has product been so widely available and as cheap as it is today just by clicking on your mouse.
Yes folks, as much as I hate to admit it, shopping online does seem to be taking over traditional retail. Brick and mortar stores are closing up left and right. I first saw this with hobby stores back around the turn of the century. Customers would go into a hobby store and get all the information they needed about their trains, slot cars, RC Planes or whatever they were into and then go back home and order it online because they could get it 20-30% cheaper. How many hobby stores do you know about today? Borders, the largest retail book store filed bankruptcy last year and have closed up hundreds of book stores. Things are not looking too bright for book stores these days. Do I need to ask if you have a record store in your community? Those under 30 are probably asking, “What’s a record store?” What about toy stores? Do you have a toy store in your community? I’m not talking about Wal-Mart or Target’s toy department; I’m talking about an actual toy store where someone working there actually knows something about toys. Probably not, some say toy stores are now a thing of the past as well. And after all kids don’t play today like they used to anyway, video games, IPods, and getting online with their friends is all they want to do. It’s true, (and I think it is a shame) that girls once played with dolls between the ages of 2 to 13 and today girls tend to stop playing with dolls around age 8.
Again you ask me, “What do beer bottles have to do with toys?” Well for me, it was the valuable lesson I learned over 20 years ago from that shop owner in the manufacturing world. Support what supports you. Hear me out. There was a time when an entrepreneur went to the local bank to get a bank loan to start a business. The banking officers told bank employees, check out this business if you’re looking to buy what their selling. The local bankers knew that their bank had a vested interest in the business succeeding and repaying the loan. The business owner than went to the local insurance man and bought insurance who in turn told all of his clients about the business because he knew his insurance commission was dependent on the entrepreneur’s business success. The entrepreneur would contact a local electrician or plumper to make repairs in his shop. The entrepreneur would get his lunch at the local deli, the local deli, would get their bread from the local baker, the local baker would need a light bulb and would get it from the local hardware store and all these local businesses would support each other. Don’t get me wrong, things were not that easy for the entrepreneur, after all he still had to know and be able to provide products and services that his community wanted and needed. As the entrepreneurs business grew, employees were needed and hired from the local community. These employees in turn had more to spend in the local businesses. Likewise as the entrepreneurs business grew the local tax base would grow from business and sales tax and the income tax of the employees that the entrepreneur had hired giving the community more money to spend in the local economy and fund community projects. Police officers would get new uniforms, firefighters would get new fire engines, and school teachers would get supplies locally that would then give the local businesses more funds to advertise in school programs and pay for sports equipment, scoreboards and other things those communities need but never realize where the money comes from to buy them.
THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.
The internet has changed all of that. Oh it isn’t the only thing to change all that. The proliferation and growth of big business and large big box retail chains started the ball rolling in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The internet just picked up the ball and kept it rolling over the last 10 years. Some would say that I’m just waxing nostalgic. Others would say that’s progress, you can’t stop change. Still more say that’s just business, people are going to shop where they get the best price. I say at what cost is that best price impacting your local community? You can get everything online but none (or at least very little) of the money you’re spending is staying in your local communities. Ask a local entrepreneur (if you have any left), why they went into business? Sure they probably wanted to make money (don’t we all), but most likely a part of it was because that entrepreneur saw a need and wanted to make their community better. There is a high amount of risk that those entrepreneurs took on to try and improve their community. A lot of business advisors are telling those entrepreneurs that the best thing for them to do right now is to close down stores, warehouse everything and sell on the internet. Cut Costs, Cut Costs, Cut Costs! That advice doesn’t help out local communities that much but what else can they do if everyone is shopping online instead of shopping in stores. It leaves more people out of work and more empty storefronts and more community eyesores on the landscape. (Does anyone ever notice the warehouses are in your community?)
So what will your town look like in the next ten years? What do you want it to look like? Do you want beer bottles, books and bouncing balls and the places locally where you can go to buy them? Every time you spend your dollars, you make an impact on your local economy. Now I ask you, what kind of impact are you going to make for the future?
For a list of local businesses check out the following list:
http://www.rentertainment.com/local.asp
Thank you to That's Rentertainment in Champaign for publishing this list.
For more about supporting locally owned independents check out:
http://www.the350project.net/home.html
Back in 1991, I left college to become an apprentice at a machine shop which was the beginning of my training as a manufacturing engineer. (How I ended up as a toy store owner is another story to be told later.) The shop owner used to tell all of his machinists to only buy beer in a can, not bottles. Why? This 100 man machine shop made parts for the canning industry. He had a vested interest in the consumption of cans instead of bottles, because he knew that the more cans that were needed meant that his business was sustainable and his customers would return to him for more machine parts to make more cans. For some reason that always stuck with me and even today I tend to buy cans instead of bottles.
So how does that really apply to me as a toy store? How are you going to make the connection you ask? Things have changed a lot over the last 20 years. One of those changes is in the way we shop as consumers. Have you been watching the landscape in your local area? How many buildings are empty? How many brick and mortar retail businesses have closed up? This thing called the internet continues to change our society as we know it and one of the ways it’s changing us is in the way we shop. Never before has product been so widely available and as cheap as it is today just by clicking on your mouse.
Yes folks, as much as I hate to admit it, shopping online does seem to be taking over traditional retail. Brick and mortar stores are closing up left and right. I first saw this with hobby stores back around the turn of the century. Customers would go into a hobby store and get all the information they needed about their trains, slot cars, RC Planes or whatever they were into and then go back home and order it online because they could get it 20-30% cheaper. How many hobby stores do you know about today? Borders, the largest retail book store filed bankruptcy last year and have closed up hundreds of book stores. Things are not looking too bright for book stores these days. Do I need to ask if you have a record store in your community? Those under 30 are probably asking, “What’s a record store?” What about toy stores? Do you have a toy store in your community? I’m not talking about Wal-Mart or Target’s toy department; I’m talking about an actual toy store where someone working there actually knows something about toys. Probably not, some say toy stores are now a thing of the past as well. And after all kids don’t play today like they used to anyway, video games, IPods, and getting online with their friends is all they want to do. It’s true, (and I think it is a shame) that girls once played with dolls between the ages of 2 to 13 and today girls tend to stop playing with dolls around age 8.
Again you ask me, “What do beer bottles have to do with toys?” Well for me, it was the valuable lesson I learned over 20 years ago from that shop owner in the manufacturing world. Support what supports you. Hear me out. There was a time when an entrepreneur went to the local bank to get a bank loan to start a business. The banking officers told bank employees, check out this business if you’re looking to buy what their selling. The local bankers knew that their bank had a vested interest in the business succeeding and repaying the loan. The business owner than went to the local insurance man and bought insurance who in turn told all of his clients about the business because he knew his insurance commission was dependent on the entrepreneur’s business success. The entrepreneur would contact a local electrician or plumper to make repairs in his shop. The entrepreneur would get his lunch at the local deli, the local deli, would get their bread from the local baker, the local baker would need a light bulb and would get it from the local hardware store and all these local businesses would support each other. Don’t get me wrong, things were not that easy for the entrepreneur, after all he still had to know and be able to provide products and services that his community wanted and needed. As the entrepreneurs business grew, employees were needed and hired from the local community. These employees in turn had more to spend in the local businesses. Likewise as the entrepreneurs business grew the local tax base would grow from business and sales tax and the income tax of the employees that the entrepreneur had hired giving the community more money to spend in the local economy and fund community projects. Police officers would get new uniforms, firefighters would get new fire engines, and school teachers would get supplies locally that would then give the local businesses more funds to advertise in school programs and pay for sports equipment, scoreboards and other things those communities need but never realize where the money comes from to buy them.
THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.
The internet has changed all of that. Oh it isn’t the only thing to change all that. The proliferation and growth of big business and large big box retail chains started the ball rolling in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The internet just picked up the ball and kept it rolling over the last 10 years. Some would say that I’m just waxing nostalgic. Others would say that’s progress, you can’t stop change. Still more say that’s just business, people are going to shop where they get the best price. I say at what cost is that best price impacting your local community? You can get everything online but none (or at least very little) of the money you’re spending is staying in your local communities. Ask a local entrepreneur (if you have any left), why they went into business? Sure they probably wanted to make money (don’t we all), but most likely a part of it was because that entrepreneur saw a need and wanted to make their community better. There is a high amount of risk that those entrepreneurs took on to try and improve their community. A lot of business advisors are telling those entrepreneurs that the best thing for them to do right now is to close down stores, warehouse everything and sell on the internet. Cut Costs, Cut Costs, Cut Costs! That advice doesn’t help out local communities that much but what else can they do if everyone is shopping online instead of shopping in stores. It leaves more people out of work and more empty storefronts and more community eyesores on the landscape. (Does anyone ever notice the warehouses are in your community?)
So what will your town look like in the next ten years? What do you want it to look like? Do you want beer bottles, books and bouncing balls and the places locally where you can go to buy them? Every time you spend your dollars, you make an impact on your local economy. Now I ask you, what kind of impact are you going to make for the future?
For a list of local businesses check out the following list:
http://www.rentertainment.com/local.asp
Thank you to That's Rentertainment in Champaign for publishing this list.
For more about supporting locally owned independents check out:
http://www.the350project.net/home.html
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
When a Puppet is more than just a Puppet Show
Stop a minute and think about the last time you watched a puppet show? How old were you? Do you remember some of America's most famous Puppets? Which of these do you recognize: Charlie McCarthy, Howdy Dowdy, King Friday and Lady Elaine, Lamb Chop, Bert and Ernie, Kermit and Miss Piggy, Fraggles, Elmo? Depending on which puppet that you recognize it says a lot about when you grew up and how old you are. Puppets have long been an important part of our childhood memories and entertainment. Did you know that puppets are also a great way for young children to create imaginative stories and play on their own? Puppet theaters help young children to role play and characters become alive in a child's hand as they act out a scene. Puppets are also a great way for school aged children to master the art of storytelling.
Here are a couple of suggestions to help make puppets a fun part of your child's play time.
• For baby: Black and White or bright colored puppets can be used for adult/child interaction. Baby will follow puppet with their eyes and laugh and giggle.
• For toddlers and preschoolers: combine a puppet with their favorite story book for added play value at story time.
• For school age children: have children use puppets to act out a favorite story.
• Older Children: Have children write and create their own stories around their favorite puppets. Reading skills are improved as they perform the show.
• For adults: Watch the show! Giving your child the spotlight for 5-10 minutes will boost self-confidence and creativity.
Here I am at Bee Active Toys talking about puppets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnv5Wbn0KAU
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Sophistication and Ingenuity Behind a Wind-up Toy.
So I’m sitting here on a Saturday morning waiting for customers to come into the store and as usual I am looking for ways to amuse myself while I wait. I know that a lot of other adults might find a toy store tedious or have difficulty keeping busy when it is slow, but I somehow always manage to find something that keeps my mind stimulated. Perhaps no other adult in central Illinois takes toys and children’s play quite as seriously as I do (a bold statement on my part as I hope other adults recognize the importance of play) and today is no different. As I’m walking through the store I decide to pick up one of our many windup toys. This one is called “Moony” by California Creations and is a wind-up space shuttle. The choice of using Moony for this article is in recognition of the final launch of our space shuttle yesterday (loud chants of USA, USA, USA).
Now the wind-up toys get wound up and played with in the store every day by both adults and kids and I have often wondered if they realize just how much engineering goes into making a windup toy. So today I decided to take Moony apart just so that I can show you what all is involved and since I am a very big advocate of using toys to help people learn, I am hoping that you will gain some knowledge and a greater appreciation for how much work actually goes into providing us with amusing toys.
Now for those of you that know me, you already know that I was once a manufacturing engineer before owning a toy store so I will try to keep it fairly simple and interesting and not go real in depth with all of the mechanics involved. When I was growing up I spent a lot of time taking things apart and trying to figure out how they worked. With the advent of video games and other technological gadgetry that kids have available to them today, mechanics doesn’t quite seem to hold their attention as much and I of course am hoping to change that a little bit at a time.
Moony is put together using over 20 parts. I couldn’t get an exact count because the wind up housing is sealed and I couldn’t gain
access unless I wanted to break the housing. The parts list consists of the top space shuttle body, lower space shuttle body, 2 space shuttle doors, interior space bay floor, rear thrust engine body, springs, space bay door lever that is attached to a cam follower, rack and pinion gear, directional lever, astronaut attached to a gear and camshaft, another cam that is attached to the windup box housing, wheels, and winding shaft. Have I lost all of you non-mechanical people yet? I can’t tell what all is inside the windup box housing but most likely it includes a couple of gears, springs and mounting shafts as well as the housing pieces. Oh yeah, I almost forgot 2 small screws to hold it all together. Are you starting to have a greater appreciation for these $5 toys yet?
Now how do all those parts go together to make this toy work? That’s what I imagine you are asking me right now as your sitting there hanging on every one of my words waiting to find out what wealth of knowledge that I am about to bestow upon you. Well everything working on this toy revolves around two key parts, the winding shaft and cam. Attached to the winding shaft are a drive gear, spring and cam. When the shaft is wound it increases tension in the spring (conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy for those of you that like physics). That tension is what then causes the shaft to rotate, driving both the drive gear and the cam. The drive gear pushes the gear attached to the wheels causing the wheels to move. The cam actually is doing the most work in this windup. The rotational movement of the cam is responsible for the movement of 4 other working features on this toy. First its rotation alternately pushes down on the directional lever to allow the windup toy to spin around. Next the rotational motion is transferred into linear motion (straight line that is) that moves back and forth and causes the astronaut to spin and move up and down as it follows the cam shaft along the rack and pinion gear. Lastly the cam also triggers the space bay door lever which is responsible for the opening and closing of the shuttle bay doors. WOW, that is an awful lot of “work” being done by a simple 1” long x 1/16” diameter winding shaft and cam.
Watch this video to see how all the parts go together.
Now the wind-up toys get wound up and played with in the store every day by both adults and kids and I have often wondered if they realize just how much engineering goes into making a windup toy. So today I decided to take Moony apart just so that I can show you what all is involved and since I am a very big advocate of using toys to help people learn, I am hoping that you will gain some knowledge and a greater appreciation for how much work actually goes into providing us with amusing toys.
Now for those of you that know me, you already know that I was once a manufacturing engineer before owning a toy store so I will try to keep it fairly simple and interesting and not go real in depth with all of the mechanics involved. When I was growing up I spent a lot of time taking things apart and trying to figure out how they worked. With the advent of video games and other technological gadgetry that kids have available to them today, mechanics doesn’t quite seem to hold their attention as much and I of course am hoping to change that a little bit at a time.
Moony is put together using over 20 parts. I couldn’t get an exact count because the wind up housing is sealed and I couldn’t gain
access unless I wanted to break the housing. The parts list consists of the top space shuttle body, lower space shuttle body, 2 space shuttle doors, interior space bay floor, rear thrust engine body, springs, space bay door lever that is attached to a cam follower, rack and pinion gear, directional lever, astronaut attached to a gear and camshaft, another cam that is attached to the windup box housing, wheels, and winding shaft. Have I lost all of you non-mechanical people yet? I can’t tell what all is inside the windup box housing but most likely it includes a couple of gears, springs and mounting shafts as well as the housing pieces. Oh yeah, I almost forgot 2 small screws to hold it all together. Are you starting to have a greater appreciation for these $5 toys yet?Now how do all those parts go together to make this toy work? That’s what I imagine you are asking me right now as your sitting there hanging on every one of my words waiting to find out what wealth of knowledge that I am about to bestow upon you. Well everything working on this toy revolves around two key parts, the winding shaft and cam. Attached to the winding shaft are a drive gear, spring and cam. When the shaft is wound it increases tension in the spring (conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy for those of you that like physics). That tension is what then causes the shaft to rotate, driving both the drive gear and the cam. The drive gear pushes the gear attached to the wheels causing the wheels to move. The cam actually is doing the most work in this windup. The rotational movement of the cam is responsible for the movement of 4 other working features on this toy. First its rotation alternately pushes down on the directional lever to allow the windup toy to spin around. Next the rotational motion is transferred into linear motion (straight line that is) that moves back and forth and causes the astronaut to spin and move up and down as it follows the cam shaft along the rack and pinion gear. Lastly the cam also triggers the space bay door lever which is responsible for the opening and closing of the shuttle bay doors. WOW, that is an awful lot of “work” being done by a simple 1” long x 1/16” diameter winding shaft and cam.
Watch this video to see how all the parts go together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR73rDLROLg
So now tell me, did you ever realize that wind-up toys were that involved? I bet you never thought about how much went into making all those wind-up toys. I’ll bet that you never realized that you could learn a little bit about physics or mechanics by playing with a wind-up toy either? Well I hope that the next time you are in a toy store, you might just have a little more respect and admiration for those simple toys known as windups.
So now tell me, did you ever realize that wind-up toys were that involved? I bet you never thought about how much went into making all those wind-up toys. I’ll bet that you never realized that you could learn a little bit about physics or mechanics by playing with a wind-up toy either? Well I hope that the next time you are in a toy store, you might just have a little more respect and admiration for those simple toys known as windups.
To see more working wind-up toys watch the following video
Thursday, July 7, 2011
6 Ways to Prevent Learning Loss Over the Summer.
Researchers have found that kids lose as much as 25% of what they learn during the school year over the summer months. Most teachers spend the first 2 weeks of school reviewing materials that the children have already learned. With that in mind I have come up with a list of 6 good ways you can keep your children from experiencing learning loss over the summer months.
6. Create with Crafts
5. Play with your food
4. Experiment with Science
3. Work Puzzles
2. Play Games
1. Tell Stories
6.Craft kits and the skills of sizing, cutting, pasting, folding and other activities done while crafting are great ways for kids to express their own creativity and can reinforce math when they measure, fold in half and cut paper, string or fabric to the sizes needed. The complexity of the craft projects should increase with the child’s age. The skills learned with arts and crafts could develop the next fashion designer, architect or automotive designer.
5.Playing with food is another great way to keep math skills active and develop life skills at the same time. Measuring, mixing, dividing and fractions are all being used.
4.Science kits can keep children interested in their natural world. This can be as simple as a magnifying glass and bug box or as complex as making your own volcano. Follow your child’s interests.
3.Puzzles are still the number one way to develop cognitive ability, spatial relationships and other higher functioning thought processes. Remember to start kids with 24, 48, or 60 piece puzzles and then work their way up to 500 piece puzzles. For kids over 12 puzzle challenges like Rubik’s cubes and Guordian’s knots can still be very captivating and provide a sense of accomplishment when solved.
2.Games can be used for math, spelling, writing, and drawing. Trivia games can help keep facts about current events, geography and other subjects readily available for kids to recall. Keep games fun and exciting and kids will not realize they are actually learning while they play.
1.Kids love a good story. Summer time is a great time for ghost stories by the camp fire. Storytelling improves language skills. Have them write their own story or play and then perform the show. Add puppets or other props for more play value.
Most importantly have fun and activate your child's imagination.
6. Create with Crafts
5. Play with your food
4. Experiment with Science
3. Work Puzzles
2. Play Games
1. Tell Stories
6.Craft kits and the skills of sizing, cutting, pasting, folding and other activities done while crafting are great ways for kids to express their own creativity and can reinforce math when they measure, fold in half and cut paper, string or fabric to the sizes needed. The complexity of the craft projects should increase with the child’s age. The skills learned with arts and crafts could develop the next fashion designer, architect or automotive designer.
5.Playing with food is another great way to keep math skills active and develop life skills at the same time. Measuring, mixing, dividing and fractions are all being used.
4.Science kits can keep children interested in their natural world. This can be as simple as a magnifying glass and bug box or as complex as making your own volcano. Follow your child’s interests.
3.Puzzles are still the number one way to develop cognitive ability, spatial relationships and other higher functioning thought processes. Remember to start kids with 24, 48, or 60 piece puzzles and then work their way up to 500 piece puzzles. For kids over 12 puzzle challenges like Rubik’s cubes and Guordian’s knots can still be very captivating and provide a sense of accomplishment when solved.
2.Games can be used for math, spelling, writing, and drawing. Trivia games can help keep facts about current events, geography and other subjects readily available for kids to recall. Keep games fun and exciting and kids will not realize they are actually learning while they play.
1.Kids love a good story. Summer time is a great time for ghost stories by the camp fire. Storytelling improves language skills. Have them write their own story or play and then perform the show. Add puppets or other props for more play value.
Most importantly have fun and activate your child's imagination.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Have a question? We have answers.
I am glad to help out the Illini Radio Group and their radio stations by being one of their experts online. You can here about some of the questions that I have received over the years about toys, the toy industry and why I feel strongly about the importance of play in a child's daily life.
http://mix945.com/pages/8464695.php?ranId=0.7805736292312633
Listen for me on WIXY, The Chief, and The Mix.
And thank you.
http://mix945.com/pages/8464695.php?ranId=0.7805736292312633
Listen for me on WIXY, The Chief, and The Mix.
And thank you.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Travel Toys
Summertime is the time for road trips and vacations and while it’s tempting to just put a movie in the car DVD player or let the kids play on their DS for the whole drive there are other ways to help keep your child busy as you travel. Now I know as a parent that I can only play I Spy with my Little Eye, or sing “The wheels on the bus” so many times before it drives me nuts so here are a couple of other ideas that can help take the “Are we there yet” out of your children.
1. Wind-up toys can keep fingers active and provide amusement. Their small size makes them easily portable.
2. Dot –to –dot books from 1 -20 or 1-500 can be bought and keep kids interest as they anxiously connect the dots to find out what the picture is on the paper.
3. Travel games are available in a lot of different varieties. Plus games are a great way to help teach social skills like communication and good sportsmanship as well as reinforcing vocabulary, spelling and math skills. I still love the old Traffic Sign Bingo.
4. Magnetic play sets. These come in a wide variety of themes and allow children the ability to imagine, pretend and play while in the car and don’t take up a lot of room.
5. Drawing paper and stickers are a part of every household with children and have gone on many a road trip. Have your child keep a journal of the trip making notes about everything that they see. Have them exercise their creative writing skills by writing fictional stories based on what they see. Creating comic books can also really help those miles disappear.
6. And speaking of books, good old fashion books and reading are still great ways to pass the time on those long road trips. Better yet, take turns reading the book to each other and practice your flair for Drama. Kids will love hearing all the different voices you can make and you will love finding out how well your child can read.
These are just a few tips and ideals to help you pass the time on all of your trips. Whatever you do and however you choose to help your kids pass the time, remember that the importance of a summer road trip is to spend quality time with your family. So next time you’re heading on a long trip, I hope you remember to have fun and activate your child’s imagination.
Coming up next time: Summertime Learning Loss and what you can do to help eliminate it.
1. Wind-up toys can keep fingers active and provide amusement. Their small size makes them easily portable.
2. Dot –to –dot books from 1 -20 or 1-500 can be bought and keep kids interest as they anxiously connect the dots to find out what the picture is on the paper.
3. Travel games are available in a lot of different varieties. Plus games are a great way to help teach social skills like communication and good sportsmanship as well as reinforcing vocabulary, spelling and math skills. I still love the old Traffic Sign Bingo.
4. Magnetic play sets. These come in a wide variety of themes and allow children the ability to imagine, pretend and play while in the car and don’t take up a lot of room.
5. Drawing paper and stickers are a part of every household with children and have gone on many a road trip. Have your child keep a journal of the trip making notes about everything that they see. Have them exercise their creative writing skills by writing fictional stories based on what they see. Creating comic books can also really help those miles disappear.
6. And speaking of books, good old fashion books and reading are still great ways to pass the time on those long road trips. Better yet, take turns reading the book to each other and practice your flair for Drama. Kids will love hearing all the different voices you can make and you will love finding out how well your child can read.
These are just a few tips and ideals to help you pass the time on all of your trips. Whatever you do and however you choose to help your kids pass the time, remember that the importance of a summer road trip is to spend quality time with your family. So next time you’re heading on a long trip, I hope you remember to have fun and activate your child’s imagination.
Coming up next time: Summertime Learning Loss and what you can do to help eliminate it.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
My 6 year old daughter doesn’t play with toys.
To the woman in the store the other day looking for an item for her 6 year old daughter that really didn’t play much, I want to apologize, as I don’t feel like I gave you very much help. All I did was tell you what our best selling items were for girls her age and well, to be honest with you, that was pretty presumptuous of me to think that your child would be like others and want to play with the same things when you clearly told me that you were having problems getting her to show interest in playing at all.
Our children are saturated with all the technological gadgets that we adults crave and from watching us, it is natural that they want those gadgets as well, even though they may not be ready for them. Sometimes that very same technology can make traditional play seem static and boring to some children if they are using the technology so it is important to try and remind ourselves and our children of how much fun it can be to play with a simple toy. Likewise for some children, if they haven’t seen a commercial for it or watched it on TV, they might not know how to play with some toys.
So now that I have had some time to think about your original question, here are some suggestions that I would like to make:
1. Remember back to your own childhood and what you liked to play with at that age. Tell her all about it. Was it dolls, arts and crafts, horses? Whatever it was, telling your daughter about the things you played with as a child will get her interest and at the very least provides you and her with a mother/daughter moment.
2. Think about what you would like her to play with and try to lead her in that direction. While it is very easy for us adults to just provide our children with the things that they think they want, it is also important to sometimes gently nudge them into doing and playing with things that we think would be good for them. You know your child best.
3. Get her involved in collecting something. Figurines, dolls, erasers, stamps, or even rocks can all been fun objects to find and collect. Collecting can sometimes be just like a mini treasure hunt as your looking to find items to collect. Yes, collecting is a form of play that can turn into a lifetime hobby that is fun, educational and personally fulfilling.
4. Ask a grandparent to get involved. There really is a lot of wisdom in those older generations. Of course you might end up hearing a long story about how the only thing they had to play with was a stick and a rock, but the important thing is that they knew how to play, entertain and amuse themselves. Marbles, Jacks, and paper dolls are all still great toys as well.
5. If you really want to get her to notice toys and how to play, then buy her a toy normally meant for a boy. This may seem strange to most but why not? Maybe she isn’t playing because she really doesn’t like girl toys and wants something different. We as adults sometimes need to break out of the gender stereotypical ideals about play that we impose on our children. Girls can build with construction sets and drive cars, trucks, planes and trains just as much as boys can so see if she wants to play with those toys.
I realize of course that a lot of these suggestions do require some adult guidance but don’t fret it. It doesn’t need to take up a lot of your time nor does it need to cost a lot of money. Just like children sometimes need help with school work, sometimes children need to be shown how to play as well. Unlike school work 5 or 10 minutes is usually all that is needed to get the old play juices in a child’s brain flowing as they are naturally drawn to play. With our children being saturated with video games, computers, iPods and cell phones, they are only modeling what they see us adults constantly doing every day and think that is what they should be doing as well. It is important to remind ourselves and our children that it is important to play and that all those technological things, while being a lot of fun, are not really needed to keep ourselves entertained. We also need to develop lots of different play patterns so that we can become a well-rounded individual familiar with a lot of different things. I sincerely hope this is a better answer to your question about getting your 6 year old interested in playing. I also hope that you don’t forget to play as well. Even as an adult, we can benefit from good quality playtime.
Our children are saturated with all the technological gadgets that we adults crave and from watching us, it is natural that they want those gadgets as well, even though they may not be ready for them. Sometimes that very same technology can make traditional play seem static and boring to some children if they are using the technology so it is important to try and remind ourselves and our children of how much fun it can be to play with a simple toy. Likewise for some children, if they haven’t seen a commercial for it or watched it on TV, they might not know how to play with some toys.
So now that I have had some time to think about your original question, here are some suggestions that I would like to make:
1. Remember back to your own childhood and what you liked to play with at that age. Tell her all about it. Was it dolls, arts and crafts, horses? Whatever it was, telling your daughter about the things you played with as a child will get her interest and at the very least provides you and her with a mother/daughter moment.
2. Think about what you would like her to play with and try to lead her in that direction. While it is very easy for us adults to just provide our children with the things that they think they want, it is also important to sometimes gently nudge them into doing and playing with things that we think would be good for them. You know your child best.
3. Get her involved in collecting something. Figurines, dolls, erasers, stamps, or even rocks can all been fun objects to find and collect. Collecting can sometimes be just like a mini treasure hunt as your looking to find items to collect. Yes, collecting is a form of play that can turn into a lifetime hobby that is fun, educational and personally fulfilling.
4. Ask a grandparent to get involved. There really is a lot of wisdom in those older generations. Of course you might end up hearing a long story about how the only thing they had to play with was a stick and a rock, but the important thing is that they knew how to play, entertain and amuse themselves. Marbles, Jacks, and paper dolls are all still great toys as well.
5. If you really want to get her to notice toys and how to play, then buy her a toy normally meant for a boy. This may seem strange to most but why not? Maybe she isn’t playing because she really doesn’t like girl toys and wants something different. We as adults sometimes need to break out of the gender stereotypical ideals about play that we impose on our children. Girls can build with construction sets and drive cars, trucks, planes and trains just as much as boys can so see if she wants to play with those toys.
I realize of course that a lot of these suggestions do require some adult guidance but don’t fret it. It doesn’t need to take up a lot of your time nor does it need to cost a lot of money. Just like children sometimes need help with school work, sometimes children need to be shown how to play as well. Unlike school work 5 or 10 minutes is usually all that is needed to get the old play juices in a child’s brain flowing as they are naturally drawn to play. With our children being saturated with video games, computers, iPods and cell phones, they are only modeling what they see us adults constantly doing every day and think that is what they should be doing as well. It is important to remind ourselves and our children that it is important to play and that all those technological things, while being a lot of fun, are not really needed to keep ourselves entertained. We also need to develop lots of different play patterns so that we can become a well-rounded individual familiar with a lot of different things. I sincerely hope this is a better answer to your question about getting your 6 year old interested in playing. I also hope that you don’t forget to play as well. Even as an adult, we can benefit from good quality playtime.
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