If you’ve been around any children you know that sometimes when they get a new toy, the best part or the part they seem to play with the most is the box the toy came in. Boxes seem to provide endless possibilities. Why? Because the possibilities are only limited by the child’s imagination and fortunately most children don’t put those limits on themselves.
My daughters (3 &1) are still quite young and I often get a chuckle when we are leaving the house because they always want to bring a “toy” with them. On a recent outing the 1 year-old insisted on bringing a sink strainer with her and her sister was equally enthusiastic about a whisk.
Last week I had the pleasure of talking toys, parenting, politics, and imagination with Chris Byrne a.k.a. “The Toy Guy”, content director of TimeToPlayMag.com. I really enjoyed learning about his background and how he became The Toy Guy. So much better than becoming something like The Guy That Doesn’t Have Time to Play, don’t you think?
There are a few things that Chris said that stuck with me, but what stuck with me the most was how he spoke about toys not being complete without the child. The child’s imagination is what truly brings a great toy to life. Without the child, the toy is just a lump of plastic.
I realize it is June and nowhere near the holiday season, but I know many of you (not me, I’m not that together) plan ahead. I found this video of Chris speaking about toys and the holidays and I love it because it is a good reminder that toys are an incidental part of the holidays, definitely a bonus, but the central part of the holidays has so much more to do with the memories created as a family. He says it much better than I just did.
I still enjoy using my imagination. Perhaps that’s why a blank sheet of paper or an empty blog post editor are two of my favorite toys, they don’t come to life unless I play with them.
And now your Friday Fortune Cookie
(don’t forget to add “in bed” at the end, if you are so inclined):
Exercise your imagination.
Hosted by Mrs. 4444
Your daughters are magnificent. To be raising children who get enjoyment out of playing with “out of the box” toys must be true joy for you. I hope I know you when your daughters are grown. Hopefully they will cherish the gift of imagination forever.
It is amazing how we buy all these expensive toys and the kids want to play with the box it came in. My kids like yours like to play with kitchen utensils too.
It always amazes me what children find to play with. I love watching their imaginations work! My son can play with blocks for hours and he builds the greatest inventions!
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Perhaps that’s why a blank sheet of paper or an empty blog post editor are two of my favorite toys, they don’t come to life unless I play with them.”
Yes!!!!!!!!!!
a toy not complete without the child…. what a wonderfully true statement.
I had to spend 20 minutes searching the kids toys to find my kitchen tongs the other day… Erik likes to use them to pick up toys…
Very well said. I still have some of those relics – symbols of love, I like to think 😀 Even with Vidur, we’ve donated a lot of his toys, but some boxes remain. And unless they simply fray and fall apart, they’re not going anyplace. I love that children of both genders love kitchen stuff. With his massive stash of toys, Vidur used to love hanging around the kitchen, banging the utensils around (we use a lot of steel). When he was around three, I sneakily made it a game for him to put away all the washed stuff on the shelf. And felt very proud. Only to find them all on the floor 😀 later. Nothing more delightful than to watch a child weave a world around her toys.
So happy to see you sharing yours! Would I be crazy to share some old playtime photos on my blog?
No, I love the old photos; they’re fun.
For the annual fourth grade picnic, I found a bubbles “recipe” on line, and I had two of my students mix up three batches in a big paint bucket. Many of our fourth graders played with the bubbles, some for two hours. Those batches got used up.
How wonderfully old school, and what great memories those kids will have of our last day.
Someday, when I’m a gramma, I hope to create the gift of memories more than give the gift of stuff.
I need to look up a bubbles recipe. We’re out of bubbles and I enjoy playing with the bubbles almost as much as the girls do.
Better playing with the simple kitchen stuff than the home entertainment system or a unsupervised computer. I’ll never forget a nephew who thought coins needed to go into the diskette drive (remember those?) on my computer. Our grand kids create lots of crafts so a blank paper and colored markers make a great toy. I do wonder if I enjoy the toys more than I should. Nah – who wants to grow up?
I agree with Chris, too. The best toys to me, these days (with older kids) are the ones that bring the family together and make us laugh.
This reminds me of a favorite “hat” of Kyle’s when he was about two; it was an empty Cool-Whip bowl, which he wore for basically an entire summer (though only at home, haha).
Imagination – so important. I watched a few episodes of “Frontier House” where these three families went to Montana to live like pioneers for 5 months. At the end one of the young boys said, “I learned something very important here, I learned imagination.”
Well said!
I LOVED “Frontier House”, we saw one of the couples at IKEA.
we def try to find toys that have a purpose with our boys…we limit the video games and try to think creatively…my son does love the action figures though but he also uses them to make home movies as well, which i figure is creative as well…some people go way over the top
It is amazing what children will turn into a toy. My 4 year old will go into his room and say he’s bored, when it is filled with nice toys. Then he’ll find some silly piece of paper, a box or even a piece of string and turn it into his “favorite” toy for days. So funny!
I have some photos of my boys playing with the box that i cherish.
In them I really liked that toy buying tips because toys are part of kids life. Every parent want to but cool toys for their kid. So this is very useful and important information for them.