Toys for my youngsters is a problem that I have long struggled with. When my first child was born, I used to be clueless. I used to be mainstream and thought that low cost, China made, plastic Wal-Mart toys were just the issue that one bought for their babies.
Somewhere during my son's initial year I discovered the "natural movement" and rid our house of 98% of the plastic toys (there was still some plastic, the wheels on the picket trains, etc.). I read concerning the hazards of plastic toys. Treehugger.com says that "PVC (aka polyvinyl chloride) looks to be everywhere we tend to look. Some beach toys, teethers, dolls, and even (gasp!) rubber duckies are cheaply manufactured with the environmentally dubious material. A dioxin-producing powerhouse, PVC releases toxins into the surroundings all the way through its lifecycle from manufacturing to disposal. Many PVC toys additionally contain phthalates, chemical compounds that build the PVC plastic additional versatile, that initial studies have linked to both cancer and hormonal disruption."
Thus then I went a very little crazy with the picket toys (gasp! ME, go crazy with something? Never!) They were simply starting to become widespread thus they were even found in places like the Greenback Store and Wal-Mart. My house again became over populated with toys, albeit picket toys. My kids and I were slowly becoming overwhelmed with stuff but it had been onerous to prevent after I was finding very expensive toys for less than a dollar at thrift stores. I started removing the flimsy, cheap wooden toys however we still had a ton of toys.
Then came the toy recalls. I feel like I ought to preface that sentence with some classical piano music to form it sound a lot of dramatic....Don Don Don Daaaaa. It finally dawned on me that simply because a toys is created of wood, that doesn't build it any better than a low-cost plastic toy. You wish to understand how much wood is is made of, where it had been made, how it absolutely was created, what sort of paint is on it, etc.
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I conjointly began to realize the importance of "non toys". My children still have a ton of toys, despite my endless pruning. However the items they appear to enjoy the most have nothing to try to to with actual toys. When children play with natural toys their imaginations are being awakened. They're using easy materials, that are readily offered, to form their own world. A stick will be a sword, a magic wand, a mixing spoon for a cauldron...the chances are endless. They're not limited by the look of an government who designed a one dimensional product simply to create a profit.
Beside that, when I purchase toys for my youngsters I suppose concerning the "play price" of the toy. I don't need a toy that is going to do all of the work for my child. I suppose such toys boring the imagination. Why get a farm set where the cow moos for your child at the push of a button? Why not obtain a basic set where you kid will moo for the cow...or if she needs her cow to bark, it can bark. Or perhaps higher, why not let her use materials found in nature...that attention-grabbing piece of wood will be a cow in some unspecified time in the future and be carrots for her pot of "soup" the next. Will your baby extremely want to be surrounded by loud, flashing, blinking, beeping toys? What does this do to the developing brain? To the developing imagination?
Another factor that I do to encourage my kid's imagination is to present my son dolls and my daughter tractors (furthermore the opposite way around). I do not limit my youngsters's play based on backwards (personally) stereotypes.
It's exhausting and often frustrating to be therefore diligent in nowadays's world. My kids do not watch a ton of tv, nonetheless they're still bombarded with the Yank plan of "You NEED this product to make your life better, to make you higher". My son already knows that if he sees it advertised on television that there's an enormous chance that he is not getting it.
Therefore this has been a come to life decision for me. I'm again purging toys, even the wooden ones. Any toy that comes into my house currently has to go through my mental checklist. I attempt to buy natural wood toys, toys without paint. I additionally check to determine where it's made. If it absolutely was created within the US or Europe I enable it. Things appear to be of better quality from these places.
One need not head to the boutique toy look on Main Street so as to get sensible quality toys. Additionally to using what's found in nature, I've got found most of our toys at the native thrift stores or re-sell shops. I've got also traded for toys on online parenting boards.
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Gary Freeman has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in music reviews, you can also check out his latest website about:
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