Being a new grandmother and grandmother-to-be has uncovered a side of me I never knew I had. I find myself salivating in places like "Baby Gap" as I plan my grandsons' current and future wardrobes. I look longingly at all the adorable child-themed china from the Emma Bridgewater catalogue... even though I know it will cost me an arm and a leg to have it all shipped from Great Britain. I enter the children's section of Barnes and Noble and pour over all the picture books, savoring each illustration and turn of phrase. [OK... I've always done that...]
I recently came across a quote saying, "It costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father."
That got me thinking back to my own lean childhood and the days when my children were little. I've noticed that the homes where small children live on TV makeover shows are just inundated with toys. But I have yet to see a child actually playing with any of them. They're usually off in a corner tearing up a magazine or banging on a pot.
Beth was discussing her plan to think about toy choices ahead of time, planning her approach to toys rather than letting the advertising industry dictate what she needs to "buy" in order to qualify as a good parent. That sounded wise to me. What I remember playing with most when I was little is an old tablespoon (sans silver plating) and an empty cocoa tin (that always smelled a little bit chocolaty). My Nana took care of me while my Mom worked and I didn't have a lot of toys. But I remember how she played board games with me multiple times a day, how she taught me to play Canasta when I could hardly hold all those cards [I could "meld" before I could write!], how she introduced me to art by taking me regularly to the museum home of the sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens, how she let me "help" with her perpetual puzzles laid out on a specially crafted "puzzle board", how her glass-fronted bookcase always held Nancy Drew books for me, and when I was 13 and "Beatle-crazy", how she cut out every article concerning them from the daily paper and let me make a scrapbook [which I still have!].
Wouldn't it be nice if kids learned to be creative, enjoyed spending time interacting with adults and knew how to entertain themselves with the resources at hand? It's worth thinking about in advance.
10 comments:
lets not kid ourselves. let's just decide now that we'll give Niam whatever will keep him 'entertained' and give the real stuff to Micah. Something has to make up for the fact that you won't see Micah as much. If he's anything like his father, gifts can cover a lot of negatives in a relationship.
so when you get a great gift, give the box to Niam and the goods to Micah.
This sounds similar to your suggestion that the "big gift" check from Leah's baby shower go towards purchasing a Sony Playstation 3.
I know there will be an age where Nehemiah will start asking for toys that other kids have. Not having the TV on will probably help, but that's when it will be hard to not cave. A few neat things are nice, but yeah I think buying things may be a replacement for time not spent. Also, not being up to their ears in toys allows them to be creative and use their imagination.
I was about to commend you for your "planning ahead" and actually spending time figuring out "toy rules" and then I read "die...die...die". ;)
Thanks for that website. I have a couple of books in the SS library on do-at-home science experiments and one on how to build trebuchets, etc. That last book was a BIG hit with a couple of the Dads and at the spring Home School Science Fair I saw some wonderful creations. Great!!
Colin just brought home one of HIS favorite toys from his Mom's house. It's a "sneaky" holster. There was a string attached to the bottom of the holster. The other end was connected to a plastic ring which you placed around your finger. When your friends told you to "Stick 'em up!", you raised your hands & thus raising the bottom of the holster so your six shooter could shoot out at them from the bottom of the holster. I don't remember this having been a universally popular toy, but Colin thought it was just great!
I love, love, LOVE the Star Wars build! When my niece was little her Mom, who is an artist, made her a huge papier-mache tree for her "little people" to play in. That's the kind of thing that gets huge kudos from me. It's both the building of it, taking suggestions and help from the child and then the endless hours of playing with it. How creative!
I don't remember that car. Colin suggested seeing if Mattel made it.
To give you an idea of how inexpensive our toys were, my husband played "Battleship", too. BUT there was no such boardgame available back then. He and his sibs played using graph paper! As a matter of fact he & I used to play the same way... and taught our kids to. I never did have to buy the boardgame!
I still have all Tim's Legos here, from the preschool set to his last set - when he went through his Robin Hood phase.
Don't worry, when the grandsons get old enough to manipulate blocks we'll be SURE they have the preschool variety. [Are preschool Duplo Blocks acceptable or would I be causing irreparable harm straying away from the original?]
Btw... it was Mr. Middle-Class Colin who had the graph paper. I never did until college. I did have lots of dirt though! ;) I've always said its better to be country poor than city poor. - if you need to make a choice. ;)
Liam is already old enough for Duplo, at least if he were as coordinated and talented as a Wilcox child, he would be.
Isaac received his first Lego (Duplo) before he was born. David had the privilege of inheritance.
Duplo is Lego, by the way; before it was branded Duplo, it was called Lego Preschool.
I'm on it! [Do you think Niam will be traumatized because I didn't get them BEFORE he was born? Well, there's STILL hope for Micah, anyway. ;)]
For Tim's boy... three words... James Bond: Goldeneye.
Beth: Sorry for mislabeling Nehemiah as Liam. Must have had Star Wars on the brain.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Post a Comment