Imaginary Gifts

Now that the holiday season is behind us, I have a fresh perspective on the business of "designer toys". There are scores of toys and games out there that don't just entertain--they educate and stimulate creativity. I spent an afternoon with my 6-year-old playing with a toy that let us "dig out" Dinosaur fossils, put them together and paint the whole thing. It was pretty cool, and probably more productive than killing a few hours with a video game.

However, even with a great selection of stuff out there, we still wonder why our kids are drawn to simple items around the house as opposed to the designer toys we carefully select for them. A piece of chalk on an open driveway. Pot covers that act as shields or cymbals. Aprons for capes. Sticks as swords, magic wands or microphone stands. And a cardboard box for pretty much anything.

What do we do after the holidays when our children have abandoned their designer toys in favor of pots, pans, boxes, and chalk? Rejoice that they are playing with a gift more valuable than any designer toy ever created.

Their imagination.

Comments

[mindblob]

Hello David,

Very nice post. You are so right.

- Kids' side: simple objects, simple pleasures and a lot of imagination.

- Adults' side: complicated objects, futile pleasures and a lot of money.

There is so much to learn from kids.

[Pete]

According to TIME, aka "magazine YOU", human interaction is the best way to make a kid smart. Be thankful.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1147180,00.html

[Michael Wagner]

Your post reminded me of the fort I made out of wooden orange crates I rescued from the dumpster behind the grocery store next to my house. I was 9.

I first took the crates apart and then reassembled them.

The result was a two story tall fort that was hours of fun and the talk of the neighborhood.

Less leads to more creativity...if you let it.

[Jason Lonsdale]

Kids love cardboard boxes, especially huge ones. In Australia, Simpson whiteware did a whole ad campaign around this.

[Nancy Friedman]

In 2005 three playthings were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York: the jack-in-the-box, the Candyland game, and the giant cardboard box (the kind an appliance comes in). Giant boxes were my favorite toys when I was little: my brothers and I made them into clubhouses and played in them until they deteriorated into soggy messes.