Toys of a Bygone Era

Some of  the toys of a bygone era are beginning to make a comeback, according to the latest poll. Traditional toys that were once the mainstay of our children’s early life:  Lego, wooden blocks, and Tinker toys, to name a few, are returning to take hold of a new generation.  Could  Twister, and the Computron  not be far behind?

Some  U.S. parents are beginning to question the wisdom of allowing their  children to immerse themselves, continually, in non-stop screen/monitor  time with the television, the computer or video/educational games. ...  (Now with the introduction of APP technology, there seems to be no reason to go outside to play, ever again!)

The child requires outdoor experiences to challenge both mind and body on a daily basis. Creativity is housed in the human mind. It unleashes its power when surrounded by nature, man and an inquisitive mind. The young human brain is plastic, changing at will, when exposed to forces intriguing to the child and beyond the child’s imagination and threshold for thought... The “One size fits all’- as in clothing-does not work with the developing brain. Everything has its place.

The Computron of the Sears catalogue of the 80’s was an incredible toy for our growing boys. The voice, in this small adaptation of a desktop computer, directed the action for the compendium of  'computer activities‘ that followed.  There were three levels of difficulty.  It was awesome family entertainment. You could match wits with the Computron,  or family members. ... This incredible toy, contained words, letters, numbers in different games with or without its own disks, and a range of mathematical functions, and musical notes and phrases to entertain and teach. The auditory portion, introducing musical notes in a melody or a sequence of notes, was the best training for  the early learning of music and math as it tapped into the child’s complex plastic brain. The Computron was a fun, relentless barrage on human thinking, if you wanted it to be. It was and is an awesome ‘toy’.  It tested the limits of early human thinking for  our boys.  I long for its return...Please, bring it back.

Unpainted and unvarnished pine blocks were the next great toy of that era. One set, then two  were purchased in order to have enough different shapes and sizes for the cities, bridges, towns and buildings, cars that would become a part of  our sons’ everyday work day. Housed in  stiff cardboard boxes these ‘building blocks of the brain’ created excitement, especially, when  questions were posed as to what  was being built, the purpose of the structure and what pieces  were being used and why. ... With blocks, there were no boundaries. It was a toy with limitless possibilities much like the child’s brain!  Lego was the bricks and mortar of building materials for children. Our oldest would look at the picture displayed and construct according to his imagination. We were usually at step #1-hoping to help him- when he was near completion of this newest masterpiece.

The Slinky was a metallic snake-like toy whose job was simply to move or fall down the staircase. It helped to illustrate, visually, the wonders of physics: speed, velocity, mass and gravity.  Would the Slinky move faster if placed closer to the top step before letting go? Could it be slowed down in some way?  Racing two together was intriguing as they seemed to have a mind of their own travelling down the stairs in synchronized fashion.

A change of pace is critical in the life of a child. Being totally immersed in the computer or its derivatives does not help build overall health in body and mind. Child’s play is not silly stuff. It is an important developmental component of the child’s everyday life and e-toys simply do not fill all the roles necessary to accommodate our children’s growth, development and overall health.