Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Last month, toy prices rose last month at the fastest pace in 24 years. This doesn’t necessarily surprise me as the fastest growing categories of children’s products are computers and electronic games. My 13-year-old nephew divides his purchases between games for his brand new Wii system and expensive baseball gear. Middle school children sport camcorders and Disney cell phones. Elementary school kids carry GameBoys in their backpacks, and preschoolers tap out games at www.sesamestreet.com

Sad to say, though, this price inflation affects me too. While we eschew electronic games for our five-year-old, we do purchase wooden toys and hard to find natural items. A 36 piece set of
tree blocks goes for $48.00. A wooden airplane sells for $32.00. Elsa Beskow books run $18.00 each – not available in paperback.

But, while electronic games last barely a season, and children soon outgrow cameras geared for kids, our toys tend to last for years. My DS still plays with the wooden airplane we bought when he was two. Castle blocks first were towers to knock over, now are parts of stories he tells, and soon will be part of elaborate building schemes. When he finally outgrows these toys – we’ll sell them on E-bay for close to what we paid, or pass them on to our grandchildren.

We buy solid, open-ended toys made from natural materials for a number of reasons; not only their good resale value. Open-ended toys encourage imagination. The less a toy does for the child, the more he is encouraged to create pictures in his own mind of what something might say or do. Open-ended toys can be used for a multitude of purposes.

Natural materials help children understand how REAL things feel. A wooden bench is solid. A beehive made of real beeswax is soft. Rocks are heavy.

We pay more, but well-made natural toys hold a child’s interest for years, and stay in the family forever. It’s hard to argue with that.

[tags]parenting, kids, toys, cost, price, open-ended, imagination, long-lasting[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by only alice, under a Creative Commons license