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But there is a lot of room for exploration at each end of any stereotype and it would be a mistake not to allow your child to explore everything, be it dolls and prams or bow and arrows and cars!
We also see that little boys love a wooden play kitchen and will happily play cooking games for hours. This should be no surprise - the majority of professional chefs are men so perhaps the creative spark was ignited at an early age creating dishes with lovely soft play food like our range from Haba. But many parents resist buying a toy that is perceived as being for girls for a boy and will stick to the safer options.
Girls may not care for dolls or dressing up as princesses – but give them a bow and arrow and a few bits of old cloth and they will soon be Robin Hood creating camps and imagining adventures! We have a wonderful range of English play swords and shields that are incredibly popular with both boys and girls.
Ultimately a parent strives to give their children a happy childhood and ignite a desire to learn and explore and ultimately enjoy life. Is today’s modern child over indulged, overwhelmed and over exposed – do we want too much from our children too soon?
Modern technology pulls our children away from traditional play earlier and earlier, and this coupled with increased supervision and less trust that a child will do the right thing feels like the very concept of a childhood is under threat!
As children of today grow technology will be a significant feature in their working lives – so it is critical they get to grips with computers, social media, and other internet technology! If you have been using a computer since the days of DOS then you’ll know how much has changed in the last decade…. the pace of change will continue to gain momentum. It’s absolutely right that your children have the opportunity to learn and embrace all that this means.
The question is when is the right time to allow your kids to move towards technology as a toy –we at Ptolemy Toys say hold back as long as you can, it’s still important to foster the skills that “traditional” play brings to your children. From wooden toy blocks they will invent and design, wheeled toys to push or pull will introduce momentum and speed as well as agility. Role playing toys like a wooden toy cooker will teach your children how to share, to empathise and how to work with others. Play is a social thing, not something that is done facing a screen. It’s also a physical thing, buy your 8 year old a Go Cart Kit to make as a project, and then see the joy as he rides it in the park!
If we look at some of the best of today’s inventors and technology whizzes I’m willing to bet they did not spend their childhood glued to pc games and consoles! Bill Gates passion for computing started around 13, Steve Jobs also got the bug around the same age Junior High School so we do not need to rush in at 5 6 or 7 years old with our own children if these guys can do what they have done starting much later! Ptolemy Toys would love to ask these guys what their favourite toy was - what toy opens the imagination more than any other?
Technology is a must have skill, but don’t rush in - give your child time for traditional play, hold back another year, don’t cave in to peer pressure too soon, remember how quickly you caught up with other children who played a sport or started another craft or skill before you had even thought about buying or being able to afford the kit!!
A child will not be left behind for long – at 5 6 or 7 years old they do not need to know how to play computer games, they will easily catch up on a couple of years “experience”, but if they have fostered the key skills they get from traditional play your life as a parent will be much easier, more enjoyable and more rewarding! And we have not even touched on the behavioural aspects of kids being sat in front of a screen for hours day in day out!
From experience and as much as we LOVE computers and the world wide web we know that the majority will be behind a desk watching a screen of some sort for most of their working lives so really make the most of a childhood and enjoy traditional toys and the great outdoors for as long as you can.
