Nancy Bailey is disturbed to see that Toys R’Us is in bankruptcy, and that media report that children prefer electronic devices to toys.
I usually find Nancy spot on, but I have a small disagreement. On the few occasions I went in to Toys R’Us to find a gift for a grandchild, I couldn’t find toys, just electronic devices or boxes. I won’t miss Toys R’Us.
I recall a birthday party for my third grandson, probably when he was 7. When it was over, he was disappointed that everyone had brought what he called “boxes.” That meant prepackaged stuff.
I don’t want to make a gross generalization, which I just did. But I think he wanted real toys. The kind of toys that Nancy writes about.
Think of your favorite toy, as she suggests. If you can remember. For me, it was a baseball or basketball. A book. I longed to have a real leather baseball glove. Clay that I could shape into different things. My sister collected dolls dressed in the clothing of other cultures. We used Mama’s pots and pans to bang drums.
The really fun toys are the ones that allow you to play or imagine. Not the prepackaged boxes.
My grandson, who will be 11 on Monday, loves stuffed animals (still). He has an iPad, and we play Words with Friends. He loves to read. He loves to read about science and history. He likes to build things with Lego blocks. He likes to take toy knights and build castles and invent games for them.
Free the children’s minds.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Legos are still good for developing fine motor skills and also for following directions!
But, unfortunately, they have moved away from general purpose blocks that can be used to build many different things from the imagination toward very specific blocks (and other tiny little “props”) that are specific to one project.
Plus, there are now so many little pieces that it is inevitable that some get lost and therefore you can only build a project once — at most. Sometimes pieces get lost even before that.
I once spent the good part of a day trying to find a tiny little plastic whip that belonged to a Lego Indiana Jones figure because my nephew was obsessing about it. I never did find it. Probably got sucked up by the vacuum — the fate of all Legos that get left on the floor.
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“Probably got sucked up by the vacuum — the fate of all Legos that get left on the floor.”
That’s odd…I find them by removing them from the soles of my feet, usually in the middle of the night.
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There are great websites out there that give patterns for building other things with blocks in general. In fact, there’s a terrific general Lego pack that isn’t for anything in general, so kids can build all they want.
Even with the pre-prepared kits, my boys have always loved making up entire scenes and stories using those Star Wars ships or whatever.
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Terrific post. YES, kids need toys!
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I don’t know that they “prefer” them. Adults buy toys. Kids don’t.
Toys R Us was kind of horrible as a store, in my opinion. Just a big mess. Maybe that’s why they went out of business.
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Worth repeating: “Adults buy toys. Kids don’t.” Parents set up the play environment.
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My son and his friends are playing board games. They’re as influenced by fads as any other group of people so maybe it’s a new thing. They spent half an hour looking for dice the other day. They couldn’t find any so they used a random number generator on a phone and limited it 2 to 12.
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I hope they realized, that a random number generator will not produce the same outcomes as dice. With standard dice, a 7 will show in 1 in 6 throws. 2 will occur one in 32, 12 will occur one in 32, and so on.
It should not be too hard to find dice. The drugstore across the street from my house, sells dice.
(I used to work in the gambling industry, and I also worked in statistical analysis for the Commerce Department).
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Charles,
You may have to start listing the jobs you never had.
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It’s only Wikipedia (that says needs more verification), but I agree with Charles. Especially if one reads all the links. What’s so difficult about finding dice? Maybe make your own. But then they won’t be symmetrical (which I guess is important). I’ll trust a good pair of dice before I will a computer (RNG). Really, how many hacks have you had?
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If we ever meet up, Chas, I challenge you to a game of Yahtzee. I always have dice and score sheets with me. If no sheets, I’ll make it up. One rule change though, no extra 100 points for more than one Yacht.
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My mistake. There are 36 (thirty six) possible outcomes, with two standard dice. 2 will show one in 36 throws. 12 will show one in 36 throws. 7 will show on 1 in six throws. 11 will show on one in 18 throws. see
https://www.thespruce.com/dice-probabilities-rolling-2-sixsided-dice-411406
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Thank you, Diane. I love your description of beloved toys. And agree about Toys ‘R’ Us.
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Toys not tests.
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I also remembered this and added to my post. “I still have my Barbie and Midge dolls because my grandmother made their clothes. Still can’t believe the time it took for her to do that for me.”
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Did you make any of the clothes?
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I recommend no wi-fi or hand-held devices/ vidgames before midsch. (Flipphones only, obviously). Try one desktop or laptop w/CD-Roms & maybe one big gamebox, games filtered by parents. One big thing means interaction, sharing, taking turns, inviting friends over for tournaments.
Pre-packaged stuff is fine if brought into a lively & varied play environment. Set the stage: a huge train-table w/Thomas & Brio, a bouncy cushioned play area, swings outside. The action-figs feed a collecting bug which will become cards, books, you-name-it later. They also let boys play-act just as girls do w/dolls, & soon the crashdummy or whatever awful commercial icon will be swept into train adventures, & kids will be surfing improvised slides into pillows like crashdummies or Buzz LY etc. And all of this live-action becomes a draw & regular relief valve from screen concentration.
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PS have you seen Sid Meier’s Civilization: the Board Game? Wow & double wow. (Board game is too small a term, it can take over the living room floor 😉 ) Get this when they’re 10 or 11 & play it with them.
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Childhood needs to be reimagined. It hasn’t changed in a hundred years. It needs to change change changey change into 21st century childhood. Toddlers need to be college and career ready. Imagine spending your childhood in a museum! (Looking at pictures of one on a screen.) Imagine spending your whole childhood playing video games! Imagine spending your entire childhood watching videos of Sal Khan! That’s why I am starting the XP-Q Child 2.0 Initiative. XP-Q 2.0 will go around the country, and eventually the globe, strapping iPads and Chromebooks to children’s heads with permanent locking devices. Just wait and see what your child can learn by getting screen time all day, every day! Like being in a, let’s say museum. Yeah, museum will do.
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“Childhood needs to be reimagined. It hasn’t changed in a hundred years. It needs to change change changey change into 21st century childhood. ”
🙂
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Children must have toys that encourage them to think and read!
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And music making toys: learning to produce music as a language.
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Those are called books!
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Childhood is being taken over by tech and so are schools. Where is the accountability?
K12 students and parents are hostage to the data overlords. No, I mean really, hostage, in every sense. As Natasha Singer points out here https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/technology/education-partovi-computer-science-coding-apple-microsoft.html and here https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/technology/google-education-chromebooks-schools.html?_r=1 BigData and edtech have taken over our classrooms.
Schools and students are held hostage, literally. Imagine being a parent in the Montana school, where students’ personal data, name, age, address and more was recently hacked by a domestic terrorist, who then sent ransom notes to the school and threatening texts to the parents. What? You, haven’t heard about this hack … or similar attacks in other schools?
Read about the domestic terrorist hack into a Montana school (and the ransom letter) here http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/kcfw/parents-react-to-cyber-hackers-ransom-letter-to-school-officials/622619694
Could it be that K12 data breaches are happening and parents are just not told about it?
The databreaches.net site has been tweeting for several days about an apparent media blackout surrounding Montana school hack and others. Read the post about the media black out and the dark overlords here. https://www.databreaches.net/did-a-media-blackout-on-reporting-on-thedarkoverlord-allow-them-to-mushroom-in-the-dark/
Even EdSurge, who often promotes online “personalized” learning and tech in the classroom, recently wrote, “Why the State of Surveillance in Schools Might Lead to the Next Equifax Disaster” https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-09-19-why-the-state-of-surveillance-in-schools-might-lead-to-the-next-equifax-disaster?utm_content=bufferb0195&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Look at this K12 Cyber Incident Map, of known k12 data breaches. https://www.edtechstrategies.com/k-12-cyber-incident-map/
We know that no data is 100% safe. The only truly safe data is data that is not collected.
Breaches are happening daily yet the data-hungry nonprofits, edtech, and government agencies continue to collect and share student data (without parent consent), and now have proposed even more sharing with National student data sharing service. https://www.cep.gov/en.html
There currently is NO PENALTY when data breaches happen in schools. There is no way for parents to opt out of this data collection, since FERPA was weakened in 2011 to bypass parent consent and FERPA has no right of action (meaning unless you have money to burn suing the government, you have no recourse https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/03/13/lawsuit-charges-ed-department-with-violating-student-privacy-rights/ ).
There is so much talk of holding schools accountable, what about accountability for our children’s privacy and for keeping their personal data secure?
WHO IS LIABLE AND RESPONSBILE FOR THIS K12 EDTECH HOSTAGE SITUATION? AND WHO WILL PROTECT OUR CHILDREN FROM THE NEXT BIG BREACH?
#FixFerpa #ReturnConsent
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Thank you SO much for sharing this information. Now when I talk to colleagues about my concerns about all of this information being kept by data companies, I have some examples.
The situation is horrifying
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ColoMom, thank you for this comment and all the links.
I totally agree.
When a company like Equifax cannot secure its data, when the SEC cannot secure its data, when the entire federal government’s personnel data got hacked a few years ago, what makes the schools think that they can secure the data of their students?
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Oh Diane!
I simply had to respond to this one! I’m an author who has published about 20 books for parents with activities that help children gain confidence through play. (My “Mother Lode” book has more than 5,000 activities for toddlers through teens.) PLAY is absolutely the way children learn. Yes. They can also learn with electronic toys. The key seems to be imagination. To me, it is where creativity begins; and when a child is able to take those ideas and make them real in some way there is no limit to what they can learn and accomplish. Thank you for this post. Toys are great, and the ability to make their own fun with just imagination is also one terrific way to grow. The tech stuff can be used to expand their horizons and understanding it will be necessary; but it’s not the only way to do that.
I’ve been following your blog for years and appreciate all the information you provide.
Thank you,
Kas Winters, The “Sneaky Mom” who knows that children learn best when the they they are playing and having fun!
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A huge amen to this thought! I am so TIRED of my school district pushing the RIGOR word on our Kindergarten and First grade children. ROUTINE and STRUCTURE, sure, cause they need that. But RIGOR? They virtually leave no time for play and have removed all toys but save math manipulative. So unfair! My special ed class, now K1, has the las little kitchen stove in the school, and I hang onto it, with dear life.
Speaking of toys, I took my refurbished Kermit the Frog puppet in one day at dismissal time and was dismayed when none of the children knew who Kermit is! Where have we put childhood?
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When the schools expect kindergarten and primary pupils, not to mention even pre-k children, to sit at desks most of the day so that they can be pushed to learn things that they are not developmentally ready for, in order that they will be “college and career ready”………….
Well, what can I say? This is child abuse. Children learn by playing. They need to get up out of their seats and move around, interact with each other, learn by doing, as well as sitting and listening to stories and coloring and learning letters and numbers.
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All you really need is a stick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwWDa1xPTPA
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