We use a bullet of Francesco Tonucci to show a reality that we seem to have forgotten, precisely, those of small use we made the most imagination, that the best toy is not always paid, but lives in us.
Before to wash the dishes it was necessary little more than soap and water, now a dishwasher is necessary. Before we heated the food in the pan, now we need a microwave. Before we watched TV for a while, we read books and stories and we played in the street many different games that we invented ourselves.
What I mean is that now, with the technification of everything and with the presence of devices for anything (if there are even vacuum cleaners that go alone), we tend to believe that children need toys to have fun and, many times, what we get It is precisely the opposite: break the magic of the game that lives in their heads and not in the object.
The magic of being a child
There is nothing more magical, innocent and pure than a child. They are full of energy, full of joy and full of desire to meet, learn and live new things.
Can you tell "let's eat" and receive a "I don't feel like it" and tell him "Come on, SpongeBob, we'll have a Burguer Cangreburguer today!" and see how the eyes light up while responding "Yeah come on!".
It's their desire to play and do different and fun things that drives them to move, that's why it's so important to play with them a lot and leave the boring world of adults to adults.
They need free time
To cultivate the imagination, the ideal is that they have time to do nothing, to get bored even and, from boredom, start thinking new things to do. Many times we will have to put ourselves at your disposal to share games, letting them be the ones who instruct us in their games. Other times we will have to be the ones who give them alternatives.
Educational or educational toys
For some time now, toys, for the most part, have become didactic or educational. In fact, educational DVDs have appeared (well, it was already shown that they were not so much), educational stuffed animals and even educational plates (with letters and numbers around to learn while eating ...).
With so much "subliminal" education, he seems to want to control the game time, and the non-game time, to take advantage of it by promoting more or less directed learning and this can make you lose, if you insist too much on it, the pleasure of playing for playing and having fun for having fun.
Autonomous toys
With the increase in technology or thanks to an unsuccessful design, many toys are too autonomous. They are simply an audiovisual show that shows the child and allows little manipulation and exploration, beautiful and incredible to our eyes, but boring in the hands of a child.
In my case there are two autonomous toys with which I have screwed up. One of them a replica of Wall-E, that he moves and speaks by himself, but that he has very bad handling to play with him (little has moved from the shelf on which he placed himself when he got home). The other is a spiral train circuit in which trains fall and roll along it. When I saw my son put the little hand between the columns, trying to roll the trains "by hand" instead of releasing them on the ramp (and seeing that they also fell) I realized the error.
The simpler ...
The idea, as you observe in the vignette, is that children also have toys of those that we call boring, because they do nothing. It is these toys that allow them to develop their imagination the most if we let them.
I say if we leave them, because many times we want to teach children how this or that toy works or what you can do, if you want, with three wooden blocks. That day we are greatly limiting your imagination, as we are directing the fun towards what we believe it should be and on that path you lose a lot of what they could do.
