toys

As it's Christmas time and holiday time, it's also the major toy time. One thing I wanted to be sure to do on this blog was to post ideas about toys.

I went to the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio page and found this interesting info on its web site, Five Myths About Toys
http://www.toyportfolio.com/TVArchives/ToyStoreBan/ToyStoreBan.asp

If you're a high tech parent, you probably find high tech related toys hard to resist. Your cool factor among your children may also rise if they see you fondling the latest Game Boy game or figuring out how some kind of talking toy works. I love many of these toys, too. But I am already becoming tired of some of them. And I am wondering how many batteries are leaking all over our house.

If you want to know which toys (high tech or not) from last season didn't sell well, go to a garage sale. That talking ewok-yoda doll is at a lot of garage sales. People find it creepy and it doesn't seem to work very well. It's supposed to tell stories and interact with children. I think a lot of well meaning aunts and uncles bought it. Parents often have told me they and their children just can't stand it. I have found many of once hot interactive-type toys at garage sales. They seem to loose their luster fast and kids often outgrow these. On the other hand, you can almost always make something out of blocks, Play-doh and Legos.

Another major offering at garage sales are the zillions of toys from fast food kids' meals. They're fun, but kids seem to loose interest quickly. Still, I find them often quite innovative. Did you see those hand-held games McDonald's had early in the fall? I saw a lot of parents play with them. As toys, I like the meal toys sometimes more than the ones I pay a lot more for. Well, that's another post.

We are debating about buying a Leap Pad in our house. I think it's cool. My child is fascinated for moments in a store. But I purchased an earlier Leap Pad brand product and was disappointed that it broke after not a lot of use and that my child really wasn't as keen about it as I thought. My mother, who was a teacher, is reluctant to buy a Leap Pad because she thinks it encourages children to think that all books are interactive, that there are buttons on all books. Books aren't like that, she says. It's not the price that bothers her, but the principle. I don't know. Stay tuned.