Toys

When I was a kid, we had Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs. Tinker Toys became machines, swing sets (the easiest thing to make), robots, and other things. Lincoln Logs became houses, barricades, and blown up stuff. We had Hairy Garys and Mad Libs to play with when we were in the car. I wasn’t really into Barbies much. I was too much of a tomboy. We played outside a lot. We played cops and robbers. We played cowboys and Indians. We had a go-cart that we drove around and shot each other with our toy guns. (Of course, that would be unacceptable today.) We rode our bikes everywhere

Over the years, Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs were phased out. Slowly, car games began to disappear (although Mad Libs never disappeared). Barbies are being hacked away at by other dolls. And, many children don’t have any idea what playing outside means. Instead, most kids today spend hours playing video games and watching T.V. It is estimated that, on average, kids spend nearly 4 hours watching T.V. Where do they find the time?

A much better idea would be to play outside, or play with toys. If a child just can’t bring himself to play with the ‘old fashioned’ toys, there are a lot of new toys being introduced that could induce a child to explore the good old concept of imaginative play and building toys.

One that looks cool is Struxx. They have a Robotrixx that Xavier would love. This is a construction system that has high tech features like a gearbox, motion detection, sound and light. And, it’s much cheaper than the Lego Robot systems. I don’t know what the quality is like, but if you’re looking for a cheaper robot system to start with, you might try this.

There are a lot of new toys out there. Some of them have to be as good as the ones we had. It’s just a matter of adding the imagination we were able to call on, to make them good.