Choosing The Best Learning Toys For Christmas 2009
As Christmas approaches for 2009, as a parent we start to think about the most suitable toys to purchase our children. I am often torn between the presents my kids would love to receive and those I feel I would like to offer. On the one hand there is part of me that knows they would love to a handheld gaming console like the Nintendo DS.
But there is another part of me that recognizes there are only so many hours in a day and do I really want my child to be playing a computer game instead of reading a book or playing creatively in the yard? The answer to that question is 'No'. Having said that there is also an element of technological familiarity, I want to encourage my child to be firstly familiar with electronic devices but also I want him to be able to regulate his use of things that are highly appealing but best taken in small doses.
I call it the Coco Pops principle. When I was a kid my parents never bought Coco Pops. Ok maybe that's not true (I'll put my petulant child back in the box for a bit). Let's say they bought this type of cereal perhaps once a year. As a kid I craved Coco Pops and I think a large part of that was seeing the box all the time (on TV, advertisements in comics and on store shelves) and not being able to have it. When I left home and could purchase them for myself I went wild, having Coco Pops every day until I made myself sick.
Part of me thinks if I was simply allowed to have Coco Pops on a semi-regular basis then I wouldn't have formed such an attachment to them. Creating a sense of deprivation set up a situation where I craved them more and had an irrational attachment to them, wanted them all the time. If I had what I craved in measured doses this attachment would not have been created.
So with kid's electronic toys my preference is for considered and measured interactions. That is giving them access to the best resources I can find in time slots that fit in alongside other parts of their lives. So that is to say they can use educational learning toys because they are fun but also because they will learn skills other than hand-eye coordination and competitiveness and they can use them for half an hour a day, if it fits in with our schedule.
Purchasing electronic toys for kids needn't be a hard decision, just remember to buy a recharger!
