Toys that never get old

The online calendar of kids' events

in London

Toys that never grow old
(Even when your children do)

By Debra Ross, Publisher, KidsOutAndAbout.com
With lots of input from readers

It's the time of year when we parents descend into insanity, when the mad scramble to the store at the 11th hour is eclipsed only by the frenzy with which we whip out the Visa card when we've grabbed what we hope is the perfect item. This time, we vow, he'll play with it for more than 10 minutes. This one will be perfect.

Is perfection possible?

What constitutes a "perfect" toy? It must hold the child's interest not only past New Year's Day, but for years to come, through several developmental stages. It must be pleasurable to look at and handle. It must survive the occasional crunch under the heel or plunge into the tub. And it must do all this while simultaneously teaching the child valuable skills and facts about how the world works.

Think it's impossible? Think again. This year, after my August frenzy of disposing of much of the junk we'd collected, I resolved only to purchase toys that had a very low "dollars to play hours" ratio -- a function I just made up to describe the investment we make in toys that may seem initially expensive, but, ultimately, are cheaper than a plastic Happy Meal gadget when you count up the hours of productive and engaged play. So what did I do? Naturally, I turned to the experts.

I asked 1500 KOA readers to name the toys that had held their children's interest for years, and here are the results.

Legos, Legos, and More Legos

The toy that more parents mentioned than any other, the hands-down winner, was Legos. "My 10-year-old was just telling me how he�s been playing with the same pieces for 5 years," says Shari, of Honeoye Falls. "The possibilities are endless!...[E]very year, they still put Legos on their Christmas list." Katie, of Williamson, agrees: "If I only bought one toy, it would be Legos! We�ve had the same big box for years and my boys (8 and almost 7) play with them about 3 days a week, every week, without fail."

This shouldn't surprise us, because many of us had Legos when we were kids (click here for a nice web page that details their history dating from the 1930s). In addition to the traditional sets that are still the mainstay of many a child's toy box, Legos have continually been updated for the times: Nowadays, yes, there is even a Harry Potter Lego set.

Can spending more really mean spending less?

The longevity of a product can often serve as some indicator of its value. BRIO, the company whose name has become synonymous with the popular train set of interlocking tracks and magnetic cars that provide hours of new entertainment each time they're set up, started in 1884 in Sweden. Along with the popular "Thomas and Friends" wooden railway system (which can mix and match with Brio tracks), Brio was next on the list in popularity among Rochester-area parents.

"Brio toys may seem more costly at first," says Anne Marcus, owner of AnneMail, one of the U.S.'s leading mail-order providers of Brio and Thomas The Tank Engine Wooden Toys. "But they pay dividends for years to come. They don't break. They're wonderful for spurring a child's creativity and sense of accomplishment. And they will literally be a central part of your child's play for years. A 3-year-old plays with her Brio trains differently than her 7-year-old brother does, but she's not any less engaged in her play."

Toys that are "powered by imagination"

Almost all of the other toys that made this list are markedly "low-technology" toys rather than electronic or computer games. Marbleworks and Super Marbleworks Raceways, which are made by Discovery Toys, seem to be as much fun for adults as for kids. Other toys that kids use to build structures that they subsequently play with are Lincoln Logs, simple wooden blocks, more elaborate blocks (The Construction Site distributes something called Anchor Stones, which are blocks made out of stone that let you build beautiful buildings), TinkerToys (here's a neat article about Tinker Toys from our very own Strong Museum) and Fiddlestix, and GeoMags. "The GeoMags are truly a great toy!" says Mary Pat, of Penfield. "My boys find a million ways to incorporate them into their play."

Dollhouses, puppets, and hand-held dolls such as Barbie and Polly Pocket that encourage the practice in social interaction that comes with role play, were also popular on the list. Dollhouses that parents especially liked include the PLAN dollhouses, the Fisher Price Loving Family Dollhouse, and the Giant Dollhouse from the Toys To Grow On Catalog. "Some parents hesitate to give their boys dollhouses," says Marcus. "But the value that comes from the role play opportunities is immeasurable, and there's no reason why girls should find miniatures more fun than boys do. So I'm so pleased that PLAN makes a slightly more 'masculine' set of dollhouses, such as their Treehouse and Farmhouse. It overcomes some parents' hesitation." Marcus reports these are some of her fastest selling items at AnneMail.

Fantasy play is another theme parents reported as very popular. Playmobil sells literally dozens of "play worlds," from the airport to the zoo and all kinds of sets in between. There is even a Playmobil "Advent Calendar Winter Wonderland" which retails for about $16 and features "The Xmas spirit with many loveable PLAYMOBIL pieces packable in 24 small christmas presents."

Interestingly, only two electronic toys made the list of Rochester parents' all-time best loved toys: An electronic piano such as those made by Fisher-Price and by Schoenhut Piano Company, and LeapPad. However, both types of toys (the piano especially) are designed specifically to encourage the child's active creation, so they fall under this general principle as well.

Please click here to see the entire list of most-recommended toys from parents who responded to the survey.

Low-tech leads to high-tech?

Linda Pratt, a Rochester-are educational consultant who owns Learning By Heart, provides an "Ideas for Holiday Gifts" newsletter for her clients each year. Her suggestions are "designed to address a child's attention span, turn-taking skills, vocabulary, ability to work with his/her hands, number/color/shape recognition, creative thinking or problem solving." In addition to several of the items mentioned above, her list includes all kinds of ideas for products that let children create, for example: Mr. Potato Head, puzzles, stencils, pipe cleaners, and Play-Doh (Pratt provides a recipe for making your own).

The options on Pratt's list are exclusively low-technology items. And I believe that this is no accident. After all, while those of us who enthusiastically reap the benefits of the Information Age do want our kids to become wise users of technology, what we really want is for our children to become its producers. Even my 2-and-a-half-year-old can manage a mouse, but my ultimate standard for her is not that she can program her VCR: I want my kids to be, above all, people who think, who dream, who imagine what is possible, and then make that come true. The Information Age provides limitless opportunities for creation. I want to make sure my kids acquire the power to do so.

Of course, helping kids adopt a concept of themselves as creators does not involve simply telling them over and over that they're smart. Kids are not dummies; they need proof, not stroking. They need to experience the joy of creation over and over through their childhood. Electronic toys certainly have their place (and goodness knows enough of them have their place on our playroom shelves), but young children can't create high technology. Their building materials are wood and plastic and gravity and simple bits that interlock, not chips and wires. That's where low-tech toys come in. The creation and the play of toys that are "powered by imagination" are new and different each time. Implicitly, kids know this, and I believe that's why these toys have been so powerful through the years.

Where to buy low-tech toys

I have tried to include links for potential places to buy each of the toys listed in this article; a number of online resources are represented. As part of our survey, we also asked parents to list their favorite catalogs that provide quality toys. We have these catalogs listed on a separate page, so please click here to access that valuable resource.

If you live in the Rochester, NY region and would like to shop in person, local independent toy stores such as Piccadilly's Toy Shoppe in Webster (585-671-2160), Hobby House Toys in the Perinton Square Mall in Fairport (585-421-3720), and the Unique Toy Shop in Canandaigua (585-394-2319) have nice selections of low-tech toys. Lift Bridge Books in Brockport (585-637-2260) also has some good options.

Do you have a suggestion for toys that should be added to this list? We'd love to add it to this article: Send email to suggestions@KidsOutAndAbout.com.