Expensive Toys

[poliphilo]

My mother has to buy a present for her great-grandson, my great-nephew, who is two. I'd been playing with Odi's kids earlier and suggested she give him an empty Kleenex box. The truth is that up to a certain age kids really aren't impressed by toys that come with batteries. Something like the Kleenex box will do just as well. Look, you can put things in it and take them out again,  you can wear it as a hat, you can rip it up...

Remember Eeyore with his burst balloons and empty hunney jar?

Another great game we were playing yesterday afternoon was "throw the ball into the waste paper basket". 

Comments

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

You are right on, Tony! We used shoeboxes, made them into vehicles, building blocks, doll beds, and a host of other things, as well as storing hundreds of broken crayons in them and other small-but-useful items, each category in its own box. String and tin cans also had a myriad of uses. And sticks? Oh, boy! A stick could become a bat for a ball game in the street, or a weapon for a war game, or a walking stick for a hike in the woods, and more.
You know what? I think we were better off for NOT having too many "real" toys.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

All it takes is a little imagination.

One of the problems with sophisticated modern toys is they do all the heavy lifting for you.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Ball in the wastebasket was also a game we played. Also, throwing the ball as high up a blank wall as we could, then trying to catch it in one hand. I got pretty good at it for a while.