Another "I knew that!" article

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills
by Alix Spiegel

"Clearly the way that children spend their time has changed. Here's the issue: A growing number of psychologists believe that these changes in what children do has also changed kids' cognitive and emotional development."

Read the article here. Thank you to Julia for the heads up on this article.

We've tried really hard to raise children who weren't all about "things". But of course, we struggle with materialism ourselves. It is very hard to live a middle-class life in America and not accumulate tons of unecessary stuff. It has been easier to not accumulate lots of toys one of the reasons being that we have understood that the best kind of play is the play a child makes himself.

So, I was thinking, in the reality of modern life in America, which toys have we had around for all of our children and just wouldn't like to do without? Books, though not toys, comes to mind, first. We like building materials of some sort...the ones which have stayed and continue to be played with are the Duplos - the large sized legos that even a grown-up will get down on the floor and build with. Dolls, especially dollhouse sized ones are also great. Though we do have a collection of lightsabers which keep little boys immensly entertained outside, that is about it for the toys that we have always had and wouldn't like to do without. So, what are the necessary toys in your home?