Shirley I would’ve laughed louder 'cept I’ve got a baby sleeping on me. Too funny! Too true!
I tell you what, I think the toy designers of years past have gone to work for the food processors. 'Cause they’re playing with the food now instead of the toys - green ketchup? The creativity’s going in the wrong places - the food is wild, the toys are dull!
Hearthsong is wonderful.
I highly recommend Magic Cabin . Great product. Great toys. Nice people. Lovely catalog.
Another excellent source for books that have been missed by the pop culture/advertizing world, along with great games and a few toys and crafts: Chinaberry This is my number one favorite place for resources for kids.
A few others:
Rosie Hippo Loads of waldorf/natural toys and books.
Blessings Similar to rosie hippo, but more earth goddess-ish.
Kinderland Eurotoys.
When the kids get older, I recommend Ravensburger games and Selecta games and puzzles. Melissa & Doug toys, games and puzzles are also excellent quality at real prices.
Thank you fessie.
In case anyone wins the lottery in the next two hours or is feeling overly generous to ME:
This is EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!
This was exactly what I inherited from my brothers when I was a kid.
It was sold at a garage sale or something, I am sure, but the emotional scarring is still there, along with the marks on the house we use to live in, I am sure.
Sorry, can’t resist…
"…The first time that I picked it up, I had a big surprise
For right on its bottom were two big buttons
That looked like big green eyes.
I first pushed one and then the other, and then I twisted its lid
And when I set it down again, this is what it did:
"It went “zip” when it moved and “bop” when it stopped
And “whirr” when it stood still
I never knew just what it was
And I guess I never will.
"It first marched left and then marched right
And then marched under a chair
And when l looked where it had gone, it wasn’t even there.
I started to cry and my daddy laughed, for he knew that I would find,
When l turned around, my marvelous toy, chugging from behind.
“It went “zip” when it moved and “bop” when it stopped
And “whirr” when it stood still
I never knew just what it was
And I guess I never will.”
– Tom Paxton, “The Marvelous Toy”
Do kids still play with paperdolls? I was WILD about paperdolls as a kid-a set could be bought for 2 bucks at the groccery store and I was happy as a clam for hours on end! My grandmother worked a hospital and used to give us kids reams of the old dot-matrix computer paper, and I’d take that and trace the dolls to make my own outfits for them.
And now as an adult, I’m hooked on collectible paperdolls, like Tom Tierney and other Dover publications.
But I almost NEVER see paperdoll sets at Giant Eagle or Shop N’ Save, anymore. And when I do, they’re almost always Barbie that have only pictures of BARBIE DOLLS, instead of the illustrations. Or else they’re Disney. What gives?
Paperdolls…
I found at an independant toy store in Holland Michigan, a set of Magnetic Paper dolls for the frig. It was possibly $10. Maybe $15. Every kid who sees this thing plays dress up . Even my son. I’ve had it there for two years and we haven’t lost a peice.
But, real paperdolls I think are something that grandparents buy for kids to play with them. You can find the books, usually by the coloring books or instruction books at a chain book store, but I think it is falling by the wayside, unfortunately.
Excellent rant, Shirley. I, too, loved Hot Wheels as a kid. Zoom! Crash! Hah!
DangerGirl has just discovered the joys of paper dolls, though she’s really too young to be able to do it by herself. She dug out an old Miss Piggy paper doll book someone gave me years ago and has been happily changing bizarre Piggy outfits. We went to the bookstore today and drooled over the Dover paper doll books of medieval maidens and knights with 10 different suits of armor, but those are way above her–she just likes knights a lot.
Anyway I haven’t seen many ordinary paper doll books, but would like to get my hands on one. We’ve had a couple of sticker doll books, those are OK for the smaller kids who can’t deal with tabs. You don’t see them at the grocery store, though–just paint or sticker books there.
Gotta second the drum…
GrizzCub got a LeapFrog drum from a friend of ours when he was about one. <switch on, lotsa music, follow-me type games, encouraging voices, etc> and he still likes playing with it now and again (he’s just turned four).
But just before he turned two, I bought him his own djembe (hand-drum).
He just LOVES that!
Guess who’s been going to drum circles with Daddy since?
I’m not one into faux musical instruments. You know, the ten-pack of plastic harmonicas that one can use as party favors. Or the dozen-for-a-dollar plastic kazoos. He’s gotten one of each of these recently at birthday parties :rolleyes: and they’re, well, crap.
So, soon he’ll be getting a Hohner harmonica and a real honest kazoo.
I’m banning that toy for BabyBarbarian. In fact, I’m going to email that link to my mum with a giant NO attached.
As for Lego, yeah, a lot of the new stuff foisted off in stores is just merchandizing, BUT the company will still provide you cool stuff-- like the bride and groom that topped my wedding cake. And then you can take said couple and have them race against each other in the pull-back motor lego race cars you build. It’s very classy racing with a top hat.
Can I just add to the Lego rant? We have girls…girls who love to build stuff like houses and apartment buildings and complicated whole neighborhoods. They don’t want to build aliens or soccer players or cars or spaceships–they want their sets to have house building pieces like windows & doors. They don’t want their pieces to be pink & sparkly, they want to make cool stuff with them. Cool stuff that girls like. Why doesn’t Lego market to the other half of the kid population?
Legos are SO much fun.
I know you can sometimes score boatloads of windows, doors and housing needs on ebay from auctions.
Incidently, and not related to the subject at all. ( Like that matters to me.) Did you know there is a Lego-Land park in Denmark? They have tons of huge displays made out of Legos (lego’s?) and rides.
We were <—this—> close to going to Legoland on our Big Fat German Vacation, but it was pouring during that time period we slotted for the area.
Just be grateful you don’t have Japanese in-laws. Mine keep sending Joseph, my two-and-a-half year old son, all this electronic crap that fulfills the 3 criteria of Japanese entertainment: it’s brightly coloured, it has flashing lights, and it makes a LOUD noise. Try being woken at 6.30 am on a hungover Sunday morning by a toy vending machine {!} that plays a Japanese rendition of La Cucaracha. I tell you, that thing’s either ending up mint-in-box or in tiny pieces.
While I’m on the subject, what’s with all the parents who fork out 300 bucks for motorised quadbikes? I swear, their kids are gonna grow up with both atrophied limbs and a dearth of really cool scars {see, I got this great one the size of a 50 cent piece on my inner thigh}. Joseph got this great ride-on pedal tractor when he was 2 - took him a while to get the hang of the pedals, but he’d sleep with it if he could, and it should last him at least until he’s 6. That is, if he doesn’t crash it into the neighbour’s hedge one too many times.
On the plus side, water-pistol technology has made great strides since I was a young un’, although air rifles seem to be sadly out of vogue. I remember trying with a friend to shoot out street-lights: these days that would probably end up with an Armed Offenders call-out and us ending up in care. The world I grew up in is gone…
Did you know you can order direct from Dover? They have Sarah Bernhardt paper dolls - how cool is that!
Not to hijack this thread, but speaking of Dover. . .I adore their stained-glass coloring books. I’ve always ordered the big ones for myself, and the little ones for the kids. If I’m coloring in mine, and they’re coloring in theirs, it’s quality bonding time doing something we both honestly enjoy! (And it doesn’t need batteries!)
The stained-glass books make great black and white copies, so you can make umpteen million coloring books for the kids.
Wow. I never even thought of that. Thanks! But what I really like to do for the kids with the pictures they color in the stained glass books is to put a slightly crumpled layer of tin foil behind them and put them in a little frame. Looks nice, and is dirt cheap!
Shirley, you may now envy me. I have been to Legoland in Denmark twice. It is all you could wish and more. Way better, on a smaller scale, than Disneyland IMO. I hope you’ll be able to get there one of these days!
DangerGirl got a really good set of Legos from Grandma for her 4th birthday; it’s a bunch of generic pieces with a lot of eyes and wheels, so you can make a lot of different animals and vehicles. She likes to make alligators especially. It’s a great set, and I wish there was more like that instead of (shudder) Bionicles, which are totally unLego-y IMO.
We’ve bought some of those knockoff legos - don’t they work just the same? Lots cheaper.
OMG! [http://store.doverpublications.com/0486421902.html]Dover]( [url) has Dubya paper dolls! With Laura & Jenna & Barbara!
Now I’ve seen it all.