Hi Readers! Here eizzbnaahy
are three great — nay, profound — “safety” labels, including: Â “CAUTION: REDUCTION OF EXPANDED PLAY OPPORTUNITIES.” That one is to be affixed to any high-tech toy that is nowhere near as fun to play with, in the long run, as its box.
These labels come courtesy of Make Magazine, courtesy of one of our heroes, Gever Tulley, who runs the Tinkering School, and did that great video, “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.” (Think that’s enough links?) — Lenore
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8373690.stm
Oooh! Maybe that’d be a good contest for you to run Lenore. A contest writing up warning labels that warn people about the real hazards at play these days. The hazards of lack of imagination, intuition, creativity and more.
“Commercially produced plastic toys create a narrowed interaction expectation…”
Well, clearly these label makers haven’t seen my kids play withcommerically produced plastic toys.
We have…bowling for Little People, cars that get married and have kids, dinosaurs that eat people’s toes before flying in there magic wishing chair to Goodness Knows Where, and so on…
You can do creative things with plastic toys – and we see toys used for virtually every purpose imaginable..except for the purpose for which they werte designed. You can’t kill a child’s imagination no matter how hard you try!
ditto @sky. my son can’t be stopped by even the most determined manufacturer.
I’m quite happy to agree that my kids don’t tend to limit themselves to what they toys are for. It may start out that way when they first get a toy and it’s associated with a tv show or movie but it never lasts.
Even so, I discourage people from buying my kids toys that are excessively branded. They get enough advertising messages anyhow.
I just discovered this blog last week. I was ecstatic, and wrote a couple of comments. But, in exploring further, I am wondering whether “free range parents” aren’t obsessing over the free-ranging thing a bit?!
Like I wrote, I would like to hear more from free ranging parents whose kids are now 15-16 years, where the issues aren’t toys –which is a no-brainer– but more long-term issues such as relationships, sex, alcohol, drugs, driving etc.
Sophie
Sophie
My son will be about 8 months old this Christmas and at our last appointment the pediatrician told me not to buy him anything and just to wrap up a some empty boxes (this was mostly in response to my commenting on how he likes paper as I forcibly separated him from the paper on the exam table, but it’s still a start).
We want a pdf of label size notices that we could stick on toys that need them. Wouldn’t that be great?
I love these, Lenore! Very funny.
Lenore,
Thanks for that post! I have I printed out a set of the “safety labels,” and have also purchased a subscription to Make Magazine for my son’s 14th birthday.
Lately, his social life outside of school mostly involves chatting via headphones with his buddies while they each sit in their own houses collectively playing Xbox games. I didn’t have Xbox or internet as a child so lack the experience needed to evaluate the pros and cons of this new social paradigm. But I do know that I want him to balance the video games with more hands-on, exploring-the-world things, in which he gains real experiences and creates real things–and this magazine may help.
The current issue “features a season’s worth of how-to projects that kids and their parents can build together,” which sounds excellent. Thanks again!
The most dissapointing toy I ever got as a child was a set of “twin” dolls that, if you aligned them precisely (which took ages), would “talk” to each other, sing their abcs, etc. It should have read: “warning: This toy will have fun without you. “