What’s Wrong with Playing with Toys nowadays ?
Posted: June 25, 2008I hate technology and I love it. I am caught in a trench where I worked for an IT company and yet I dislike what the future IT can do to the society. The future concepts of the world in 10, 20 and even 50 years time will be beyond what you can imagine. I have a glimpse of it in a show and though many people said “WOW”, I said to myself ( I better teach my child the right way as these tools can be used wisely for good or foolishly for evil. So what has technology to do with the Toys mentioned here ?
Toys as I defined in my dictionary are none technology gadgets. What does a child has nowadays as toys ? It is no longer a toy but electronic and technology gadgets such as Wii, Nintendo, Xbox, computers and notebooks, Smart phone. Do I own anyone of them ? Of course I do since I am working in this industry. However, I do not use this as subsitute to traditional toys.
Kitchen cooking sets, doctor and dentist kits for role play, little people figures and houses, dressing up dolls, Kites, Balls, knight fight sets, train sets, children 4 wheels bike are part of my 6 years old life. If you are one of them thinking, “Yuks, she should be going for tuition classes like piano, maths, science, Chinese/Mandarin, arts etc to learn more at this stage in preparation for primary one. ” I agree too. However, you cannot let a child just study and study and not even has any chance to have personal time to play. Playing is an important part of a child. Since baby, they learn through play. Play has to activate their right brain too, making them more creative and think out of the box.
I always enjoy watching my child play her toys. When she played, she also speaks and imitate conversations. Like playing dolls and dressing up. She will imagine she is the princess playing dressing up. When she plays cooking, she will imitate the cooking activities and fancy around and in the kitchen. She even imitate sounds of frying, kitchen timer, swizzling sound of the pressure cooker. It is joy and rare moments for me to watch her and observe how she play. (this is working mother’s woes). Traditional toys still are the best. Another of the joy and enjoyment in the family is to play board games together on weekend nights after dinner.
Of course, she has her own computer time and gadget time. It is usually during long trips or waiting time when all other carried along materials has been exhausted( no more reading, no more drawings, no more mini carried along board games and she is still wide awake wanting to be entertained)
