Ideas PLEASE

I would recommend an electronic toy vacation until you saw his imagination kick in, as I firmly believe that electronic toys/games rob a child of their imagination, no matter the “educational quality” it may purport. When we adopted our dd at 3, she had no idea how to ‘play’. After some time, she figured it out. No toys that “performed” for her and the tv was out. The only ‘electronic device’ was the radio for the purpose of listening to exciting stories on CD (like Jim Weiss and for Bible dramatic word-for-word, George Sarris). I’m tired tonight, but if you want some recommends I can add them in later.

 Along with the legoes and other things, there should be people, planes, helicopters and cars. If he has a castle, get him knights and dragons. If he has LIncoln  Logs, the real wooden ones, not the ones with all the plastic parts, get pioneer and Indians, horses and trains. The cheapest source for people and animals has been from the Safari tubes. They carry a wide variety and the tubes are around $10.00 each. You can buy individual horses through Breyer or Melissa and Doug. Really sturdy knights and catapults (though a little pricey) from Vision Forum. You can also get sets of historical figures for Battle reinactments, like in the Revolutionary War or Civil War, etc. I just found these and will be getting some for my son.

Does he have dress-up materials? My son loved dressing up as Bible Man and law enforcement. Again, Vision Forum has some wonderful options for boys. After Halloween, the dress-ups go on sale and it’s a good time to buy dress-up clothes for use at home for pretend. There are now Biblical Action figures at Christian bookstores now.

Most importantly, have good books that fill and spark the imagination with stories. Stories from history and legends. In order to problem solve, one must have an imagination; it’s just trapped in there and needs to fed on living books appropriate to his age that will spark the imitation.

Since he is “problem solver”, then scientific experimets would be good, too. The Backyard Scientist books are good for using stuff around the house. Also, you can start him on simple woodworking projects. The models idea is great; don’t forget puzzles. He can also start playing chess. A wonderful children’s first Chess book is ” The KId’s Book of Chess” by Harvey Kidder.

HTH, RAchel

I was the same way as a child, as are some of our children. It’s the building and creating that is the fun. Playing with it afterwards holds little attraction.

We have a bunch of legos around here and we often tried to buy generic sets that don’t make anything specific so as not to squelch the imagination. One of the best buys we ever got was a box full of mixed sets without instructions that we found on eBay.

I often encouraged our children with challenges. For example, can you build a sail car that can make it across the kitchen from a fan blowing in the doorway? Can you build something this tall with only these parts? Can you build a bridge to get this guy from here to there? Can you build a platform that will hold this weight?

Glad the links are useful – a couple of years ago we were lucky enough to be gifted with about a bushel of legos – literally! a good sized rubbermaid tub full of random legos plus several of the large plates for building surfaces.  I can’t even imagine how much these must have cost in the individual sets.  They are a favorite toy at our house (esp. with visiting kids “wow look at all those legos”), and worth the trouble of always finding a stray tiny brick here or there.  

So, yes, plans are good!  Although I admit that my kids (age 10 and 6) play with them “freestyle” more than anything else.