toys

Kids impress us with their creativity and flexibility, especially in how to use non-toys for children’s play. So good, it happens almost daily! Have you had to search all over the house and car for something a little one was playing with? Like the keys or your phone?

Kids play with almost anything. What appeals to them is how they can interact with something. An empty box has endless possibilities for imaginary play. The food containers stack up and fit together like blocks and other construction toys. If they were packaged and called nesting blocks, they could probably be marketed. The spoon and other items in a kitchen drawer make great noises and can be moved in all sorts of ways, just like mechanical toys.

The recycling basket in your house is like a pirate’s treasure trunk for kids. They can build, make noise, put together, roll around, shake, stack, or whatever else they can think of. Plastic food containers, cereal boxes, paper rolls and tubes, bits of string, corks, lids, and paper offer possibilities for play.

Besides ordinary items in your house to use as non-toys for children’s play, there are places, too. The kitchen sink and a bit of water can engage a child for long stretches of time. Add some spoons and containers, with and without holes for endless play. Soap bubbles are fun too. The tub is another super place to play and learn, even without water. A blanket over the sofa makes a fort for kids of all ages.

We don’t think of Nature as a toy, but outside has a world of play. Some non-toys to use for children’s play include dirt, sticks, rocks, leaves, grass, wind, pine cones, flower petals, and water. These offer so many opportunities that they are used by kids everywhere, and have been for eons.

Sometimes, the non-toys kids play with give us gray hairs and terrified jolts. Ordinarily, though, with some creativity on our parts we can discover things kids can use to play and learn. What’s the worst non-toy your child has ever played with? What’s the best?

International Women’s Day has some things for parents and caregivers to think about in terms of gender equality for young children and play. There are some questions we need to ask ourselves.

One of these questions could be, “Are we limiting kids and play and dividing it into what boys do and what girls do? Sometimes we hear kids say, “Girls can’t do that,” or, “Boys can’t do that,” and we wonder where these ideas come from.

As a young mom, I fully intended that my daughter would be allowed to play with trucks as well as dolls and my son could a have playhouse and dishes as well as blocks and other construction toys. There would be gender equality in our house. Despite having the same toys though, they didn’t play with them the same way. My daughter wrapped up the tractor in a blanket and put it to bed. My son used the spoon as a car and drove it down the hall complete with gear-changing noises.

Some of children’s ideas come from watching the world around them. In an article called “Boys Can’t Do That”, Martha Rakestraw writes, “Studies show that by age two children begin to notice physical differences and by age three they have developed ideas about behaviors, activities, etc., that go with a particular gender. ”

As kids are trying to figure out how things work, they tend to overgeneralize. When we hear kids say something like, “Boys can’t play with dolls,” we can ask, “Do you think some boys might like to play with dolls?” A child may comment, “Girls can’t climb trees.” Again, we can ask, “Do you think sometimes a girl might climb a tree?” This gives kids something to think about as they develop their understanding of gender.

International Women’s Day supports women and girls to have equal opportunities and experiences. Gender equality for young children is a concern for all of us. It may be changes like asking stores to change layouts so instead of being divided into Girl Toys and Boy Toys, the sections might be Construction Toys, Dolls, Art Toys, etc. It could be supporting access to education. For all children, what are some ways we can support their play and development?