Strollerderby : playtime

Playmobil Sues Priest For Playing With Toys

JeanneSager — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:32:00 GMT

The idea of buying kids toys is to play with them, right? Even if you're an adult who happens to like playing with kids toys in order to amuse little kids?

Not according to Playmobil.

The toymakers known for their bizarre sense of what kids like to play with (the airport security checkpoint still blows my mind) are now suing a German priest who was using Playmobil's little people to recreate scenes from the Bible for little kids.

Father Markus Bomhard, from the Protestant Community of Eschborn, created the "Playmo-Bibel" (spelling is correct - this is Germany, after all) says on his site that he got the idea from his own daughters - who wanted to know why there was no "Playmo" minister toy. They used their own Playmobil toys to recreate everyday life, he said, so why not the Bible?

Broken down into the Old Testament and the New, his site is mostly pictures taken of his little scenes, from Adam and Eve to the last supper, plus scenes from church life, including a wedding.

But according to the Daily Telegraph, lawyers for Playmobil have told Bomhard he didn't get their permission for the project, so he must stop photographing the toys and using the name Playmobil. OK, the latter part I get - it's trademarked after all.

Here's the crazy part: the Telegraph reports, "the German firm is understood to be horrified that the scenes could offend people of other religion." This from the company that sells a Playmobil nativity set and an advent calendar set?

Their biggest gripe is apparently that Bomhard dared dress the characters up. As a Playmobil rep told the Telegraph, "We've got no problem with using the figures as they are in their original costumes. What we are on about is redesigning them and changing their appearance."

Isn't that what you make toys for? For people to play with, reimagine, redecorate and redesign? Because if we're not supposed to redesign toys, I imagine Fisher-Price will be coming for my daughter any day now . . . something about cutting all the hair off of Big Sister Dora.

Image: Telegraph - from Father Bomhard's Playmo-Bibel

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When Kids Toys are Dirty - And We're Not Talking Mud

JeanneSager — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:28:00 GMT

Why do they call it being childish when you figure out how to make your kid's toys say naughty words? You don't REALLY want a child doing it.

OK, so it's immature. But Ms. Stick up Your You Know What, it's kind of hilarious. Right? Right?

If you can ignore the hyper-annoying Billy Mays-style excitement of the guy from Jeepers Media ( just tune out whenever he's talking), his toy test of the Fisher Price baby grand piano has fodder for plenty of adult fun. Press the keys in the proper order, and they play out the basic musical notes - Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So . . . and so on. Play them in fast succession in the wrong order and Fa, Me sounds rather like . . . something you did to END UP WITH a bunch of kids' toys lying around your house.

He can't be the only one out there doing this. I clearly remember a Christmas gift exchange for two-year-olds where the fathers delighted in the alphabet toy, because pressing "S" followed quickly by "X" spit out a sound rather like . . . another word for what you do to end up with a bunch of kids' toys lying around your house.

Some parents get indignant with the toymakers over these kinds of things, but frankly, grown men will act like little boys. And grown women will act like little girls. We're going to have our own fun with our kids toys. And if we can't, please, please, send us back some pre-pregnancy senses of humor, stat.

What have you discovered playing with our kids' toys?

Image: Hollywood Diecast

Review: My Wubbzy Little Valentine

JeanneSager — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:24:00 GMT

The hottest game on NickJr.com might wow you. It's not Dora. Not Jack and his musical pals.

It's Wubbzy.

With some two hundred sixty million plays, the game featuring the little yellow critter of indeterminate origins (is he animal, mineral, vegetable?) has captured our kids' hearts. Now he's looking to keep those hearts pitter pattering with a DVD release timed for the Valentine's season.

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! A Little Help from My Friends hits stores today, to go along with the recently launched second season of the show. Split into episodes about the value of friendship, it's a movie that highlights just why I've let Wubbzy worm his way into my daughter's heart.

It's creative.

When Wubbzy gets tired of his friends doing everything for him, he decides to bake up a chocolate doodle-berry cake all by himself - only to let things get out of control when he goes hog wild on making it extra fantastic. When the cake batter blows up and out the door and on through Wuzzleberg, buddies Widget and Walden save the day - doing for their little yellow buddy as they always do.

What's going to come next from Widget's tinkering or Walden's scientific explorations is anyone's guess; and the humor that ensues is just right for the pint-sized. Silly, but still sweet, Wubbzy's worth watching so they can learn the value of trying something new and doing it with good friends.

Image: Amazon

Babble Talk: When It's Too Cold to Play

JeanneSager — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:23:00 GMT

I wanted to be all huffy about Kim Brooks' essay about raising her son in cold climes this week. After all, Bad Parent: Cold Comfort points a finger at Northeasterners like me as "bad parents."

But my righteous indignation falls woefully short. I hate the cold.

And before you get that Mommy tone of voice on and tell me "hate is a strong word, young lady," let me tell you - I REALLY hate the cold. What's more, I refuse to do fun things outside in the cold with my over-eager pre-schooler.

The pending invitation to a sleigh-riding party for one of her little friends' birthdays has me pinning my hopes on no shadow for that pesky groundhog next week. A born and raised New Yorker, I should be used to it - at least that's what everyone tells me. But like Brooks, I often rue the day I left Virginia with its barely there winters and its elongated summers. I could blame it all on my asthma, aggravated by the cold, but that's truly only a fraction of my distaste for winter.

I hate driving in it - especially now that I'm a mother. Gripping the steering wheel while she chatters in the backseat, I've used the "shut up" words - the words I never, ever wanted to say in front of my daughter - out of pure fear. Before, it was only me who could be hurt; now it's her life at stake. It makes it harder to get out of the house for those indoor/away from home activities that Oz shared in her list of what to dos in winter.

I hate tromping through the snow, the cuffs of my pants filling with chunks of slush, the water wicking up my jeans and leaving my calves cold and chafed. I hate the wind, whipping past my face and leaving my cheeks chapped and raw. I hate shoveling, the back-breaking work a reminder of all the childhood school cancellations ruined by afternoons spent in the yard making paths to the bus and paths to my father's shop.

Even the so-called fun - the winter sports - don't hold a candle to a good book and a soft spot on the couch. I'm resigned to my inner klutz, which has made skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and the like utterly impossible and utterly unenjoyable. Time spent on the ground, rubbing my sore tush, could be better spent, I figured, inside making blanket forts and baking cookies.

And still, my daughter - like Kim's little boy - stares plaintively out the window. She begs to be released from the confines of the house for just a little while to run and jump with the dog in the wonderful world of white.

And I say no.

I'm waiting for her to grow up a little, to be old enough to be trusted outside alone for a little while (we do live on a back road, in a quiet neighborhood, so that day will come). So Kim, if you're a bad parent; I am too. But hopefully our kids will be just as bad - and grow up to hate the cold!

School Game Ends 100-0, Who Won?

JeanneSager — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:23:00 GMT

Remember when you lost your high school game and your mother told you to stop crying, "it's only a game"?

Let the record show, Mom was right.

Because a Dallas, Texas coach who left the first string in to bring the score to 100 to 0 against a team made up of children with learning disabilities, is nothing but a big loser.

Administrators from the Covenant School of Dallas issued a formal apology last week after the Christian school's girls basketball team wiped the floor with their opponents' dignity. They're forefeiting the game, and school officials promised they "have acted to ensure that such an unfortunate incident can never happen again" (no word on whether that means a coach will be fired or disciplined?).

The Covenant girls were up 59 to 0 when the first half ended, against a team of girls who have never won a game. There was no danger of losing. Still, the first string was left in the game. The benched girls never got their chance for Covenant, and the Dallas Academy girls never got a chance - period.

Jezebel tried to play the whole thing off as anti-feminist, accusing the girls of "being afraid to kick ass."

Puh-lease. These kids are in high school. They aren't supposed to be kicking ass. They're supposed to be learning about sportsmanship, discipline, teamwork. . . and getting some exercise.

Growing up in a sports-oriented (mostly football) school district, I found that too often the line between sports as part education and sports for sports' sake became blurred. There is an expectation in many of these schools that sports are there so the kids can play, get recognition from scouts and scurry their butt off to a Division I school with a fat scholarship.

Wrong. Sports belong in schools only as part of the well-rounding of children's education. It's one of the reasons I'd like to see more emphasis on intramurals and less money spent on sending kids two hours on a bus to play another big school, costing taxpayers more and taking the kids out of more and more classtime. Because, in school, kids are supposed to learn about how to get ready for the real world, and sports can offer part of that to the children who enjoy athletics. The teamwork, the discipline, and, in light of the childhood obesity crisis, a lifelong love of movement can go a long way in the real world.

So too can the ability to forge relationships with those you oppose. Because somewhere along the way, we have lost the art of civil discourse in this country. The Rush Limbaughs of the world won't say, "well, President Barack Obama won, and I don't think he can do it, but I hope he will." Instead, it's "I hope he fails." There is no meeting in the middle, no getting ahead only to reach back and help someone else along.

And our kids are taking up that mantra. They are running their opponents into the ground - figuratively, and, in this case, literally.

This isn't about feminism (could it be when you're talking about two girls teams facing off). It isn't about being "too wussy."

It's about common decency. It's about allowing your opponents on the court and in life a little dignity. Because who wants our kids to get ahead if they have to climb over everyone else on their way up?

Image: ABC News

Do You Let Your Kids Cheat?

JeanneSager — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:55:00 GMT

My in-laws came to town for the requisite weekend of spoiling, and left as always, some new habits with my daughter.

The artificial southern accent will go away soon enough (to my displaced southern husband's chagrin). It's the cheating I'm worried about.

Because, in true grandparenting style, my father-in-law let our daughter win at every game of Go Fish. But he didn't just bumble his play. He let her reach over and pick cards out of his hand. He let her shift through the "fishing" pile. He let her run right over him.

I've been asking around, and most people tell me to just ignore it. She's three; it will go away. It's cute.

Yes, she's three, and I don't expect that one game of cards is going to ruin her for the rest of her life. But shouldn't I be breaking this bad habit now? Maybe I'm reading a little too much into a pile of cards covered in different kinds of fish, but I can already see a life's obsession with having her way and always getting to win. She's already an only child, and we're aware of that slippery "spoiled only child" slope that we have to navigate. Letting her get away with cheating at cards seems like it would put at least one foot on the sandy edge of that slope.

Is it really OK to encourage a three-year-old to cheat because "it's cute?" What happens at five or six, when it stops being cute and starts becoming obnoxious?

Image: Kelly's Kindergarten

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Desperately Seeking . . . Grandparents

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Satellite TV Debuts Family Channels for Your Backseat Driver

JeanneSager — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:24:00 GMT

Dealing yet another blow to the license plate game and I Spy, AT&T will launch Cruisecast this spring, a satellite TV system designed for kids in the backseat of the family wagon.

Because the headrest-mounted DVD players aren't enough of a distraction?

I'm the last person to criticize TV-watching tots, but while the television is often on in my house, we opted out of the in-car system for one major reason: they hold kids captive. In-house TVs don't. In fact, my three-year-old may have the television tuned to Noggin for a straight four hours and catch only about a twenty-minute span of shows because she's so active. I have yet to see her spend a singificant amount of time in a seated position, her eyes tied to the television screen because there is always so much more to do in the house. There's Play-Doh to shape into snakes, and Mommy to climb on.

But in a car, kids are pretty rapt. They have nothing else to do. And while a DVD on a long car ride can be a lifesaver (it's eight hours to my in-law's house, folks), do we really need them tuning in to TV all the time? Because, according to Gizmodo, this system will cost $1,300 up front and $28 a month for the service. If you're putting up that kind of cash, you better believe you're turning it on for more than the occasional trip over the river and through the woods to granny's.

Image: Stop Buying Crap

Source: Gizmodo

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Old Bat Who Kept Kid's Football Sues His Family

JeanneSager — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:05:00 GMT

Remember the eighty-nine-year-old woman who proved every neighbor kid's worst fears about the cranky lady down the street? You know, Edna Jester, the octogenarian who actually kept the kid's football?

She got out of the charges of petty theft, jail time and the fines the cops threatened back in October. But since the satisfaction of keeping the pigskin didn't do enough for her, she's now suing the family of seven who called the cops over the missing ball.

She claims "emotional distress" because balls keep ending up in her yard. I know Amy put up a good argument for ol' Edna back in October, citing the parents' need to get their kids under control. Yes, kids should be taught to respect the neighbors.

But I know this type of woman (do I dare say I'm related to her?), and I know what it's like to live with neighbors on top of you. Balls flying into the neighbors' yard is one of those facts of living in close proximity to one another. My husband, daughter and I love to kick the soccer ball around our back yard - and I can't begin to count the number of times it's sailed out of the yard (I never said I was particularly GOOD at kicking the ball around).

If the balls were going through her windows, if the kids were trampling her begonias, if Edna had called the parents first - instead of keeping the dang football - she would be so in the right it isn't even funny. She'd probably even be able to get money in court for said broken window or begonias. Instead she's tying up the courts over balls and playthings flying into her yard.

I've got a few suggestions for you Edna - how about you build a really tall fence or pack up your fanny and move? Maybe a nice family will move into Blue Ash, Ohio so a pick-up football game can take place across TWO yards.

Image: GovGab

Dad Jailed for Head-Butting Tot

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Mom Scratches 'B**ch' on Son's Face with Crayon

JeanneSager — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:09:00 GMT

If this isn't a case of the pot calling the kettle black, what is? An Indiana mother has been arrested on charges of neglect of a dependent, battery and criminal confinement after allegedly holding her fourth-grader on the floor and using a crayon to scratch the word "b**ch" on his forehead.

It sounds like Sherri Feuston definitely is one.

The mom then sent the boy to school, where officials called in child abuse investigators. They say Feuston also beat the boy with a belt and flicked him in the eye with a towel. Her defense? She was just "playing" with him.

Have you picked up your kids crayons lately? Of all my daughter's toys, I'd have to say they're among the least dangerous. So the thought that someone could actually scratch out a word on the skin that would still be visible an extended period of time later is hard to believe. You'll forgive me, then, if I don't believethis mom was "just playing" when she did this.

Image: CuriousClicks

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Recess One Step Closer to NJ Lawbooks

JeanneSager — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:02:00 GMT

Remember when your parents’ friends peppered you with questions about school and you’d just had enough? When they asked what your favorite subject was, you finally shot them the smart-aleck answer, “recess.” Turn to 2008, and the No Child Left Untested Behind Act has slowly gotten its hooks into every kid’s favorite time of the school day. Recess is disappearing, but a set of New Jersey parents are fighting back.

Residents of Howell, N.J., have convinced the state’s assembly to put together a task force that will study whether a law is in order to protect a twenty-minute recess period in the school day. Their research shows only eight states have a mandate that kids get a free period at some point during the day; although New Jersey’s education department says it’s more common for schools to have recess than not - even without the mandate.

In light of Sunny’s post earlier this week about educators worried that the loss of playtime for kids is stealing their imaginations (and with it their ability to create and be innovative), shouldn’t states be more willing to make recess mandatory? ’ve heard arguments from teachers that there just isn’t enough time in the day for teaching, and they’d know better than I. But there is a point where kids brains become saturated, and they need a little time to relax. Lunchtime, with the regimented march to the cafeteria, the line-up to pay for hot lunch and the monitor watching their every bite and chew, doesn’t give a kid time to shake their sillies out. Some kids come back from recess rambunctious, but I’d bet it’s nothing compared to the sheer energy level zipping around their little bodies BEFORE the recess bell rings.

And what of the playground politics? The rites of passage? Even the bullying and cliques that - as parents - we’d like to see disappear are learning tools for our kids on their path to adulthood. I applaud the parents of Howell and the Trenton legislators for agreeing to take a look-see at protecting Red Rover, Red Rover and hopscotch.

Maybe they can all get together to celebrate with a game of kickball.

Image: Amazon

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Loss of Playtime the Next Global Warming?

SunnyChanel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:30:00 GMT

Childhood Experts are feeling a wee bit troubled. They are worried about a generation of kids who aren’t getting enough of good old-fashioned playtime. The AP reported that this was the hot topic at the Wonderplay conference last week in New York City, a gathering that included 900 early childhood educators from 22 states. During his keynote speech, the psychologist and author Michael Thompson declared "We have to fight back. We're going to fight for play."

In these busy times of too much TV, too much school work, and too many video games, kids don’t have the free time to participate in spontaneous play. There is the worry, which was voiced by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a Temple Uiversity psychologist, that without play as part of children’s every day lives, that they will lose “the innovation and creative thinking” that is gained from free play. She made the scary prediction that “the lack of play in early childhood education ‘could be the next global warming.’”

Among the key factors, according to Thompson (From the AP):
-- Parents' reluctance to let their kids play outside on their own, for fear of abduction or injury, and the companion trend of scheduling lessons, supervised sports and other structured activities that consume a large chunk of a child's non-school hours.

-- More hours per week spent by kids watching TV, playing video games, using the Internet, communicating on cell phones.

-- Shortening or eliminating recess at many schools -- a trend so pronounced that the National PTA has launched a "Rescuing Recess" campaign.

-- More emphasis on formal learning in preschool, more homework for elementary school students and more pressure from parents on young children to quickly acquire academic skills.

Now stop reading this and go play with your kids.

Photo Credit

Story via: Salon/AP

Have You Brought Your Toys Out of the Closet for Your Kids?

JeanneSager — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:33:00 GMT

A discussion via e-mail with some of my fellow Strollerderby writers sent me on a mission the other night to find the ultimate toy of my '80s era childhood. Tub Town was suction-cupped to the wall of my parents' bathroom for the length of my tubbing time.

Punching it into trusty Google, I wasn't surprised to find an everything eighties fan site pop up atop the list. We were raised in a material world, and you're darn tootin' if you think I was a material girl. I've made toys of my childhood research into a bit of an obsession since my daughter was born. The toy portion of our office/playroom has exploded to the point where calling it an office is like calling George Bush a president (yuk, yuk). Still, I manage to convince myself that that perfect toy that kept me enthralled when I was a kid will be the one she will never bury beneath a pile of puzzle pieces and abandoned kitchen towels long ago "borrowed" to use as a baby blankies.

The bulk of the toys from my kid-dom are gone, abused by a younger brother and later chucked as my bedroom went the way of most "kid who moved out first" rooms. It's now an office/catch-all room where the catch-all explodes with grandkid stuff the way the playroom has taken on its own life across town. So I've turned to eBay, where thousands of sellers are preying on eighties kids-turned-parents like me, who are desperate to find the Glo-Worm treehouse ($100, but it comes with 11 vintage Glo-Worms - tempting, very tempting) or the solitary cow still missing from a Fisher Price barn rescued from mildew in their parents' basement.

What is it with us? Our parents' generation said to hell with all of that old crap. Raised by our grandparents who grew up in the Great Depression and counted every penny, our parents went to the other extreme and created us, eighties-era monsters with an eBay habit. There are some among us who have been thisclose to whoring themselves out in exchange for the entire Garbage Pail Kids collection or a Pound Purry.

My proudest purchase since my daughter was born is a British book of children's stories, out of print since the eighties, that I finally tracked down and had shipped overseas to take up residence on my shelf, waiting until she's old enough to hear one of 365 bedtime stories every night of the year. And if only I could find the Tub Town. I'd pay . . . maybe give up the first born? Er, I mean, I'd be your best friend.

Image: Inthe80s.com

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Do You Play With Your Kids' Toys?

JeanneSager — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:32:00 GMT

This picture reminded me just how lucky parents are - we've got our kids' toys to play with too. At least, you say they're your kids' toys, right? But you really, kind of, maybe, sort of bought them so you could give them a go.

You don't have to be embarrased. Unless you've got 1,700 Transformer action figures like this guy, in which case, yeah, you're a bit of a geek.

Otherwise, just think of yourself as luckier than all those "child-free by choice" people out there who buy toys for themselves and then have to admit to the clerk, "Uh, no, no kid at home. No, no godchild. Nope, not for my nephew. Butterscotch, the Fur Real Pony is going in my bedroom."

I haven't ponied up the $200 price tag for Butterscotch for anyone in our house, but I don't complain when "ordered" to take part in a little coloring book action or hop alongside her for a go on the swingset. It's relaxing. It's fun, and it proves I'm not old yet - no matter what the 3-year-old says.

So where does your kids' playroom end and yours begin? Do you do your gaming at work or take it on home?

Image: Hahakiri

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Keep Kids Creative - Play With Them

JeanneSager — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:32:00 GMT

Who makes up holidays? I’m fine with the religious (Christmas, Yom Kippur, etc.) and the secular/quasi-governmental (Labor Day, Memorial Day, etc.), but whoever earned permission to dub today Hobbit Day and this Wednesday Punctuation Day needs to get a day job.

Of course I’m going to sound like a bit of a hypocrite when I admit today starts my own celebration of National Keep Kids Creative Week.

Author/illustrator Bruce Van Patter, is trying to keep the fourth week of September officially dedicated to removing the imprint of kids’ butts from the couch cushions. He started in the fall of 2003, and now hosts a Website full of ideas to help families who are stumped for ideas of their own.

I can do him one better. If you want your kids to be creative, get your own tuckus off the couch and let your imagination run wild with them. A survey commissioned by HearthSong late this summer found 62 percent of parents admit to playing with their kids less than an hour a day. One in six parents don’t even spend an hour a week engaging in some sort of playtime.We’re a bunch of lazy you-know-whats.

OK, I’m climbing back down off the horse. The air was a little thin up there. Some days, I just don’t want to play with my kid. I can only let a pull-back car loose to fly across the floor so many times before I want to pick up a book. And I have as much fun filling a bucket with sand as I do watching paint dry. Go ahead, play me a sad song on the violin.

Oh, but wait. I gave birth. I’m a mom. So playing with my kid is . . . . (wait for it) . . . my job. So we’ll be celebrating with a rousing game of let the toy car crash into the wall 50 times or so followed by a thrilling trip to the sandbox. Hey, she’s happy.

When Playground Equipment Attacks

Jen Chaney — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:28:00 GMT

The see-saw can be a little daunting, what with its seeming capacity to catapault small children into the air. And to a 3-year-old, the slide probably looks like a first-class ticket to Dangertown.

But both of those playground standards have nothing on a freaky looking doctor sculpture wielding a syringe, or the bizarre, puncture-tastic piece of equipment pictured here. It's a wonder any of the kids on that thing still have both of their eyeballs.

These are just two examples of the outdoor-toys-gone-bad in this post on Nightmare Playgrounds, courtesy of the blog Dark Roasted Blend, which came to my attention via the always smart Very Short List.

As you scroll through the images, they get progressively worse. My personal favorites: Two separate rides that offer the always joyful opportunity to travel through an elephant's digestive system. Have fun, kids!

Photo: Dark Roasted Blend

5 Extremely Weird Toys

Brett Singer — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:30:00 GMT

Someday maybe our children's-children's-children will look back at what our kids played with and say, "Playstation 3? Ew!" For now, let's look back a few years at some of the stranger toys in our collective history:

	Sixfinger, 1965: "It looks like a finger, but DOES ALL THIS!" Appears to be a plastic finger-shaped item, complete with fingernail. Maybe this is where the phrase "pull my finger" came from. [TulsaTVMemories.com, via BoingBoing. Larger image here.]
	Bang Box Game, 1969: "Blow up balloons and put them in the box, then pound nails in until they break! How cool is that?" Can you imagine if a company tried to put this out today? The name alone would keep it out of Toys R Us, although the hammer and nails wouldn't help. [Sam's Toy Box]
	Cannibal Animals, 1968: Maybe the fact that so many of these are from the 1960's isn't a coincidence. I think that you would have to be taking some sort of mind-altering substance to decide to make something with a name like this. It appears to be a make-your-own candy kit of some kind. "Eat a Snake! Eat a Spider! Eat a Frog!" Indeed. [TimeWarpToys, The Trash Collector, and of course eBay]
	Cut Up Puppy, date unknown: Again, it's all in the name. That said, battery-operated scissors for children? Clearly they haven't met my children. But hey, the box says, "Completely safe / for any child / cuts paper only." Very poetic. From Japan. [Vintage-Toys.com]
	Lightning Reaction, current (no pun intended): Remember musical chairs? The music stops, you sit down, but there's not enough chairs for everyone, crying and fighting ensues, and so on. This is sort of like that, except with electrical shocks. Described in one review as "nothing more severe than licking a nine volt battery", the shock comes if you are the last person to buzz in after a tune stops playing. This one does at least seem not to be marketed at children, only the child-like. [Jumpin' Banana, via Millionaire Playboy]

I need to stop now so I can go look for these on eBay do my shift at the soup kitchen. Anyone remember any weird toys from their childhood?

Best Weapon Against Childhood Boredom? Imagination

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:47:00 GMT

The Washington Post writes a piece this week about the importance of childhood imagination, particularly as an antidote to the baleful cries of I'm boooooorrred."

Like many parents, I have dreams of instilling in my kids a love of reading, a desire to be physically active, and a sense of silly funniness that often ebbs away once one becomes, say, a parent.

Can you fathom how proud you'd be if this quoted your child? "If you have imagination," Claire says.., "a box could be a racing car."

Turning off the television is only just the beginning of encouraging the naturally expansive imagination of your kids. Equally important is free time (aimless days) during which to express their own bizarre sense of wonder.

[Photo credit: Washington Post]

Research Shows A Little Rough Play Can Be Good for Kids

Alisyn — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:40:00 GMT

Researcher James Herzog's new study found that roughousing, or "crazy time!" as it's known in my house, can actually be good for kids, particularly when the rough play is between parent and child.

Though the write-up focuses mostly on father and son play - because only boys like to wrestle, right? Jeez... - the research shows that kids who regularly engage in physical play with a parent learn self-control, how to deal with a wide range of emotions, and how to adapt to a constantly changing situation. Herzog and other researchers found that "a father's playful and vigorous interactions force a boy to closely observe his father's facial expressions and body language to figure out his father's moods. A dad's play can help his son learn how to become a good manager of emotions. When, in a loving environment, a father coaxes his son to cope with interactions that will test his limits and stretch him emotionally, the boy will develop confidence to handle similar tests in challenging environments."

It irks me that this article completely overlooks the fact that girls like rough-and-tumble play just as much as boys do. When Dad comes home, my girls clamor to get to him for a hefty dose of physicality - spinning, jumping, flipping, climbing, wrestling, the works. Are the girls not reading the same physical cues that the boys are? Is there less value in this kind of play between a father and a daughter? What about a mother and a son? Or mother and daughter?

Do Playgrounds Need "Play Workers" to Guide Imagination?

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:51:00 GMT

When I was young, the local playground was ruled by the Lava Monster. The monster lurked in the sand, eager to gobble up little boys who fell off the metal-studded wooden structures. When I grew tired of the monster, I stored him away in my imagination, locked him tight in a make-believe world that also included endless supplies of Charleston Chews and large-breasted women. My friends and I didn't need adults to guide us, to "show" us how to pretend -- we just did. Today's kids might not be so lucky.

Dad in Progress offers a great breakdown on what could be a scary, helicopter parent-esque emerging trend -- playgrounds guided by adult "play workers" whose job it is to be the freaky guys in yellow caps who stalk your child at the playground. Er, I mean open up new avenues for imaginative play.

What's up with that? Isn't structuring imagination just another way of making children play well with others? As opposed to letting them swing freely through their own pathos? Playgrounds are for fun -- not learnin' stuff. Give your kid a freaking break!

As DiP says, "Every child has the power to see something different, to believe that something is much more than what it seems, but to me, it's a very personal process of idea mapping and attachment with which no one should interfere." Well said, my friend, well said. Now get back to work before the large-breasted lava monster sees you blogging.