Do You Remember
Growing Up With Wood Toys?
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I proudly introduce myself to people as a "Leading Edge Baby Boomer." That means I was born in 1946, the year which officially kicked off the generation known as baby boomers, and I was on the front line. The trailing edge boomers were born in 1964, so approximately 75 million Americans, or approximately 29% of the U.S. population between the ages of 44 and 62 (in 2008) are my brothers and sisters. While we're probably a generation or two older than those who "walked to school in blinding snowstorms," we're also a few generations younger than the "Star Wars" set and a whole lot older than the video gamers and computer players. I proudly consider myself to be an"early adapter," and I owned one of the very first Mac Classics. I used it like a typewriter. Do they make typewriters anymore? |
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| Remember "The Graduate?" It introduced us to plastic. Sure there are lots of toys that are created today from plastic, with electronic features like sounds and lights, and are designed for learning. We boomers weren't so lucky ... but maybe we were more fortunate. We had wood toys, and they helped to open our imagination and help us to learn through creativity. The classic wood toys are having their renaissance, and I'm glad to see it. They're very much like the ones with which I played at Miss Purcell's kindergarten in Danville, PA. It's comforting to have durable and safe toys that don't break easily and don't have small pieces to misplace. The best classic wood toys are made in America from renewable forests, and they are colored with non-toxic paints and stains, which should be comforting in light of the recent recalls of lead-based problem plastic toys from China and elsewhere. America-made wood toys should be considered as investments, because they can last forever and they will be enjoyed by generations yet to come who are lucky enough to inherit them. These classic wood toys have play value which never ends. |
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Classic wood games and puzzles are excellent alternatives to video games. The American-made classic wood toys are beautiful keepsakes, fun to play and develop skills and strategies. Hand-eye coordination and logic patterns can be learned by children of all ages by varying the complexity of the games and puzzles that are introduced through the wood toys. It's fun to watch your children at play being entertained, and it's even more fun playing and talking with them as they demonstrate both gross and fine motor skills, and learn lessons like spatial reasoning, color and shape matching and logic skills. It's a known fact that young children accomplish much of their learning while playing, and these classic American-made wood toys are built for playing. |
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| The children get lots of exercise pulling and pushing American-made wood toys, and pounding things like wood pegs with a hammer ... and it also spares your furniture and other valuable items. These classic American-made wood toys, puzzles and games make great special and safe gifts for your children, grandchildren and other young family members. I think some of the best classic American-made wood toys are the rolling stock selection of trucks, bulldozers, tractor and wood trains found at TheGrandparentZone.com. They're terrific alternatives to the commercially produced Thomas Train Engine which is so popular today. When you can incorporate play with these classic wood toys into a specially designed environment, like a wood toy table, the play value increases dramatically. |
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My Dad wasn't proficient with making things, especially wood toys. I inherited his skills, and demonstrated them in shop class, to the point that I almost failed the semester. I would much rather purchase a finished toy than attempt to build it myself. My adult son and I still laugh whenever we find the Pinewood Derby cars that the two of us made, and he refuses to discard. There are places where you can order an almost fool-proof set of plans to construct a variety of wood toy train tables that can be used with the classic wooden toys as well. As soon as I am lucky enough to have a grandchild, I'm going to order one to see whether I was really bad at manual labor or I just wasn't paying attention in shop class. In any event, there will be lots of American-made wood toys for my grandchldren to enjoy. |
At once, it's 1955 again, and I'm not worried about things like the economy or a Presidential election. Life used to be so simple ... and then slide rules were replaced by calculators ... and the rest is "history."
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