Classic Toys for Toddlers

Today’s post is a look at Classic Toys for Toddlers. Thank you to Lauren from accredited online colleges for guest posting. Take it away Lauren!

I feel like children’s toys are no longer…well, fun. Contemporary toys for toddlers and older kids are either found on a smartphone or a tablet or they’re so complicated that it takes a savant to figure them out. Where are the classic toys of yesteryear that captured the attention of generations of children? They still exist, and they can still be enjoyed by kids. Here are five of my favorites to recommend parents looking for old school toys.

Candyland

The classic boardgame makes for a fun afternoon and an unassuming learning tool for kids. Candyland is much simpler and less competitive than your typical tabletop game, so there’s no contentious atmosphere when kids are playing among their friends, but it still teaches them valuable lessons of playing with others. The turn-based game play will help kids understand the importance of waiting their turn to participate, and the short list of rules will help give kids a sense a structure as they play along. This game is targeted towards younger toddlers, but it has great replay value even among older tykes.

Mr. Potato Head

This iconic toy is the perfect plastic companion for toddlers. Mr. Potato Head’s many detachable limbs and accessories provide easy entertainment for kids without seeming graphic—something that you don’t see often now with so many violet, intense toys targeted towards younger and younger children. There’s a benevolent and simple quality about Mr. Potato Head that charms most young kids (maybe it’s his prominent place in the Toy Story movies). For younger kids, Mr. Potato Head’s detachable limbs also give parents a chance to teach some basic G-rated anatomy to their kids. A great alternative to the typical action figure or doll, Mr. Potato Head is a reliable classic for kids of any generation.

Lite-Brite

If you remember Lite-Brite, it’s likely a memory you recall with great fondness. A hit toy since the sixties, Lite-Brite unlocks a child’s imagination with its vibrant use of light and color to create all sorts of engrossing images. Your kids will love making designs with the Lite-Brite, whether they’re working off a predesigned pattern or making something up entirely on their own. There’s something about the puzzle-like nature of Lite-Brite that hooks everyone who tries it, even adults. It’s a simple pleasure for kids and a great way to foster their creative tendencies. One caveat: if your child still has a problem putting random toys in their mouths, you might want to wait until they move out of that phase until you introduce them to the Lite-Brite and its small plastic pegs.

Crayons

Simplicity is a recurring theme among these toys, and for good reason. I feel like current toy designers underestimate a child’s inner capacity for creativity, and overcomplicate their products out of fear that children will tire of them easily. Kids don’t need a lot of flare in their toys to get mileage out of them. They can work wonders with the bare essentials of creativity. Enter the crayon. You might not initially classify a crayon as a toy, but it’s certainly a wonder way to entertain your children, and it’s one of the easiest (and safest) ways to introduce them to art. Some of my fondest memories are of my huge box of Crayolas, and the hundreds of (bad) pictures I drew with their help.

Original Memory Game

The precursor to the more popular Can You Guess Who?, this game is meant for toddlers as a way to help them develop a robust memory. The Original Memory Game has a fairly easy premise: kids draw cards and place them face down on a board, and then the draw another series of cards and try to match them up with the first set of now face down cards. It’s an ideal board game to preoccupy your kids when you’re too busy to play with them. Kids will have either have a blast or a fit trying to match the cards, but either way they’ll be learning something, a claim that few modern toys can make.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.