When I was a little girl, bored to tears in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, nothing fascinated me more than one of these:
(Of course, that only held my patience until I was old enough to read and understand the Reader’s Digest.) My mind has always loved the challenge of solving a mystery, a puzzle or just figuring out how something works. I could entertain myself for hours with a bead maze. (I swear that if it wasn’t for this toy, I’d have never developed the brain to design hair, or teach myself how to knit or to make my own top-down/bottom-up Roman shades.)
Recently, I’ve indulged myself a nostalgic trip down memory lane by researching wooden toys online. As it turns out, the brand Melissa and Doug are the manufacturers of most of my childhood favorites. (And hopefully, one day, they’ll be Bennett’s favorites, too.)
Did you ever play with these?
I did. For H.O.U.R.S. … and hours.
And remember these?
So precious.
What childhood toys do you recall holding your interest? Were they indicative of your personality and/or interests today?
I played in the dirt, with toy guns, and fire.
Sounds about right.
Hmmmm, wow, I guess mine was indicative … I loved playing house … with dolls …. even paperdolls were fun.
Sez the Mom of five biological, one adopted, 23 fostered and one exchange child.
Aw, Momma, that’s so sweet.
I loved making mud pies.
I can’t help it; this made me chuckle! No one ever schooled me in this. Is there a method to making mud pies?
Bristle Blocks when I was very little, a race car track, a tape recorder, blank paper/crayons/markers….
My brother and I had big, cardboard bricks that we could use to build forts, etc. I loved them. Now, those same bricks are one of Ty’s favorite toys!
Childhood Toys definitely foundation for future. I loved games with questions, word puzzles, math problems. Anything to do with numbers or words.
Did, however, regularly roller skate on the sidewalk and play hopscotch!
Those all sound like they suit you!
I always liked the Highlight magazines. Maybe that’s why I’m good at Scrabble and crosswords today. š
Oh yeah!
i loved my brother’s erector set, legos, lincoln logs, etc and he and i would build things with blocks, then knock them down with his battleship or Mighty Moe cannon
when i was about six, someone gave me a board book that had embroidery stitch diagrams and holes punched out so that i could learn the stitches–i still love and do lots of needlework and other crafts
my mother always had a book of crossword and variety puzzles nest to her ‘spot’ on the couch and i would often take it and do the easier puzzles despite her admonitions to “leave my puzzle book alone!” funny how the easy puzzles were always left undone and how i never really got into trouble for doing them š to this day, i love puzzle books, especially the ones with math and logic problems
i could go on and on…
and i feel so sorry for kids today who don’t know the fun of blocks, puzzles, dolls that do absolutely nothing, and other toys that are “just add imagination”