Educational games and toys
Playing and learning are so closely related that they often can’t be distinguished at all. In one way or another, most games are educational – even if it were only in educating the player up to a higher level of competition. That’s fairly often overlooked, I believe… but it’s true: even your very own recreational game of tennis, on a sweet summer afternoon with a frefreshing drink witin hands reach, is an educational game!
But let’s be realistic: when talking about educational games, more often than not we refer to learning objects for our children. Especially in the last decade or two, an astonishing number of educational “tools” have been developed for children of all ages, and even for grown-ups. The latter may or may not be intentional, but a fact is that many of the more clever educational or learning systems, like those dealing with science and nature, are enthusiasticaly used by the parents of the offspring for whom the gift was originaly intended!
This will less easily happen with educational toys for very young children, like alphabet blocks or ABC blocks. And then there’s the enormous range of educational games/toys for all ages in-between! Looking back on my own youth in the 1940′s and 1950′s I am very much amazed by all the educational tools that are available now! On the other hand I believe that our childrens own development of their creativity suffers from those pre-chewed and bite-sized chunks. I used to be very excited with the almost proverbial cigar box from my granddad, from which I created houses, factories and garages – the box that is, not my granddad.
So it’s all a matter of relativity, I reckon. Some values are lost, others are gained. But at least, to the considerable relief of sometimes desperate parents, buying educational games and toys is now easier than it was ever before. Generally speaking, this is an improvement.