Do your kids play with toys as they were intended?

[Snickerdoodle]

Mine never do. Anything new that comes in gets immediately dismantled or broken and used for completely off the wall purposes.

 

I think this year I'm just going to the hardware store and fill two small boxes with doodads and call it good for Christmas.

[Chris in VA]

Did you see that post yesterday about the inventor's kit? Sounds like it would be a good way to go for you!

 

I do find that kids are more apt to play "creatively" with a toy that is boring because it's too young, too old, or not of interest as designed, for them.

[Snickerdoodle]

No, what post? Sounds like something I need.

[Chris in VA]

Here! :001_smile:

It was Sunday, not yesterday.

[Snickerdoodle]

I missed it.

 

THANKS SO MUCH!!

[Chris in VA]

You're welcome! I can just see you posting pics in January of some amazingly creative do-hickey thingamagigs!! LOL

[MomOfOneFunOne]

yeah, what post???

 

My girl has always played with toys in unorthodox ways. She used to have one of those things where they push the button, rotate the dial, turn the knob, flip the switch and then a door pops open and a character or animal pops out. My daughter would put another toy on the door and then push the button. The toy would fly across the room. The best part was that if there wasn't a toy on top of the door, she'd say, "Wait! It is byoken." Then she'd put the toy on it and say, "Okay, I fix it now."

 

sigh . . .

 

She still plays with things in strange and unusual ways . . . and I still love it.

[Belacqua]

Mine's older now, but when he was young enough for toys, he never played with them the expected way. He sorted them. Whatever they were, they ended up counted and sorted and organized in weird ways (usually across my living room floor).

 

I think the box o' doodads sounds fabulous.

[sagira]

Mine never do. Anything new that comes in gets immediately dismantled or broken and used for completely off the wall purposes.

 

I think this year I'm just going to the hardware store and fill two small boxes with doodads and call it good for Christmas.

 

Oh gosh. I could have written your post. My dd takes out cards intended for games and hands them out as birthday cards, or little books. My ds finds the most creative ways to use toys -- except as intended :tongue_smilie:

[WarriorMama]

Mine never do. Anything new that comes in gets immediately dismantled or broken and used for completely off the wall purposes.

 

I think this year I'm just going to the hardware store and fill two small boxes with doodads and call it good for Christmas.

 

No. They don't. My daughter turns them into whatever imaginary object she needs at the moment, and my son dismantles them. He can destroy ANYTHING.

 

Mostly they ignore the toys completely and find all sorts of fascinating things to do with everything ELSE in the house. :tongue_smilie:

[Denisemomof4]

I was going to say never, but I'll say rarely instead. If I really think about it, for the boys it'd probably be never, the girls, yes, much of the time. Especially dd10.

 

My kids really don't play with toys anymore, just the youngest, but these answers were for when they did.

[Mimm]

I bought some math manipulatives this weekend. It was a little tub of colored plastic shapes, from triangles to hexagons. I'm sure many of you have something similar. I was thinking my not-very-mathy (or mathtastic) 9 year old would play with them. I sat there creating some interesting patterns to jump start this type of thing. I left the dining room and when I came back, both girls were sitting there with the shapes sorted and grouped together. They were playing some kind of game in which each shape had various powers and abilities and they were fighting some kind of war.

 

I was the oldest in my family and I'm nine years older than my oldest sister. There are three boys between us, so I played with boys a lot growing up. I did a lot of building with legos and blocks so on. As much as I love having two girls who share the same interests and who can play together so well, I feel like they're kind of missing out on this influence. They used to do the same things with wooden blocks and duplo blocks. They would get set up on end and become "people". Everything gets personified.

[lisamarie]

Not too often. Our math manipulatives are usually turned into houses, tall buildings, etc. Our jenga game is also used as a building toy and rarely to actually play jenga. Both my girls got beautiful doll houses for Christmas last year with lots of accessories. I don't think they ever even played with the houses, but they drag the people around everywhere and have little battles with them. Books are used to make ramps for cars to drive on. Etc, etc, etc.

 

DD3 does the card thing--she will take her deck of cards and deliver them as mail or call them her books.

 

Today DD5 played candy land by herself using her own rules. She won.:lol:

[Ginevra]

My kids play/played with most toys pretty much as intended, with one severe exception: Boomwhackers. I got so tired of them being used as light sabres, spears, megaphones and Whack-A-Brother, I finally just Freecycled them to someone with a docile little girl. :glare:

[mcconnellboys]

That actually sounds like a great idea! I bet they'll love it. It sounds like they have great curiosity and imagination....

[6packofun]

Nope, but not the same thing you're talking about. Mine try to see how much hilarity they can cause with their toys. Stuffed animals get, well, stuffed into the tiniest containers--like poor Grover in a mug (?) with just his big pink nose sticking out, action figures taped together in a large action BALL, other items are repurposed for comedy routines or just for the heck of it. LOL Now, they don't do this ALL the time or ruin their toys because they know they'd be in big trouble! If I knew they wanted to take them apart, though, I'd be buying them lots of cheap stuff at the thrift store for them to go nuts with. :D