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There are some people out there who would cringe at the thought of giving a kid a toy that was not filled with batteries or circuitry. There are times I am not sure if there is anything but an electronic toy still available. It seems darn near everything has a battery in it.
My kids have an unplugged Sunday every week. It seems to be fairly good at making them realize there is more to the world than electronics. this said by the man sitting in front of the laptop. Anyway, I have been watching my youngest son a lot lately. He needs to be watched as he is only 20 months old.
But here is the thing, he picks up a lot of things to play with. He does play with the other kids gameboys, and he likes the TV, but his favorite toy is a ball. A simple rubber ball. He doesn’t care if it is the cow one, the princess one, the blue one, the pink one or the football. He rolls the ball and laughs and laughs. There is nothing in the world that is worth more than a childs unconditional joy.
It got me thinking though, why have we lost so much of our ability to play with something simple? 2000 BC, Og picked up a rock that was round and tossed it to his kid. The kid pushed it back, and laughed. This went on for hours until Oog came by and saw how much fun they were having so he joined in. Pretty soon everyone was playing. Years later we have inflated rubber balls. And all was good.
Go out and roll a ball. Pick up a stick and throw it, make it a sword, a magic wand, a hammer. Watching a 1 year old play with simple objects is fun to watch. It really makes you think and try to get some of that ultimate joy back in your life.
Just something to think about.
-Justin
