Love that idea! And so do many others who are buying “digital toys” from Toca Boca, a Swedish app developer.
From an article entitled “No Losers or Winners with These Digital Toys” that appeared in the June 20th Wall Street Journal we learn that these designs “provide an immersive play task, and kids interact with each other while doing it. One kid may be at the controls, but the other is interjecting, making suggestions and laughing.” Here are some examples:
Toca Builder – newest and aims to pull in slightly older children by combining elements of a box of plastic Legos with a classic red “Etch-a-Sketch.”
Toca Kitchen – involves slicing, blending, frying and microwaving foods.
Toca Doctor – introduces activities like cleaning a wound or plucking thorns from a finger.
Hair Salon – sets up tasks like grooming a mustache, painting a mohawk and adding curls to the head of goofy looking people and animals.
Here comes the turning point. Emil Ovemar, co-founder of the company, likes this app best, one that looks like a box and a stick. He says “It has to be fun.”
Look what this company has done. They have created apps out of the most important aspect of play–freedom to create! As we know from other posts, “Play has no beginning, no end, and definitely no rules.”
Now it is our turn. Let’s take a reminder from this company to continue to provide for our children the very activities that inspired Mr. Ovemar to create this company. While digital life is here, and we can applaud this company for taking apps to a non-competitive and creative level, let us turn to the very activities that he used to create it and expose our children to the full interactive benefits of building with legos, using an “Etch-a-Sketch,” playing house (including kitchen), doctor, hair salon and much more.
How wonderful it is to participate digitally in these age-old activities, but look out for your child’s growing body that thrives on movement. There is much more to having a full life than experiencing it through the workings of just one little finger. You all know the old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”
June! The Month of the Dads
Important research on child development and parenting tells us that a major role for dads is rough-housing with their kids. If you have any doubts, here is how to check–it comes naturally. Said another way, Mother Nature has given you the go-ahead. Of course, be careful; but go ahead and enjoy a wonderfully active time with your little one.
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