Charley, our two-year-old grandson, spends a lot of time with my wife and me. He's a pal, and we have lots of fun together. He’s bright, too. He has a set of wooden blocks of various shapes, and he knows their names well. I ask him for a rhombus and he gets it. Ditto for the trapezoid, rectangle, triangle, square, circle, and octagon.
It's quite amazing to me see him comprehend these multi-syllable nouns, in spite of the fact that his spoken vocabulary hasn't gone beyond a half dozen words. He doesn't even utter sentences yet.
Entertain and EducateIn my quest to entertain and educate Charley, I'm always on the lookout for action toys and scientific toys, especially ones that don't require batteries. You see, his mom buys him all sorts of plastic toys, many equipped with embedded controllers, lots of flashing LEDs, and speech and sound effects chips. In contrast, I seek action toys that don't require batteries and aren't made of plastic.
So far, I've given Charley a balsa-wood glider that's launched using a rubber-band catapult (he's too young to operate the launcher, but he sure enjoys seeing the little airplane fly, and he loves to retrieve it). I also gave Charley the venerable all-metal Slinky spring toy (invented by a mechanical engineer). Charley loves using the Slinky when he slithers down a flight of stairs, with the toy leaping from step to step beside him.
Charley also has a metal gyroscope. Devoid of LEDs and motors (battery-powered electronic versions are available), this is a vintage top that’s still available at some toy stores. Although he's too young to wind its string and get it spinning, my grandson loves to watch it spin on the tip of a sharpened pencil, or dance along a bit of taut cord. He also likes to abruptly stop its spinning motion with his little fingers. I love this top as much as Charley does.
Recently, I discovered the Kikkerland line of playthings. Although the box for Charley's Kikkerland Bonga Robot Mecanique says it's a collector's item and not a toy, Charley and I disagree. The Bonga is a windup toy, replete with a huge visible metal spring and crank handles.
Looking for all the world like a prehistoric centipede, the multi-legged Bonga will crawl over anything in its path until its runs out of spring power. Another Kikkerland Mecanique wonder toy is Le Pinch. This wind-up is articulated and flexible, and its escapement is delightfully noisy. If you set him free, Le Pinch will outdo Bonga, trying to climb over almost any small obstacle in its path.
My hope is these animated toys will kindle excitement and wonder, a feat I don't think the LED and sound-chip toys can match. Oh, sure: eventually Charley and I will tinker with Lego robots and RC models and ham radio and computers. But for now I want him to learn not everything is made of plastic and electronics.
Do you know of other action toys that don't require batteries? If so, please let your fellow readers know. Write me at
amm at en-genius dot net, or post your comments on our blog.
