Tuesday 23 November 2010

Search and rescue

One of the tricky decisions we have to make as parents is how hard we let our kids play with 'their' toys .

Do we stiffle creativity & freedom to play and learn for the sake of keeping the toys new looking ?

Do we want toys to stay in pristine , almost brand new out/in of the box condition ? or be loved and well played with especially in the case of boys.


I am not talking about willful destruction of toys (think Sid in Toy story) but letting them get a bit dirty and well used outside.


At the farm the boys love to take Buzz & Woody on adventures. Woody once clean and pristine is now slightly dirty and scruffy looking. I laugh at the fun they have with him , role playing. They don't need any encouragement from me.


The rescues well ..."I know ... lets get a big stick and whack Woody down" if Buzz fails on his rescue mission.

See more play ideas at

Where do you stand ?

ETA - Since Woody is a Cowboy 'doll' I guess he qualifies as an inside toy than can be a taken outside toy.

PS I don't let them take the Duplo outside because it is so damn hard to clean the dirt off and out of all the holes.

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9 comments :

Naturally Carol said...

I think the true purpose of toys is to be able to role play and learn, so I'm all for allowing them to be well played with and worn. However, there are inside toys and outside toys and some which fit both categories and transition well. A sensible regime of hygiene is good too as we don't want the kids sick, that defeats the purpose. P.S. I posted your parcel this afternoon!

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

@Carol - I agree I told them I would wash Woody ( he is an electronic talking kind with soft legs/body) so they wouldn't decide to bath him on their own (as they did their bedtime bears).
Buzz is all plastic so not so bad.
Rules are good for them to learn too, inside toys vs outside ones.

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

Ps thank you I am looking forward to it.

ClaireyHewitt said...

Ha, this made me laugh, I love toys getting a real work out.

Unknown said...

I love your pictures. Dirt, trees and toys are a recipe for fun at my house too.

Unknown said...

I love it! I get upset when my dad tells my kids they're going to get dirty - that's what boys do! So I figure their toys will too! Of course, we do have toys that are strictly for inside and others for outside, but that's more due to what they're made of.....

Anonymous said...

Great story-telling through the photos :)

I guess it varies on the toy as to whether I would let it go outside, but as we don't actually have anywhere to play outside as yet this isn't something that I really think about.

Let the Children Play said...

As a mother of boys, your photos were all too familiar!

Christie - Childhood 101 said...

Most of our toys are allowed outside, as long as they come back in at the end of the day. We have also talked about how some of our soft bodied dolls are best kept out of the dirt as they are harder to wash then our plastic bodied dolls.

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