Toys for children of yesterday and today

Various scientific studies have proven the benefits that games have on the growth of children. They help them to develop their imagination and creativity, to express their vision of the world, to manifest their social skills and to develop their body and oral language.

Toys for boys and girls have evolved tremendously over the years. Today there are all kinds of toys, and each of them focuses on stimulating specific skills. Toys for girls and boys are classified by age, defining different degrees of difficulty according to the ability to be developed.

In a toy store we can find board games or dynamic body awareness, motor, sensory or physical condition. Board games for children are always a good option if they are chosen according to the age and tastes of the children. Likewise, it is also interesting to share a board game as a family, since it allows to generate another link between the members and have fun all together.

However, and although it is hard to believe, the analog way of carrying out table games is no longer the only one, technology has also advanced in this field, currently offering its online table games variable.

In either of its two versions, board games today have the double function of entertaining and stimulating learning from an informal and almost involuntary place. But it has not always been like this, this result was achieved thanks to a growing evolution that was achieved over the years.

play as a lifestyle

Children have always been linked to games. With or without toys they always manage to recreate spaces, moments, situations that help unleash everything that their creativity and imagination allow them.

During their first years of life, games are the means through which children connect with their environment, with the people around them and with everything they feel. In the vast majority of cases they do not need large objects to be able to play, it is enough to have everyday belongings nearby so that they themselves are in charge of reinventing them and giving them a new meaning.

Despite this, it cannot be denied that games are a very valuable tool to stimulate learning. Most of them are designed to develop specific skills and respond to a teaching-learning model.

In any case, this has not always been the case, that is, the children have always shown themselves playing, but they did not always have the necessary tools to feel more stimulated.

Children's toys, yesterday

Toys have been around for thousands of years, as well as family board games . Many of them handmade, made with various natural products. Some of the oldest may be dominoes, puzzles, and dolls made from a variety of materials.

The industrial revolution and later the incorporation of plastic were two extremely important milestones in the manufacture of toys. On the one hand, because it was possible to begin mass production and reduce the final cost of the final product, allowing children of all social classes to have access to them, and on the other, because they became safer and cleaner objects for all children.

On the other hand, in the 19th century the idea began to take hold that it was necessary to create objects that favored children's learning.

This forced us to think about the “what for” of each toy, being able to provide an objective that is not limited only to entertainment, but also contributes to the development of skills. For example, ancient wooden horses were used to help children improve their balance. At that time they learned to ride a horse when they grew up and this toy helped them train.

games for kids today

At present, toys have emphasized the objective of teaching children so that when handling them, it is not only about entertainment but they can also learn .

A concept closely linked to today's toys is Montessori . This type of toy was created by the Italian educator Maria Montessori at the end of the 19th century, but it was a few decades ago that it became widely established worldwide.

The characteristic offered by this type of toys is that they are made with natural materials that do not harm the environment. For children they are very easy to use and offer more than one way to be manipulated , therefore they are flexible objects that each child must discover how it works.

How does this method work?

The Montessori method offers children total freedom so that they can learn at their own pace, under the supervision of an adult. In addition to entertaining the child, they seek to emphasize some of the five areas of development of this learning methodology: practical life, sensory, mathematics, language and culture.

On the other hand, and as we have already mentioned, these are flexible toys that give the child the independence and freedom to discover how to use it.

In addition, they are self-correcting , that is, the toy itself is in charge of telling the child if he has made a mistake, allowing him to learn from his mistake.

Some examples

Although not all current toys are Montessori, some of the most common examples that we can find are: the balance board (a semicircle-shaped piece of wood on which children can stand and practice balance), the activity board ( basic motor activities of daily life such as: zipping up, tying a knot, opening and closing door locks, etc.) and the classification game (helps to work on fine motor skills, shape recognition), among others.

Both yesterday and today, toys accompany us in our growth stage, allowing us to create new realities and fantasize without running out of imagination.

However, the interesting part begins when the intervention of new learning methodologies, developed to increase our stimulation, intervene in this entire process and maximize our abilities.