Thursday 13 December 2007

What about toys

When I look at the toys that are available in shops, its all plastic or plastic related. There is very little natural. Of course you can buy wooden toys, but those are very very expensive.
So how do tribal kids play, what kind of toys do they have.
I have watched some films and read some about it in books.
Tribal kids have toys as well, just not in the way we do in our society. In our society all toys have to fit within the health and safety rules of the various countries, this means: often no metal, definitely no chance on hurting themselves. But how are they going to learn to use stuff for the future.
In tribal communities where hunting is important, kids have small bows and arrows and other hunting tools, kid size, but nonetheless real. They can hurt themselves.
They are simply working along with their parents in gathering and cooking etc.
Our children are often in daycare, with plastic toys, very little real life going on there, so very little learning experiences that are real life again.
I have found a small cooker on which kids can cook with tealights, they can burn themselves and hurt themselves, but they do enjoy using it.
Furthermore one of my girls has her own sewing machine, as she loves sewing, and with that learning about fabric and yarn and how to combine the 2, often with success, sometimes it doesn't turn out too well.
I have learned from what I saw in the films about tribes to not be bothered anymore about my kids wanting a bow and arrow and a catapult, those are real tools in tribal communities, of course not anymore for us, we don't go out hunting, but the ancient need to use these kind of things in play, hunting play, is there. They also check out what in the woods they can eat/ gather. They have asked about buying a book on that, as we have no clue on what exactly you can and cannot eat, we have lost those skills.
Earlier this year they went to Alice Holt for a surivival day and learned a lot about den building, gathering food from the woods and what plants have medicinal properties. At present they know more about that kind of stuff than I do.

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