Geekdad Jonathan H. Liu has a great post called The 5 Best Toys of all Time: string, box, dirt, cardboard tubes and sticks. I wholeheartedly agree that the best things in life are free. Now, with summer around the corner I’m looking to expand that list a bit– especially if I’m going to have these munchkins around more often.
Here’s my list of The Best Toys (That Aren’t Even Toys). The “C” edition, apparently.
- Clipboard: So authoritative, so official. Is your kid an Olympic coach? A chocolate factory inspector? Or just the one in charge around here? After playing doctor all day, he’ll use it to doodle. If you don’t have a clipboard, just use a chip clip and an oversized book.
- Clothes Hangers: Oh, The Things You Can Hang! Bigs pretended hers was an archery bow. Smalls hung them off each other and made a hanging tower. Just don’t let me see any wire hangers, people. No wire hangerrrrrs!!
- Couch: It’s a pool, a castle, a high speed train. It’s soft, springy and large scale. Its endless configurations and easy clean up make it a dream toy for the kids AND us.
- Colander: Watch sand fall through it, make it rain, put it on your head and sit in it. The colander is a whole body experience. Who knew?
- Cardboard: What makes the world go ’round? Cardboard! That cardboard rectangle that came with dad’s dress shirt. That box that came filled from diapers.com. With a little elbow grease it’s a space ship or a learning toy, an iphone or a deer head. Cardboard! It’s free. It’s limitless. It’s magical. It’s everything we love about life.
