Touch and Feel Vs Touchscreen

Do you remember the games you played in your childhood? For me it was scraping tender coconut fruits (Bondi) which fell off, pretending to be cooking- complete with leaves as curry and some rice from Amma. We had this nice shady place in our huge backyard with the washing stone. It was so much fun. Then there were the flat stones in our yard… All this being in Mangalore which receives wonderful rains..in the rainy season the water would be like small streams around these stones and we would pretend to cross the river jumping across these stones…I could go on forever and bore you with my memories and plays. But I wonder what memories my child will have of her childhood. When she looks back will it only be Mickey mouse and nick junior or will she remember good times spent with friends? Will she remember the games she played? Right now the pretend plays are based on Bahubali…When I saw this ad by Skola toys Touch and feel vs Touchscreen I could totally relate to it. After all just the previous day we had been for some book shopping and my child picked up everything related to cartoons…it was depressing!

When I see kids as small as one handle touchscreens, phones, iPads and tabs…my heart worries. What are their memories going to be like? Will they even know that it’s a lot of fun to make friends and play? In these times where most kids are without siblings, parents are exhausted working and no grandparents staying with them… touchscreens seem the natural choice of play. It all begins with rhymes, but you never know when they graduate to games.

Skola toys are doing a great job at creating toys which bring learning through fun. I especially loved the finger puppets. These can be used to create fun games without parent supervision and the child will learn to make different words while enjoying the learning. And this was just one of the many options where learning is according to age and concept. They have very well defined parameters and guidelines based on which you can choose at each level. I wish my child was two so I could go back and try with all their toys. The toys cater mainly to the 2 to 6 years group and are designed to play with minimal supervision. So the time you just want to be, instead of giving the remote control to our kids we could give them this game and offer to join them in a while. I also loved the sand pendulum which traces the path taken by the pendulam in sand. The best part is that all their toys are made using natural materials like wood and concepts based on textures. They are so much more sturdy and gives a good feel. Infact Jayshri’s child from mommyswall who is all of four could identify the letters based on textures much faster and more accurately than all of us. These toys are available online and also in some stores. I have decided to buy the pendulam set, the multiplication set and the word wheel… All very useful and fun.

This Children’s Day I can truly say that I relived my childhood and more. Right from the puppet making workshop at Taneira with Puthali toys, the bloggers meet by Skola where I happily played with toys and made new friends, to the Puppet Show at Sankalpa by Rangaputhali...each learning was wonderful, insightful and loads of fun.

And I have enrolled for a pottery class at Slow Pottery. I am yet to write about it…it’s therapeutic I tell you!
But for now keep the kids away from gadgets. Spend time with them, play with them..because Touch and feel Vs Touchscreen, it’s always your decision.

Life’s a play…

Lots of twinkles to all of you

Anu