What's your IDEAL toy that you would buy for your kids?

[adrianna22]

Hi everyone

I am a student and a regular member of Mumsnet.

As part of my dissertation, I'm researching about child development-- how toys help with the children's overall development.

I've noticed, since having my DS, that whenever I buy a toy for him or the packaging it is contained in sooner or later it goes in the bin.

I want to design a product that not only does the IDEAL toy help with kids development, but also how can it's packaging be of any use for you-- so you don't end up throwing it away.

Thanks

Don't throw toys away give them to charity!

I'm not sure there is the perfect toy, surely many toys work to develop different skills in our children? I.e. Climbing frame for gross motor skills, playdoh for fine motor skills, little figures for social development, crafts items for creativity, etc etc.

What Whispers says, there will never be an "ideal" toy, as each parent will have different expectations for toys.

I love Duplo for it's versatility - building multiple things, stimulates imagination, can be used for counting, toddlers love taking it it of the box and putting it back it, can be used for painting, bath toys etc!

I want the my children would love that digital scaletric set seen on the gadget show this week

However Lego has been the most popular toy in this house. It would be a good idea to design the packaging to make garages or houses for the figures, or even for storage / display to stop the bigger models collecting dust.

My ds's favourite toy is his wooden train set. We buy him some more every birthday and Xmas and he plays with it every day. Packaging isn't so much of an issue as we mainly get it from eBay. But maybe the packaging could be made into a tunnel, bridge or engine shed?

Packaging should be 100% recyclable, whilst also having already been recycled. So recycled cardboard, with paper twine to hold items down rather than plastic ties, biodegradable cellophane rather than non recyclable stuff. Packaging should also be minimised as much as possible. If packaging could be reused for play that's great, but any cardboard box can be cut up for art supplies, or turned into a temporary castle/garage/den before recycling anyway.

Some of the best "toys" my DS had were ordinary objects e.g. things put together into a treasure basket made of different materials and textures - wood, metal, fabric, etc. Or things like old remote controls, phones, and other "real" objects.

An old tissue box filled with off cut squares of different fabrics is a great toy for a small baby - hours of entertainment as they take them all out and post them back in again.

A really nice quality set of stacking blocks (wooden or card) is a brilliant toy, especially if they have beautiful illustrations on them as well.

Masking tape

Seriously, the uses my dd's put this to are legion!

A box of wooden building bricks with the box being used to play with...so it could be used like a castle/fort?
No waste at all then.

Thanks everybody for taking your time to read this post and post some of your suggestions.

Ha! I know Whisper... There's isn't an ideal toy, but it's my research question

Sorry my comment wasn't very helpful was it, least it bumped your thread for you though