LESS IS MORE
BY CATHY ALBRO
As I sit here in the Minneapolis airport waiting to board my flight back to Grand Rapids, I contemplate the contrasts in my life. I have just spent a week working with teachers on a Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona. I am going back to a non-stop ten weeks of consumerism at my store.
My consulting “life” includes helping teachers of Native American children incorporate active learning in their classrooms, using mostly the materials in their natural environment, as they can’t afford most of the manufactured teaching tools on the market.
Now my internal dilemma: How is it okay for me to promote such simple methods and materials on the one hand and the toys and tools at our store? I found agreement in the underlying foundation of using both. Children learn from basic tools and their interaction with them. Whether they build with rocks and cardboard boxes or hardwood blocks and Legos, they are learning the principles of construction (balance, pattern, innovation, problem solving). When boys and girls are drumming and chanting on the playground at recess with an elder, they are preserving their culture and learning about music (beat, movement, working together). The same could be accomplished with the musical instruments available at our store. And the correlations continue.
My other observation from the reservation that I’d like to pass on to you is that “less is more”. By choosing toys and tools wisely, children are better off with less. Most good open-ended toys will last through two or more developmental stages and can be used in different ways. When children have too many choices, they are distracted by all their choices and don’t spend much time developing depth in their play.
Also, at the holidays we tend to bombard children with everything at once. Because of this practice, it’s difficult to break the habit and children learn to expect more and more as they get older. It would actually be better for them to have their gifts spread out throughout the year so they have time to explore and be creative with each toy by itself and perhaps in conjunction with other toys they own (dress-up clothes combined with a microphone, a book with puppets and puppet theater).
It may seem strange that a toy store is proclaiming the “less is more” philosophy. Of course we are in business to sell as much as we can, but not at the expense of what’s best for children.
We welcome your comments. Please e-mail calbro@creativelearningtoys.com or send to the store.
Written by Cathy Albro, owner, Creative Learning Toys
Back to Current Articles.
|
