I live between two families – both have a boy and a girl. One side they’re young adults, the other, young teens. I’ve watched the latter developing since they were aged 4 and 1. They used to be taken out…
Role Play Can Involve Rough & Tumble
There’s nothing like a period of enforced family time to really get to grips with entertaining each other. With youngsters having to take their schooling via online lessons in the mornings, it has been wonderfully quiet in my neck of…
Teaching The Art Of Losing Gracefully
There are only so many things you can do with children when the entire globe is in lockdown. The schools are shut and all entertainment venues necessarily so, as are all restaurants and parks. For the first few days it…
Guys & Dolls Can Give Nurturing Toys & Turn
Oh my goodness it can be a real challenge to try and find a really fun thing for a child’s birthday present. How many times have we gone wandering around the local stores with absolutely no idea what to get…
Father Time Of The Rural Toy Shop
Oh my goodness did I have some fun before Christmas when I was looking out for toys for one 9 year old, one 8 year old and a toddler soon to be 3. If you don’t have the joy of…
Moving On From Cowboys & Fairy Outfits
I was leafing through a couple of 1950’s newspapers recently, together with a much prized copy of a magazine for women from a similar era. Apart from everything being in very plain black and white, or now sepia and black…
Retro Rummage Discovers Toys Of Distinction
One of the most joyous mornings was spent recently in a retro store in a very smart and busy northern town. I’ve never been in anything quite as fantastic. There was so much stock from decades back – everything from…
Competitive Games Foster Confident Children
There is a fine line between buying toys for a child who really does like board games and group competition and those who absolutely hate having to try and match or beat the others around the table. I suspect the…
Grandpa’s Tool Shed A Hideaway For Toys
The summer holidays are racing by, as they do every year. But no sooner have the dropped the last p.e. bag on the hall floor then you’re yelling at them to find their kit in the pile of bedroom debris…
Careful Product Placement Proves Utterly Enticing
I was helping at a historic house the other day there hadn’t been many folk through the house at this point, but there had been several families spotted parking up in the top car park. Whilst they meandered around the…