Friday, November 24, 2006

Quel Surprise: Ambitious parents spend on educational toys for toddlers

The Philosopher Mom and I are both in the health/education field and are frankly skeptical of the whole "edutainment" business, but it appears that we might actually be alone in seeing things this way.



In today's IHT, the market-research (shudder) firm In-Stat states that the market for "eductainment" toys from companies like V-Tech and LeapFrog could reach $1.7 billion (yes with a B) this year.





My real concern with all of these techno-toys is that they channel and stifle creativity at a very early age. They limit the amount of time that children spend on imaginitve play, and parents can acutally get frustrated if they feel that kids aren't making enough progress. This in turn leads to the child feeling like a failure.



If balls and blocks were good enough for Galileo, Faraday and Einstein, they should be good enough for my kid (and yours too).

The decision in our house is pretty clear. The Curious Boy has no patience for most toys and prefers pushing around his high chair to just about anything else.









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