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.
Written
by Cathy Albro, owner, Creative Learning Toys
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