When Is A Wooden Truck A Fire Breathing Dragon Truck?
Wooden toy trucks have been favorite toys for kids for decades. We all understand why parents like them so well – they are safe, there aren’t any sharp edges or pieces which will break off and become a choking hazard and they’re durable. But why, given all the remote control toys and electronic toys that talk and play games, would a kid still prefer a simple wooden truck or car to play with?
The answer is simple. Because wooden toys allow your child to use his own imagination and pretend to be whatever he wants to be. A wooden toy doesn’t speak to your child and tell him he must pretend to be an action figure. And a wooden toy does not stop moving around the floor when the batteries run out. But a wooden truck, simply because it does not make a noise like a truck or automatically move about like a truck, permits your child to pretend it’s much more than a truck if he wants to. It can be an ambulance or a firetruck or an airplane or even a horse because the toy itself isn’t made in such a way that it limits his imagination.
For example, when you watch a kid play with a fancy remote control police car that has flashing lights and a siren, all of his pretend play revolves around that automobile being a police car because it sounds and looks like a police car. And because he’s become accustomed to the car moving by remote control, when the batteries die, your child has no idea what to do with it because he hasn’t had to use his imagination while he’s been playing with it.
On the other hand, if you give your child a simple wooden truck you will notice that one day it’s a dump truck, the following day it’s a circus truck that he is using to haul all of his stuffed animals around. The day after that it might be a race truck and the day after that it might even be a fire breathing dragon truck.
But why is it so vital that your child learn to use his imagination? You want your child to be ready to deal with reality. When will he ever come across a real fire breathing dragon truck?
There are a number of advantages to developing your child’s imagination. Imagination helps kids learn problem solving skills by helping them think through different situations and outcomes of different situations. By pretending that that wooden truck is a fire breathing dragon truck, now he has to figure out a way to rescue the princess.
Playing with wooden toys also helps your child increase his vocabulary. Since the toy isn’t talking to him or AT him, he needs to do the talking himself. Usually your child will speak for himself and then for the toy and some splendidly entertaining conversations develop. Being able to use his imagination will also help your child develop his problem solving and creative thinking skills. Both valuable skills to have when you are out in the adult world. And to think your child will learn all of this from something as simple as a wooden truck.
