Toys And Games

Children are fascinating if you really watch them. The things they find interesting are often the last thing most adults would think about. One thing that my daughter found to be of great interest was a plastic dinosaur she found in a store one day. It was only a dollar, so I bought it for her. She had no idea what it was, but she loved it none the less. She named him ‘Dino’ and he’s been a treasured toy ever since that day. I have found that many children love dinosaur toys, even though I’m not sure why.

Many children’s entertainers already know that children love dinosaur toys. Barney is a dinosaur, as is Dorothy from The Wiggles. In fact, many shows made for children have a dinosaur of some sorts somewhere, or at least make reference to them once in a while. They have characters, songs, and even skits based on dinosaur toys. Why most children are interested I can’t say for certain, but perhaps they appeal to the imagination because they are not something you can go to the zoo to see, or are found hanging out in the backyard, or at least I hope not.

You might even say that dinosaur toys are a good bet when you aren’t sure what to buy a child as a gift. Though they are often something people get for boys, there are plenty of girls that love them as well. Since my daughter got her first, she has asked for many other dinosaur toys. She uses them in the bath, and in the car on long road trips. She asks for stories about them, and will often pretend that she is one. Most other kids relate when she wants to play pretend with them, as long as someone is a dinosaur.

The best thing about dinosaur toys is that they don’t have to be expensive. The simple molded plastic variety are always a huge hit. They don’t have to be large, they just have to look like dinosaurs. They are easy to play with, and those they don’t do much on their own, children seem to enjoy them anyway. They can use their imagination to make their dinosaur toys do just about anything they want them to do. There are also toys that allow children to build their own dinosaur, or even some that move with the use of a remote. They are all hits for some reason, and even if I can’t explain why, I’m just glad that is a gift option I always have to fall back on.

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When I was a kid, I thought toy dinosaurs were the best. I was never interested in dinosaur toys until we went to the natural history Museum. We lived in a small town outside of Chicago, so going to the Chicago Museum of Natural History was a big excursion for us. We actually spent a weekend in town, going to several museums. I was young at the time, but I still remember the dinosaur exhibit vividly. It was one of the most impressive things I had ever seen. There is something about dinosaurs that really makes an impression on the kid. Seeing those giant skeletons towering above you is like nothing else in the world.

My parents let me get a couple dinosaur toys in the gift shop. They were nothing special – little plastic dinosaur figurines – but I loved them. I would play make-believe with them, pretending that these little, 2 inch tall dinosaur toys were big enough to eat my little sister. Of course, she would always fight back. She had a plush dinosaur toy – a stuffed animal that was a peculiar combination of a fearsome and adorable. She absolutely loved it, but then again she was at the age where kids absolutely love anything that is cute and fluffy.

Now that my own kid is getting to that dinosaur age, I have contemplated taking him to the natural history museum like my parents did for me. The other day, he asked for a t rex toy when we were in a learning toys store. I never really thought about how educational dinosaur toys were before, but now that I think about it, they really are.

Once I got interested as dinosaurs as a kid, I started studying everything I could find on them. Soon, I knew a fair amount about fossils and the different ages of geology. In some ways, it doesn’t even matter what kids get interested in. As long as they are willing to study it and become excited about it, they can learn a lot. Not only did my dinosaur toys teach me about the dinosaurs, but they taught me about learning itself. For the first time in my whole life, I was doing research on my own. My parents were willing to get me all the dinosaur books I could ask for, and so I would always give them little lectures on them. I just hope that my kid gets as excited as I did!

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