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Aug. 29, 2005 Disclaimer: Parents should determine the appropriateness of toys for children. If you are even slightly unsure that your child would be safe with a toy – do not use that toy. Always supervise your children when they are playing with toys especially if those toys are factory labeled for a higher age group. Sometimes the previous generation looks at the toys kids have today and wonder how neat it would have been to have that toy when they were a kid. Now there are toys that can be as entertaining for the parent, fun to play with for the child and offer a bonding experience between parent and child. There are toys now by Tonka toys like this Racecar, Bi-Plane, Bulldozer are all great toys to play with. I recently purchased a Tonka Wood model of a Jet Plane and a Train and my 2 year old enjoyed ‘helping’ me build both. Building these models with my son has brought bonding between the two of us. He is only two years old, but the finished product after building these models is certainly fun and safe enough for him to play with. Please always watch your younger child should you have them play with a toy that is rated for a higher age than they currently are and investigate and decide for yourself if you child is ready to play with the toy. I found that distinctly my son enjoyed the process of building the model with me. He would hold screws (my son has long since abandoned eating things that are not food) or even placing the screws in the holes so daddy can use the provided screw driver to drive the screw in place. The instructions are up to the task for even the most bumbling of parents such as me. He even held the screwdriver while I turned it. The toys my son ‘helps’ me build are without questions the ones that he values greater than the ones we just buy at the store. He walks around showing everyone the toy saying ‘I helped build this with my daddy.’ It isn’t enough to just build it in front of your child but to encourage them to hold parts and hand them to you, you should tell them what the names of parts are if you know them, have your child assist in whatever way they can and yes to reprimand them when they take a bunch of screws and throw them away. (!) It seems that now is the time of the toy that you build at home. My son and I have had success building toys from MAISTO and Muscle Machines . The best ones appear to be from MAISTO. We built two cars from them a Ferrari and a 350Z. My son is able to push the tires together and in one instance he was able to push the ‘engine’ in to place. Doing these little things appears to have a positive effect on him. The Muscle Machines ’40 Sedan Delivery was the only model that we had difficulty in assembly. We had to bring out the big guns, my wife to help finish the assembly. The problem was that it was very difficult to line up the holes on the die-cast metal body with the plastic holes on the chassis. There were some very positive things with the Muscle Machines model. It was significantly larger than the Maisto models and it came with a 1/64 scale (think matchbox and hotwheels) sized car that was identical to the larger sized model.
Overall, I highly recommend for children of various ages to build
things
with their parents. It seems like one of the best experiences my child
has
had so far – with the exception of going to the amusement park. Always
be
careful and understand your limits and your child’s limits in regards
to
safety.
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