A Return to Tinker Toys

... Betty adding flags to the ends of her tinker toy creation ...

Kerri and Veer Singh left us one of Veer’s beloved toys.

Tinker toys.

Veer owned both wooden and plastic sets and they came to us in a bin, mixed in with other bits and pieces of toys: guns shoot disks upwards, a few bey blades, the occasional piece of Lego, a metal airplane, etc.

I have wicker baskets full of the same assortment, which we try to re-categorize so that they will be useful in other sorts of play.

I did the sorting of Veer’s bin yesterday. I took out pieces and laid them on the table and Michael, Alice and Betty reached for pieces that would work for them. Thankfully the pieces come in different lengths, all of which have different colours.

Sorting anything is a problem for me until I can find the differences in what I am looking at. So, the little wheels and the flags and the special connections got passed around the table and we played together for about an hour. I spent considerable time taping together he two pages of sample pictures about what kinds of units could be made. I couldn’t see that the farm machinery would make much sense to these little city children and in fact they all told me that they would rather use their imaginations with the toys. Fine by me. I still taped together and then put in a plastic sleeve possibilities for those who like to see if they can follow the picture instructions, one of which was a donkey pulling a cart. I will sit and play with the kids next time, since the sorting has been done. Having less imagination than they, I will probably use the instructions.

Arta