For a few months now, as I have looked very critically at what my children have and pondering what they truly treasure and are drawn too, we have A LOT of clutter. Plastic clutter to be precise. Noisy, tacky, garish clutter. The news of problems with toys this week has made me think even more about what to do about it all.
I would rather have few beautiful, quality toys that my children truly treasure. I would rather toys that can stand the test of time and be ready for my grandchildren. I would rather the children learn to appreciate true beauty, found in great works of art and music rather than be drowned in cheap plastic and noise.
These will be my guiding principles. This will be hard work. I know part of this process will mean guiding my children's hearts and minds to appreciate true beauty and detach themselves from the rest. But even as I type, and I can hear them all playing together, without a single "toy", moving their bodies, whooping and laughing, I know they're up for the challenge. Last year at Christmas I had a retailers list in my sidebar. I will put that back in with the results of my "treasure hunt". I can't wait to hunt down these lovely "real" toys for them.
2 comments:
This is a great point, you know. There can be many reasonings for it, so bad is the idea of buying things made cheaply in China. Here in Australia we have had a lot of publicity over the fact that foods, clothes, toys are all contaminated with seriously harmful chemicals/metals etc. EG: clothes are being found to have 900 times the safe level of formeldehyde in them!!! How shocking is that!
It is interesting that the governments around the world have been happy to do business with China even though they have a shocking human rights record but when it comes to our human rights and wealfare being affected, well they only start to take note then - lets hope China will lose their monopoly in time.
here's another site for your list: www.moolka.com
be sure to check out the the carpet "world championship"!
thanks for making the list!
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