interactive toys

Note to Self:

I said the other day that I don't believe in "interactive toys."  I should have said "electronic toys."  If it beeps and buzzes and lights up, it's not interactive.  It's not engaging.  It's simply an amusement device.  I don't need Leap Frog to teach Joel how to read.  We can use flash cards and environmental text instead.  Ahh . . . but interactive?  How about that washer box that they turned into a fort?  Or those sticks that have switched from swords to magic wands to catapults?  Or that book (no, not the flat screen iPad, but the one with pictures and pages where they can flip, not virtually, but physically)?  Or the whoopie cushion that Joel is playing with to hear all the different kinds of farts he can make.  Who knows?  I might be screwing them up with my Luddite bent.  Perhaps they need to be Digital Natives, but for now I'm happy with them being native in their own back yard.  I want connectivity to be not so much bars on a screen, but a mind engaged to one's surroundings.

Sincerely:
John