My Children's World of Toys

Then...

I played with my best playmates in the neighbourhood. We built doll houses outside the house, mostly under the shade of a tree using coconut leaves and fallen branches of trees. We used rice sacks as carpets and blankets. We used discarded cans as cookwares and rocks as cooking stand. We used a lighted torch made of a used cloth wrapped on a bamboo stick when darkness looms. We cooked weeds as vegetables and we didn't scream at insects crawling and flying around us.

Now...

On a rainy cold day in the comforts of her room, my girl puts up her ready-to-install plastic tent. Her playmates are her stuff toys. She uses fluffy comforters as carpet and surrounds herself with soft pillows. She has a Disney Princess flashlight in hand just in case of black out. When she fancies baking or cooking, she uses her teeny tiny Barbie kitchen complete with miniature plastic kitchen utensils, fridge, oven, sink, drawers and cupboards.

Then...

I watched my brothers having the time of their lives racing in a wide pavement with their self-assembled scooters made of wood and it's wheels are made of discarded car bearings. When I'm lucky, I get to ride one myself and I would never forget the exhilaration of being "one of the boys". After racing, I also get to go spider hunting with them. Boys in my generation collects spiders in a match box, segregated with braided coconut leaves. I also remember flying kites made of plastic bags and broom sticks in a open field.

Now...

My boy plays with his battery operated car complete with a car racing track, miniature trees, road signs and gasoline station (not in photo) in the comforts of our living room. When he gets bored, he rides either his mini train or push-bicycle around the house. When he gets tired, he goes back playing with his other cars, buses, and trucks. When he thinks he had enough of his wheeled toys, he goes inside his playroom and "swim" in his mini ball pit along with colourful plastic balls.

Children's world is just so modernize these days. All thanks to family thrift store, flea market and generous friends, I need not scratch my head, search for toys at bigw.com.au and burn my wallet. I have accumulated more than enough number of toys (most of them are gifts from friends or bought from thrift store and flea market) to keep my kids occupied during rainy days when I can't bring them out to play outdoors.

Here are a few of my kids' toy collections:

Barbie dolls and Tea Set 

My girl has collected more than a dozen of legitimate Barbie dolls. She has a ballerina, princesses in stunning gowns, Barbie dolls in corporate attire, and a Barbie doll in swimwear that came along with Ken. She loves playing tea party with her Barbie dolls. She alters their hairstyles and dresses according to her mood. She lets them split, sit, and "talk" to each other.

Play Doh

Play Doh stirs up kids' wild imagination and creativity. My girls makes cookies and cup cakes out of the colourful clay while my boy lets me to mould shapes for him.

Monopoly

My girl has 3 sets of Monopoly board game. One Singaporean special edition, one original version and one Princess edition. All of them are gifts. I actually wanted to give the Princess edition to her younger cousin but she is still into Princesses until now so I'm hanging onto it for the time being. 

Toys with Wheels and Wings

My boy's wheeled and winged toy collection includes buses, racing car, luxury cars, wooden cars, trucks and aeroplane. The only thing we bought for him is the wooden car set (came in 3s, 2 of it not in photo) from Ikea. The rest are from the thrift store.

Balls

From colourful plastic balls to rubber basketball and soft plushy ball, my boy just couldn't get enough of the rounded thing. 

Food Straps

My daughter use these food straps for her tea play dates. She also loves strapping them in her school bag. I got this set free as a gift from attending a food tasting event as a blogger.

Plush Toys

After giving away so many plush toys in the past few years, my kids still have a lot of them. Their collection includes animal plush toys (which include dogs, rabbit, turtles, sheep, deer, squirrel, pig, cow, etc), Looney Toon characters, Mickey Mouse and friends, Winnie the Pooh and friends, Barney  and friends, bears, dolls and many more.

That's all I can show you for now. Honestly, they have more but please don't get me wrong. I would love my children to at least experience something close to my treasured childhood memories but leaving in the city of a first world country is just so different from living in the province of a third world country. I may have showered my kids with lots of toys but I do bring them to play outdoors and appreciate nature most of the time. Only when we are left without a choice but stay indoors that I let them play their toys.