Bringing up baby

This month we're chock full of talk about infant and preschool products.

While for most of you reading this it's probably mid-April, for us here at Playthings, early spring means it's JMPA show time and coverage for that show, which this year falls during the second week of May, is appearing now because the complicated world of publishing schedules means this issue goes to that show instead of our May issue. Come to think of it, that's why our ASTRA Marketplace preview is in this month's issue, too, even though that event isn't until May either.

One of the common threads running through both of our infant/preschool features this month is that parents are looking for toys for even their youngest kids—babies and toddlers in this case—that shepherd into their child's only-months-old world one or another developmental milestones at, or preferably before, a set age range that studies by someone, somewhere determined should be under way by now for the average child.

Schedules are good—I'd get nothing done without them—and it's certainly important to know your expectations of a child are based on some sort of science, instead of guided by what the neighbor's child is or isn't doing yet. And while I'm not yet a parent, I know that I certainly won't want it to be my kid who can't recite her address, telephone number, ATM pin number and whatever else they will need to demonstrate knowledge of to get into kindergarten. Obviously, I'm not alone. John Smith's “no work, no eat” ethos runs deep in this culture of ours. Most of us enjoy the benefits of it today. But it does point out a divide between those who feel children's toys should be somehow “useful” and those who design products that are first and foremost fun, with any extra benefit, just that—an extra benefit.

There are two preschoolers who make regular appearances in my life. Both of them recently turned 4 years old. Neither comes from a home where there were abundant amounts of infant toys, although their parents could easily have bought them. Watching them play is always a great learning experience for me.

Noah, my nephew, either plays with Matchbox-style cars, counting them out and arranging them in long lines, or is outside playing a game he calls “Chase me!” Ella, my niece, is incredible at putting together puzzles. Over the holidays she beat three adults at Finding Nemo Memory (It's trickier than you'd think, most of the fish look vaguely alike!) I don't remember seeing either one with toys like those we're featuring this month.

Not to say that's a good or bad thing, or that those toys aren't useful, because I'm sure they do what they are intended to do, if not more. It's just curious to see how even if you don't try to sit kids down with the intention of having them do something that's designed to teach them some skill or foster a behavior, they still wind up learning those things on their own anyway. Maybe not at the point the pediatrician thinks they should, but eventually, at about the same time as everybody else at day care.

Somehow, it's comforting to know kids will learn something from anything, whether they have the latest classical music-playing, high-definition smart toy or not. Conversely, it's good to know there are all those explicitly educational toys out there for those of us with more John Smith in us than previously thought.