Building Toys – The Perks

Guest post written by Carmen Markowski, Discovery Toys Team Leader

If we took a poll of everyone in North American age fifty years and younger, I wonder what percentage of people have played with Lego at some point in their life? I’m going to guess it’s somewhere between 85-95%. I think it’s safe to say, most of us have had some experience with building toys. My own brothers had a huge box of it and I can remember being around nine years old when, my little brother and I would sit for hours creating fantastic structures. It’s pretty easy to see the benefits a building toy can offer a child…fine motor skills, problem solving, creativity, cooperation (especially when you have to share the building pieces!). However, what does that mean in the day-to-day life of a child?

I feel like I understand so much more about the perks of building toys now that I’ve seen my own son go through his early years.  Luke had very busy hands as a toddler, so playing with building toys was a great release for him and a good break for me. It meant he wasn’t tearing my house apart! His first building toy was simple wooden blocks. Playing with the blocks meant he had to focus his attention for several minutes in order to complete the task of creating a structure. He was only two years old, but he definitely needed practice in this area! Building blocks were just the beginning to his career as a builder. I found he enjoyed many different building sets from ages 2-5 and spend a good portion of his play time building.

I must admit, I had a concern about Luke during those early years. Although he would sit and color once in awhile, I was hard pressed to get Luke to have an interest in writing words or printing letters. The school teacher side of me imagined my children having lots of experience in writing before entering school and unfortunately this just wasn’t the case for Luke.

Luke surprised me in his kindergarten year. His printing: neat, well-formed letters. Writing did not bring any stress to him because he found it easy! He was good at it and he enjoyed it. Coloring: he pressed hard and worked within the lines. Could it be, he was a natural in these areas? That’s always a possibility. The teacher side of me says, for a child to have some skill in writing and coloring upon entering school, they would have had lots of experience at home with writing and coloring OR doing some other activities which developed the child’s fine motor skills. Well, we know which route Luke took!

So building toys…yes, they develop fine motor skills, offer problem-solving experiences, opportunities for creativity and cooperation. They’ll also help a child focus their attention on an activity for an extended period. And should your preschooler be waiving off the pencils and crayons, it could help them develop the skills they need for printing/writing. A skill they will be expected to develop quickly upon entering our school system. Thank goodness for toys!

Every so often it’s a good thing to pause and tell our loved ones how we feel. This is all about Mike, my husband and father of our two kids and a whole bunch of reasons why I think he’s an awesome dad and husband.

It started long, long ago before we had kids, before we were married, about 15 years ago when I convinced you that we should leave our jobs and go on a road trip across Canada and the northern United States in your crappy K-car. It was on that trip, somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania that I turned to you while you were driving and said, “I wanna have your baby some day.”

Years later, after loads of crazy adventures & experiences I realized that you were truly my rock. My mom died. Your patience and unwaivering devotion and support during my epic grieving…. I knew you were a keeper.

Then we decided to multiply. And you came to 100% of my prenatal appointments and you supported my desire to have a homebirth with midwives and you supported my wish to have a doula present. You did the research. You read the books. Knowing that while this was the birth of OUR child, this was MY body’s experience and my deep, deep desire to envelope the birthing room with positivity and trust in my ability to give birth. Thank you for helping to make that possible- twice.

Then when breastfeeding really sucked for a while there, you stayed by me, supporting me in my wish to breastfeed our baby. You knew I could do it, even when I wanted to hand you the baby and run far, far away, yelling, “Good luck with that!”

So I’d like to thank you, for putting family first, for taking night time wake-up calls from the kids (unless breastfeeding is required or there’s vomit involved- those are my jobs) for taking time off work to help me prevent post partum depression the second time around, for reading to the kids every day, for playing road hockey with our son when you’d rather be vegging on the couch after work, for being a human trampoline for hours on end with our two little monkeys and for wearing a feather boa if that is what our daughter requires of you.

You are my hero and an inspiration!

Happy Fathers Day!

Love Shirley

By: Shirley Broback, Producer of the Vancouver Island Baby Fair

When you are pregnant, it can feel like it’s open season for unsolicited advice & birth stories from other parents.

In the end of my pregnancy with my daughter (see photo below) it felt like I was as wide as I was tall. I was huge! Everywhere I went there were stares. Everyone wanted to know how a short woman like me could give birth to what seemed would be a gigantic baby or made comments like “looks like you could pop any minute!”  Although these comments started when I was only six months along.

Yes, I knew I had another big baby. (My son had been 9 1/2 pounds)

When the midwife palpated my belly she knew too.

But she was pretty confident in me based on my previous “uneventful” birth experience. (Right, like giving birth can EVER be “uneventful”!)

So all we could do was wait and see. And try to surrender to the labour that awaited me.

When people see a pregnant woman, it’s tempting for some to feel the need to warn her or provide their detailed stories whether she’s interested or not. It is likely that her birth experience will be much different than yours, regardless of the “helpful” advice you provide and even the best of friends might have different fears or make different choices about their birthing options.

Decompressing and sharing our birth stories is a really healthy, natural thing to do. It’s a life-changing experience we have just been through and most women want or need to talk about it, especially in the early postpartum days.

However, I think it’s important to not flood a pregnant woman’s thoughts with our own stories in those last couple months of her pregnancy.  She is busy getting ready for her own experience, physically and emotionally. This is her journey right now.

In the last trimester of pregnancy we need to plant the seeds of confidence in women. Share your own amazing moments & perhaps some good tips- if she’s interested- but save any epic battle birth stories for later during mommy bonding coffee dates.

A friend gave me a little pin to wear that said, “Happy birth stories please. My baby is listening.”