Saturday, December 11, 2010

I don't know what a Push Truck is

My volunteers and I have a couple inside jokes.

One of which involves the game "Pig Pong". The box had a tagline that said something along the lines of "Best family game ever". But we couldn't find the "pong" piece (roundish paper foam pieces put together to create a circle). The toy doctor took it home to try and make a new "pong" piece and he tried to play it with his family. He came back and (in more creative words) told me that it is not the best family game ever. I was still trying to make a new pong out of origami paper, nothing worked. So we decided to take it out of the system. About a year later I was going through some drawers and I find extra pieces to games, and to my surprise, the pong pieces for Pig Pong. After the game was completely dismantled and partially thrown away, I find it. I laughed for weeks when I told this story because to me, it meant that eventually everything will be found, sometimes it just takes a while.

The other joke is that I don't know what a "Push Truck" is.

Librarians have their own language and that's bad enough. The Toy Resource Center Language is a dialect of that Librarian language. Like a teeny tiny island language. We're either overly descriptive in the labels so you know exactly which item belongs with the toy, or so completely vague it's ridiculous.  This happened my first year here. I found this bag full of plastic food items, colorful cans and milk cartons, the label reads "For Push Truck". I have no idea what it is. So I begin asking the volunteers, the woman who used to work here, random patrons what a "Push Truck" was. And no one knew. So I begin to obsess about it, a little (maybe more than a little). I take down every possible truck and vehicle toy to look at the label. Nothing. I Google it. Nothing. Look through eBay sites, look through pages and pages of catalogs and images. Nothing. Eventually, (like after 2 years), I put the bags of cartons and cans with the kitchen sets. I gave up on the poor Push Truck. But when I find something random, I usually say, "if only I could find the Push Truck too". Since then I have been a little more careful about explaining how the items go together, makes life a little easier. I have to remind myself often that it is not second nature to everyone. There haven't been many people that speak the Toy Language.

It has been 5 years this week since I was hired. I have had the pig from Pig Pong on my desk for about that long. And I still don't know what a push truck is. And this is where I insert the point of this whole entry...

I have been officially hired at Sully Branch Library to be their new Young Adult Librarian. I am super super excited to be taking on a new position, but it's stories like the ones above that make me truly sad to be leaving such a great place in the library system.

(I apologize for the possible future corniness in this post.)

I have literally grown up with these toys. Not only as a child when I played with many of these same toys, but I have been here for 5 years, an important 5 years. I have been in and out of Graduate school. I have been in and out of relationships, my hair has gone from ridiculous shades of red and back, moved out of my parents house, I have a nephew now! All these things have happened. I have shared a lot of my life with a many of the patrons who have come in. I want to thank them for listening. I want to thank them for making me as much apart of their life as I have made them apart of mine. I will miss the people as much as I will miss the toys.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A realization

It has been a random busy month and not just with work.

I have a nephew! I am a first time Aunt so I am super excited, plus I live with my sister so I get to see the little peanut every day. He doesn't talk and sleeps a lot so we're getting along splendidly so far :-) He has made me think about something. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get to the point, often it does...

I have met hundreds of mothers (my sister now included in this) who just amaze me... They are Mama bears immediately. Would do anything, say anything, sacrifice anything for their child. And it is so sudden. I have seen something kind of interesting happen very quickly in my little house... It's all about the baby. We are quiet more often. We cleaned the house top to bottom. I vacuumed. Wow! 

There one phrase that keeps going in and out of my head lately is: "It's not about you". That is a common phrase in my world... meaning that we have to put our selfishness aside, take ourselves out of a situation and leave who really matters.

So sitting at the library on Monday I was watching teachers interact with the children playing in the room. The teachers were great, they really let the kids play with the toys how they wanted, the only big rule was to clean up after themselves. They talked to the kids, but really, they listened. Then later on that afternoon I found myself talking about programming, and I said, if I was planning a program, I would first see what has worked before and then see what the people want. It felt like a cop out answer to a question that would need a detailed response, but I am sticking to it. And then it dawned on me: "it's not about us."

We provide a service to people. We provide guidance. When it comes down to it, it's all about customer service. It doesn't matter how we feel about a book/movie/toy we have in the collection, the people may want it. It doesn't really matter if we like how a person is speaking to us, we still help them. At the end of the day... it has little to do with us. But it does...

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Bad at Blogging

I think I went through typical writers block. As the days in summer blended together, so have the days of fall. Instead of group after group of children whizzing in and out, fall has become the season of cleaning and organizing. I would love to say that after a month and half the clean-up project is complete, but I would be lying.

I am proud to say that  the sections have all been organized (aka shelf read in a way). And I am down to approximately 3 bins of mess instead of 6 and it is, and I mean this sincerely, organized mess. It just takes an amazing amount of energy, patience and time to dump out bins of miscellaneous pieces and put them in the bags which they belong. Any pieces that don't go into their "home" eventually make it to the wall of miscellaneous extra pieces. I am also trying to sort that out as I go, which is why, I believe it is taking so long. I am finding pieces of sets torn apart long ago and putting them back together, finally. Rescuing them from the dead, if you will. If you wait long enough, all the pieces make sense, kind of like a puzzle.

I have the uncanny ability of knowing where a piece of a toy belongs just by a simple glance. I can tell you which animal set a particular style of animal goes in, which game a pawn may go in, which set of baby toys the giraffe rattle goes in. Fisher Price makes this easy because they have so much consistency. So it started there.

I would like to say this ability was learned just by being surrounded by the toys. I would say 75% of it is. I learned how to do this job on the job. The other 25% of it I have Google to thank. I have the ability of finding whole toys by typing in description of some of the pieces. That comes in most use when I am sorting out donations. People will typically keep the whole set/ games together, but other times it is just a box of toys and I have to figure out what it is. There are a few other sites, especially the Fisher Price one, I use frequently. I am thankful for either the obsessiveness or boredom of people who have put these together. If only I could make a living making one myself.

This Old Toy-Fisher Price catalog of toys. Amazing resource if you are a collector of the brand. You can look up the play sets and then see how it's changed over the years. Also, you can look up an item by number and see which sets it's in.

bricks.argz.com- I found this one recently because I am trying to put together the mass amount of Duplos the library has into their correct sets. It will be a lengthy project. Anyway, thankfully all the bricks and pieces are numbered, because you can just look them up and it will tell you which set you can find it in. I am finding items from sets and I didn't even know we once owned!

Stingray's Hideaway: Toy Museum- I use this mostly for Little Tikes. It is a little harder to find items by pieces, but it does give you original catalog photos so you know which toys belong in a set.

I have to say that this whole organizing, putting things back together part of my job is probably the most productive feeling. I am adding back to the collection, I am making toy sets whole, they original way they were sold and enjoyed before coming to the library. Archiving toys is fun :-)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

First Saturday Back...

As thankful as I am for the children to be back in school, it means that I am back here on the weekends. For about 11 weeks I get to find out what it's like to have weekends off (well, kind of, I have another job at a movie theater, I have to schedule time off from there to get any real days off.) All of this is to say, that today is my first Saturday back and I have to admit, it was kind of hard to come in. The first one back is always the hardest.

It's not that I don't have plenty to do. I am still catching up from being closed this past Monday. I came in on Tuesday and cleaned up half the toy room. It took over 4 hours and only half of it was perfectly cleaned. I am still tempted to take pictures. Piles of boxes, bags neatly aligned in bins on the shelves, the happiness comes from  a place of OCD organizational bliss. I reorganized a little bit. Since we have so many kinds of blocks and building sets I rearranged how those were shelved this past week... It's my own personal tricky form of marketing for under-circulated items. Today I intend on rearranging a few of the larger items. It's a seasonal thing for me... I think the change of season should bring a change in look the library. So I am going to move the play house closer to the kitchen items... bring in a new (to me) fixture for the games. I have been getting so many game donations, I have no room left on the shelves.

I intended on doing a whole lot today. Instead I find myself talking with the parents and other grown-ups coming in and finally catching up on the blogging.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

I can almost think about the quietness

8 boys are playing basketball.

7 girls are playing house.

There are random hoots and hollering of playing. I'm sure in a week, when it is quiet in here, I will hate it. I love the good noises of this place. I don't have to look up when I just hear basketball growls and girl's jibber jabber. Unless there are higher pitch screams or crashing, I can sit here in my own little world and attempt to get work done.

I have to begin thinking about the clean up of this room. I have set aside the day after labor day to do it. Kids will be in school, I won't be open to the public. I am going to get hopped up on Red Bull and see how much I can get accomplished.


I also have to think about some sort of "door/wall decoration". Over a year ago, our teen center was renovated. In that renovation my door was moved from the corner to the almost middle of the back wall of the library. Now, I have this wall space to work with, to kinda say: "hey! look! it's a toy library!" And then no one can ever walk into this building again without knowing it's here. This was presented to me last week. I was told as long as it could be done cheaply, we could do some painting of some sort. Something like this would be my dream.

Maybe a little more toys involved. I like the city idea.

 I will work with what I have. This is what My current brochure and sign look like:
I love it, the person who designed it has retired :-(. I am thinking something along these lines. Maybe a little less generic clip art. I am officially on the hunt for cool toy pictures and a way to semi-permanently hang them on the wall. And then maybe bright paint + block letters spelling out Toy Resource Center?

I'm sure there are more things on my agenda that I am supposed to think about as school goes into session. Like the quietness....

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Violence AND/ IN Play

I found the first article below during the daily blog reading and as per usual it got me thinking. So then I did a little research and found the other two.

I don't allow them to see TV or video games that represent any violence at all, let alone gun play. Still, I can't give my older child a banana for his snack without him pretending it's a gun. Is it a boy thing? It seems to be in his DNA.

In conversation's I've had this has happened often. Many mom's are screwed if they do, screwed if they don't. If their child doesn't own a gun toy, it wants one and may not be happy until it has one. And then they go and make their own guns (hence the banana). I do believe it is a boy thing. I also believe that "gun play" is a stage. I have no problem with toy guns as long as they are not pointed directly at people. I recently bought my godson a Nerf gun. It surprised me how much I didn't have a problem with it, it shoots out green balls, not bullets. The most important part to me: it doesn't look like a real gun.


War Play, Gun Play, Superhero and Violent Play...Why Won't It Go Away?
"Why do preschoolers play this way sometimes? Three-, 4- and 5-year-olds typically are not in control of their own lives. Adults make most of the decisions, and older siblings and playmates make up most of the rules. Teachers and child-care providers work with larger groups of children and must have some control over planned activities and schedules. Preschoolers may feel a bit lost in this world of older decision makers."


Last week I was listening to kids talk as they played. One girl was telling the other girl what to do in their play. It got me thinking, how many rules are there in the kids games? Does everyone know the rules? And why is there always that one bossy person in a "game"? I sometimes like to settle down the bossy person if they are going to the extreme. Like when they tell someone else "you have to play it this way" I can't disrupt the nature of the alpha-dog process and I know it.


The Truth Behind Violent Play
"Children who excluded a child tended to call him or her a name (girl or baby or tattletale) and then they seemed to feel justified in being physically or verbally hurtful to that child. On the other hand, a child who is frequently ostracized can justify violence as a means of retaliation."


I see this kind of "violence" more often than not. The key word in the article above is "justified" My least favorite story to tell happened a couple weeks ago. A little girl was accidentally pushed by another boy. Instead of the little boy just saying sorry and the situation being over... the boy's older brother + friend took him out of the room and began hitting him for "hurting" a girl. The older boys believed they were justified in their punishment. 


It is hard to tell stories about this room without mentioning a violent act once in a while (weird huh?). Sometimes it's a older sister dragging her younger sister out of here by the arm. Sometimes it's 2 boys fighting and/or play fighting. Sometimes it's verbal: name calling, degrading, general yelling. The occasions of pretend gun play are rarer. There might be a game of cops and robbers once in a while, but since it typically includes play fighting and yelling it's squashed within moments. 


This is my question. What if violent play has nothing to do with guns, soldiers and war? What if the play and games just turns violent?

Monday, August 2, 2010

I found my patience while playing with Marble Runs

July is over, meaning we're officially half through the busyness of summer.

July = 619 children, 195 came in without adults. Some days there were 20 kids in here at once. Other days it was more like 10, but they all seemed relatively the same amount of work and stress.

I had a conversation today. It was the endless conversation that we have daily, weekly, monthly. We may have new insights once in a while, but there are never solutions. What do we do with children who misbehave. This is the conversation: "If we kick them out forever, then we lose them forever... They are too young for us to lose them... We have to be their parents in here..." It is something that I have battled with for a long time while working here. Is that fair to us? No. But are we working for the greater good of children, literacy  and the surrounding community? I believe the answer is yes and that is why I have worked here for over four years, went to school to become a librarian and will love to continue working in this field.

The conversation happened after my break, and right afterwards the children came back in after their snack. We all had a break from one another. But they came in annoyed with each other, Robert was doing this, or Jeremiah was doing that and Heaven just wasn't helping matters.... So Jeremiah came up to my desk as I was counting the pieces to a bingo game (with the cage that spins and holds the number balls) He was spinning it around and telling me how it worked. I figured if he was interested in that, maybe he would like the marble runs, he would like to see how it worked. So I sat him down and we played with it, and then the other kids surrounded us and they all wanted to play with it. But Jeremiah needed some time alone so we shooed them away. And for about 10 minutes we had this perfect toy time. And I realized how simple it is to find the patience to handle this job... Sometimes I get so busy doing my job (counting returns, cleaning up, paperwork, putting toys sets back together) that I forget to take the time to do my job.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Words From My Days...

My days have become a cloud of all these statements. I go home exhausted. There are more children, more to do and less people to do it. More mess. More Noise. Brain hurts.

Don't climb on the horse!
Don’t throw the baby dolls!
Share the ball.
Can we play the game where you listen to me?
Go tell/ask/find your sister/brother/ parent.
Please stop talking back .
Don’t throw the ball at her .
Can’t come in yet kids, there is a group in here .
Want to play Connect Four/ Mr. Mouth/ Mancala with me?
Please don't come behind my desk there are way more fun things to play with out there.
Baby cakes, sugar, darling, dude, dear...
Everyone cleans up until the room is clean.
No food allowed in the library .
Come back in here when you have a better attitude, please .
Stop climbing on the horse!
You’re inside not outside!
Simmer down por favor!
Where is your grown-up?
Be good, Meghan has already had a busy day
Stop running.
Stop chasing him/her.
Don't you think you're too big for that?
This is a kids room, please act like it.
Clean up your mess.
Please stop yelling.
Just pretend this is a normal library.
Please don't crash into my desk.
Please?!?!?

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

In some towns, libraries serve as a haven for kids, day care for parents - chicagotribune.com

"Librarians … they are the hidden stars of our communities," Neuman said. "Librarians act as substitute mother teachers. They have taken it upon themselves to fill this role. They are doing it and doing it well, even if it is not something they wanted to do."

Read the rest of the article here...Kids find summertime haven in libraries, parents find day care




Monday, June 28, 2010

Link Day!

Miscellaneous Link Sharing... AKA.... Catching Up on My Blog Reading


Summer Play:
Create a Sensory Backyard
Worst Toys Of Summer
Best Outdoor Toys



This article makes me want to be a toy designerThe Emotional Connection of Design and Toys


From A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette: Polite librarians know that their officemates hate their choice of low-playing music in the library workplace. If you insist on playing music in your office space, choose something that you both hate so that you can ridicule it together.


Personally, I like to listen to Adult Alternative on Yahoo Radio... the kids don't seem to mind :-)


And finally, another use for Silly Bandz: Worship Saved by Silly Bandz (Should I admit now that I had no idea what these were until this past weekend?)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

First Day Back / Last Day of School


So I was on vacation for the last week... I was in peaceful California for my best friend Brian's wedding. Even better, I was in the wedding. We did something a little different. Instead of standing up with the bride like a girl usually would... I stood up with the groom. I had a different color dress on than the bridesmaids, it was so much fun!

So I am back at work just in time for the kiddies to be out of school... I thought tomorrow was the last, but it sure doesn't feel like it. It's been crazy since 1 PM. Fourteen kids were playing kickball in here for a while. Surprisingly that was a more relaxed part of the afternoon. I sent 3 kids out of here within an hour. I decided to be low tolerance for bad behavior right away. Maybe within a couple weeks all the wrinkles will be straightened out... and I will have a happy no yelling summer.

I am wishing....  :-)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Things that Kids Say, An on going post.

These things have been said to me (or in the room) in the last month-ish:


Me: "Isaiah, don't throw the babies!"


One kid to another: "Eat goldfish nuts"


Two boys were asking me random questions. If I knew anyone from Turkey (because of the Turkish Festival). If I had kids, or a boyfriend and then to top it off: "Meghan, do you have a dildo?" 


And from the same kid last month: "Meghan, is it true... that... you give as much as head as shampoo?" He was messing up the line as he was saying it. I replied with go away. 


Aren't they cute?!?!

Toy Story


So, I am not a big fan of movies based on books (especially when the screenplay comes out at the same time as the book like Dan Brown) Or movies remade 20 years after the original (Hairspray). Or... movies that are remakes of movies made in other countries (Death at a Funeral). Not that I'm a movie snob or anything :-)

On the other hand, I do like movies based on toys. It is kind of hard to believe that the original came out 15 years ago. I was young enough at the time that it was "cool" to watch it. That same year it came out, I think I wanted a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas. And it was because of the movie.

I find it exciting to see toys that have been in not only my life, my my parents life (and soon to be my niece's or nephew's life!) as characters in movies. I don't think that kids quite grasp that... that it was a toy before a character. And it's not that it even matters that they get it, but in hindsight it is pretty cool.

The other reason I really liked this movie is that the characters (and the toys) are still popular. Disney hasn't created too many sustainable movies and/or characters since Toy Story. The seem to be popular for a bit and than vanish into memories. I grew up in the Disney Princess era of Disney. The princesses are still popular. I am not going to say if the movies were better or worse than now. They are a whole lot funnier now!

I have a little boy who comes in here with his parents. He is 3 years old, his two brothers are over 10. He is absolutely in love with Woody and Buzz.(You should have seen his face when I showed him a new Buzz Lightyear toy with a spaceship!) I have a Woody doll behind my desk on display. Without fail, when he comes in, it is the first thing  he asks for. I asked his mom how he knew who Woody was... a valid question considering the movie came out over 10 years before he was born... and it was from his brothers who continued to watch the movie with him. Then I realized how much of a classic it had become...

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Games that Adults Play

So for once, instead of talking about kids and toys, I will talk about adults and the games we like to play. And by "we" I mean my little world of people.
Apples to Apples has been a favorite in my household for a while now. There are red cards and green cards. At least 4 people are needed to play, but it's really more the merrier. Each person is dealt 7 red cards, and then one person, each round, is picked to be the judge. They pick up a green card and put it in the center of the table. The others all place a red card down from their hand trying to pick the card with the best association to the green card. The judge then picks he winner. It is a simple game of word associations, but what makes it fun for us is the strategy of knowing the person well enough to guess what they would pick. Hilarity typically ensues.

We used to play LCR at family picnics and parties. There are chips shown as score keepers, but we used to play with dollar bills. You would start with $3, and if you rolled the dice and it came up "L, C and R", you would put one to the left, one in the center and then one to the right. The black dot meant you were safe and could keep it. You take turns clockwise around a table until there is only one left still rolling (and they kept the pot).

Another dice game that I just learned how to play recently is Greed. There is an official game with "greed" dice but I played a simpler version. All you need are 6 dice and the set of scoring rules. It is easy to learn. And highly competitive towards the end.You have to roll 500 to get on the scoring board and then we played up to 10,000, but you have to score 10,000 exactly, no going over.


My family is not allowed to play Taboo anymore. It's been over 5 years now, and no one can really remember why we're not allowed to play... maybe us girls were cheating? I guess that shows how competitive we are. Anyway, this is another word association game, but you're not allowed to say one particular word. You're trying to get your team to say it in a designated amount of time. There is a buzzer involved, which can get quite obnoxious, but I have never played this game without laughing hysterically.

I would be maimed if I didn't mention Euchre. I actually forgot about it until I went and asked the circulation desk what games they typically play. I will admit right now that I don't know how to play. I have been taught a couple times. Every party we have at our house turns into a Euchre game. It is one of those games that people take so seriously. I have pictures from the Euchre games. The look on the people's faces is ferocious. It is one of the most competitive games I have ever witnessed. And this is why I fear playing again. I'll stick with my Connect Four.

And now, I want to know... What are the games you play at parties or gatherings?

Monday, May 24, 2010

A Guest Blogger


Repairing toys at the Toy Resource Center
 - a blog entry by Art Whitfield  5-21-2010

For over 14 years I’ve been repairing toys for the Toy Resource Center (TRC), formerly called the Rochester Toy Library.  There is tremendous satisfaction in bringing home a pile of broken toys that were destined for the trash, and returning a few weeks later to the smiles of children, parents, and staff.  Due to the TRC, I’ve made some wonderful friends, met striking people who touched my life, and watched children look with wonder when they watch me repair a beloved toy in the library.  Now how cool is that! 

So what’s up with repairing toys?  Most often, its simply gluing a wheel back on a wooden train, or replacing a broken bolt on a tricycle.  But other times, in the quiet of my basement workshop, it’s a real challenge - technically and mechanically to complete a toy repair.  While not all of my repair attempts are successful, most are.  When a toy has broken too severely to be saved, I’m not distressed because it was going to be tossed anyway had I not been there to try.  Some repairs become tests of my home-shop manufacturing skills.  Other repairs become a test of my engineering skills and diagnostic skills.  Especially the electronic toys, where the failure is not obvious and I don’t have all the circuit details available.  Sometimes these challenges take hours of investigation, and clearly more time than the toy is worth.  But a success is a learning experience for me, and often a private victory.  The staff at the TRC have often listened patiently while I describe, in no doubt boring detail, how I completed a challenging repair.  I’m grateful for their patience and willingness to listen.  Then again, they are used to working with kids!

Some repairs are not fun.  If it’s a toy that I truly dislike, sometimes it’s difficult to make the same effort as with a toy I like.  In those times, I need to remember that there are probably many children who love the toy, and that my opinions don’t matter.  Again, here’s where I totally trust the toy librarian and other staff.  They know the toys in ways that I never will.  Thinking on this, no doubt I know the toys in other ways (mostly how they work and what they look like inside) that most will never know, or perhaps ever care.  Also in the “not fun” category are the toys that break repeatedly.  Most often this is due to a poor design.  The play value may be there, but if it’s always broken, it’s difficult to see past that to the merits of the toy. 

In closing, I want to restate what a pleasure it is for me to repair toys on behalf of the children, parents, caregivers, and staff of the Toy Library.  You all trust me with the toys unquestioningly, and are always beaming with pleasure when I bring them back.  It’s a mutual sharing of affection that touches me deeply.  I will always treasure my time spent as the “toy doctor”.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Budget Crisis, As Per Usual

I have to say, I am kind of proud of working for the City of Rochester....

  • All branch libraries will remain open and some hours will be extended. We are not closing a firehouse, nor are we reducing the number of police officers on the street.
For as long as I have been in the library system I have never cut in employees or a library close. I think that is pretty great. We may cut hours once in a while but then something like this happens... and it's kind of like a glimmer of sun. 

"Library hours are expanded from 36 hours to 70 hours per week at the Sully Branch Library located in the new Thomas P. Ryan Center enabling youth to enjoy physical activities in the evening at the Thomas P. Ryan Center and then go down the hallway and read in the Sully Branch."-City Budget

I kind of giggle at the idea of kids going from the rec center to the library to read a book. I was visiting there last week. As per usual with any library, there was way more going on than just reading  :-)


Monday, May 10, 2010

The Frustrating Part



I have a lot of dreams about the toy library. They often involve decapitated toys strewn around the room. I don't know why... The other dreams involve children heartily dumping out bags after bags of toys. That one is more of a nightmare to me than the first one.

One of the big rules in here is to clean up after yourself. It is also the rule that is most broken. I am trying to figure out a way to fix it... Especially since school is ending soon and thus begins our super busy season. Apparently me telling kids "only one bag/toy at a time" or "clean up!" doesn't work. There are two reasons why this is officially a problem.

Problem number one: the boss lady has actually commented on the "mess" twice. I am slightly ashamed of that. I am a pretty good about keeping on top of the things she comments on so she doesn't have to mention it again. Problem number two: it is a never-ending-revolving cycle of mess. I clean it up, put the bags happily back onto the shelf and the next day, or an hour later they are back on the floor all sorts of mixed up.

I want children to come in here and have fun... and the fact that I worry about them playing with more than one toy at a time shouldn't stress me out. But all I can think about every time I see a child dump out a bag full of toys is not being able to find matching hamburger roll pieces when I have to put the toy back together in the bag. I spent 10 minutes looking for a matching set or forks, knives and spoons.... don't even get me started on trying to separate puzzle pieces.

 I have a wacky work schedule here, two days of week I am here for seven hours. and two days I am here for three. On the long days I usually get about two hours of quiet project/clean-up time. The morning is busy with groups + families and once the kids get out of school (around 2 pm-3 pm) I can't get a whole lot more accomplished. I have to pay attention to what they're doing and saying.

So during my discussion with boss lady about "the mess" for the second time in over 4 years I couldn't come up with an immediate solution. Because not letting children come in here to play to their heart's content isn't an option. It's what this place is meant for...

Monday, May 3, 2010

Global Toy News

Quite a while ago I figured out that there isn't a whole lot of information "out there" about toys and play. There are plenty of books, but it is a very small niche that people blog about it. The good news is that motivates me to write this blog in the first place. The second good part is that whenever I find another like minded blogger I like to plug it as much as possible. Richard Gottlieb is that guy. I have been following him for over a year and every time he posts something interesting I like to expand upon it. He has started a new magazine entitled Global Toy News which I have immediately started reading and have began following his guest bloggers.

Enjoy!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Art Whitfield, Toy Doctor Extraordinaire

So I have mentioned one of the Toy Resource Center's volunteers, Joyce. She comes in once a week and helps me out with getting the toys back on the shelf after being returned. BUT she also has this fantastic knowledge of early education, play and learning so she helps out parents, providers and teachers who come in. There is another person who helps out here tremendously. His name is Art Whitfield and we call him the Toy Doctor. I could now mention the countless other places he volunteers his time and skills and how awesome he is, but, I think that may make him blush.

He has made a visitor site for the toy library which soon, we will probably put to better use, especially because it is coming up on the 25th anniversary of the Rochester Toy Library (10 years as Toy Resource Center this month at Lincoln!) Here is the link: Friends of Rochester Toy Library

He also blogs about all sorts of smart stuff like lightning, music and general technology. Here is his blog: WindWorks Design.

One more plug, courtesy of Art who also has this video posted. Dave Eggers did a talk on engaging children and teens within tutoring centers. This kinda touched my heart a little bit, since I work with the same age group:
"Some of these kids just don't plain know how good they are, how smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them." 

By the way, I'm addicted to TED now, thanks Art!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

And speaking of games changing...

Article from Time Magazine: Why Has Scrabble Changed Its Rules?

Thankfully it is for a separate game called "Scrabble Trickster" and it won't be sold in the U.S.... but still, why simplify such a great game?

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Baby Toys

This entry, as most entries, began as a conversation with my (fabulous) volunteer Joyce and I.

I asked her, quite simply, what is a good baby toy. I forgot why I asked. My guess is that it was a branch off the never ending complaints of battery powered toys. (Simply put, toys that have batteries for no reason are annoying. Toys, at one point, weren't electronic and we all grew up just fine.) Or it was probably the confusion of what toy companies call a baby toy and what we like to see babies playing with.

As for the battery portion, I did a tidbit of research. On the Fisher Price website, the toys they suggest for 0-5 months, less than half (19 out of 42) are battery free. And only 40% (55 out of 132) are battery free when you get to the 6-11 months category. Fisher Price is a highly regarded toy company. If I didn't know as much about toys as I do, I would trust what they tell me and what they sell as an infant toy. I am not trying to say that Fisher Price isn't fantastic and innovative in it's own right, but, why does a tea set need batteries?

Toy companies call a lot of toys "infant toys". And not to further harp on Fisher Price, but when you look at the recommendations for 6-11 months, a lot of them were bracketed for 6-36 months. There is a huge difference between the two. Companies try to pass off toys that teach the alphabet and numbers baby toys. Babies don't know those concepts. And this is where I am torn. Some would tell me it is never to early to introduce those concepts. But I see this as more than a introduction, I see it as a premature learning because the toy is talking/teaching you. They will have plenty of schooling when they get to school.


These are the types of toys that we like to see infants play with: Discovery Toys-Infants. They are tactile, cause and effect, color and shape, movement toys and they all make REAL noise, if they make toys at all. No batteries, no talking toys, no inappropriate concepts being taught. They are, and I really don't mean to pun, toys that infants make discoveries with. One other great company is Whoozits! by Manhattan Toy Company. They toys are brightly colored, textured and simple, just the way baby toys should be. This list also isn't bad: Baby Zone. The only electronic toy is the jumparoo. If I owned it, (and take this as advice) I just wouldn't put the batteries in it!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Games Keep Changing

The games keep changing. This is something that has been boiling in the back of my head for the past few weeks, ever since receiving a mass amount of game donations for the toy library. It's the pieces, the boards, the colors. Something changes each time a new edition is put out.

It started with game pawns with Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land. They have changed back and forth from plastic to cardboard, and each time the picture/shape changes. The way the game board folds and the box shape changed for Sorry, Monopoly and Scrabble Junior. Also, Scrabble Junior changed the color of the back of all their letters.

Monopoly Junior, the lemonade stands and game pawns have changed since the last edition I had... and they have the same copy write year.
 


It was Hi-Hi Cheerio that put me over the edge. It used to be, well, cherries and now it's all sorts of different fruits.
      

And then to make matters worse I bought a new Connect Four and the colors of the checkers changed.


Here is my "on the other hand". It is interesting to see the changes in games over time as society changes. Monopoly is a great example of that. The interesting thing about Monopoly is that with all the different versions and editions there are, the most drastic change happened only recently after almost 75 years of being in production.
Here is Monopoly in 1933, 1934 and then the Electronic Banking Edition in 2008. 



Two things can be said about this. One of which is really, who cares? Who the hell notices this stuff (except for toy librarians and archivists.) Adults buy these games for kids once usually. And then they have them until the kids are done. They don't have to replace them within a year or two (usually) so they don't see the changes happen.

The second is to mention why it matters to me. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to keep games functional when the pieces keep changing? I have 4 game boards for Candy Land but only 2 in circulation. This probably means that over the course of the years, there have been 5-6 in the collection. Pieces get lost, broken or stolen, it happens all the time. But the great part about having a 25 year old collection of toys is when that happens, if we are lucky enough to get another copy of the game, we have back-up pieces. UNLESS THEY KEEP CHANGING THEM! Because, and this is the point. It isn't that they change them at all. It's that they change them often.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Monday, March 8, 2010

Blog Crush

I found a new blog crush... Margot Magowan. She writes a lot about girl-empowerment books, toys, movies and other media.

SF Gate Blog

ReelGirl

Monday, March 1, 2010

Boy Toys-Girl Toys

I was going to do this whole well researched blog entry with statistics and quotes from scholarly journals. And then I realized that just wasn't my style. I figure I had no early education-toy-children training when I began this job. I learned as I went, from experience and observation. I will never claim to be an expert on anything, but this is something that I know.

Let me begin this by saying that one of my biggest pet peeves in here is when a mother or father says to a boy: "Don't play with that, it's a girl toy". The other pet peeve is when someone asks where the "learning toys" are. THEY'RE ALL LEARNING TOYS. Children play pretend. They create their own little world. It is one way in which they learn about the world around them. They look around their life and repeat what they see in play. If they see Mom cook, they pretend to cook. They see Mom with baby, they find a doll and pretend they have a baby. This is how they originally learn how to do things.

This is my hypothesis. What boys and girls choose to play with depends on who is around them and how they genderize toys. Let me preface what I am about to say with I know I am going to the extreme here. When a mother/father/provider, etc. tells a boy not to play with the kitchen, you're telling him not to cook. When you tell him a baby doll is a girl toy, you're telling him not to be a father. And I fear they keep these lessons throughout childhood, what to play with and what not to play with, more than anything else.

Here is another tidbit, just an learned observation of mine, and by the way it's kid of an AH-DUH. Boys and girls play differently. For the most part, I can leave a group of girls in the toy library without hesitation. They are just going to continue playing dress-up, or kitchen, or games, whatever. They won't even notice I'm gone. On the other hand, unless it's a select few guys, I can't leave them alone. They get all wacky and crazy like. Between the basketball hoop, bikes and scooters, they won't stop moving. And while they may or may not notice if I am gone or not... they are just more volatile than the girls. They show their "appreciation" for their friends differently. They will probably wrestle before talking. And they get so mad at me when I tell them to stop.

All of this is just about the energy the kids have and how they need to express it. I have noticed more and more (especially around this time of year) that there is an abundance of energy in these kids. I want to bottle it up and sell it. I can't, but we still need to do something with it.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Eco-Friendly Toy Brands + Stores

I am siting in a room with 5000 toys. One of my biggest fears is that one day every electronic toy in here will turn on and begin blaring, singing and talking to me. I am not a huge fan of toys with batteries. I don't think they really need to blare, sing and talk. For a very short period of time we had a Dora the Explorer Kitchen, it taught you Spanish. That toy didn't bother me as much... Just like the computer or reading toys (i.e. Active Pad). They have batteries and make noises for a reason. This is what I don't understand... toy trucks speak to you and trains move on their own. In some doll houses, the toilets actually make a flushing sound. And don't get me started on the new Monopoly with debit cards.

Here are some more Eco Friendly Toy options....

PlanToys
Large selection of wooden toys.

Eco Toy Town
Eco Choices is a web based company focusing on natural solutions for the home. They have a fairly large selection of toys.

Kid O
This is a store in NYC... They seem to have there own brand of toys as well as selling other brands. Many of the toys were wooden and looked Eco-Friendly.


Sprig Toys
This a a toy brand I have recently discovered. They specialize in eco-friendly, battery free toys. They have a great selection of pretend play wooden toys.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Information about Pink

"At one point pink was considered more of a boy's color, (as a watered-down red, which is a fierce color) and blue was more for girls."

"An American newspaper in 1914 advised mothers, "If you like the color note on the little one's garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention." [The Sunday Sentinal, March 29, 1914.] Found: Google Answer...


PinkStinks-Organization to "challenge the culture of pink" 

Out of the Toy Box

Power of Pink- Article that post is in reaction to...



Coming up next (a.k.a. whenever I have time): Girl toys/Boy toys



Thursday, January 14, 2010

Taken from Play Stuff Blog

Barbie gets a lot of slack. This little article, Barbie, You're Beautiful, it was kind of nice to see that she is important.