Present ideas for children

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 12

Present ideas for children

“Probably most retailers are not sympathetic to Play for Life,” Peter Arnold acknowledges. "They claim that the toy market is demanddriven, and think that their business could go

down the drain if they don’t sell the goods promoted by high-pressure advertising.” Nevertheless, Play for Life thinks it can claim some success in that the Rambo doll is not yet for sale in New Zealand, although the Rambo gun is. It gave a lot of publicity to adverse comments on the doll made by American authorities, including Dr Benjamin Spock, and launched a nation-wide petition calling for a ban on TV advertising of war toys, and for war toys to carry printed warnings on the packaging about their damaging effects.

The petition got 5000 signatures and has been accepted by the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, who will present it to Parliament. Some reports, at least, have it that some toy companies got nervous.

Play for Life says that similar action has already been successful in several countries: steps have been taken to stop the production of war toys in Sweden, France, Finland, Britain, West Germany, and Austria, and in Canada, the province of Quebec prohibits advertising of war toys on Saturday morning children’s television.

—from a series of pamphlets produced by the New Zealand Council for Recreation and Sport.

Up to one yean Soft fabric ball; mobile; set of nesting boxes; strong book with photos of single objects; box of wooden pegs; rattles; washable soft toys; strongly strung large beads; large building blocks; squeaky toys; push and pull toys; posting box; stacking rings.

One to three years: Threading necklaces made from bootlaces and cotton reels; posting boxes; sand tools; large peg board; stuffed and wooden animals; cars and waggons, wheelbarrow; small table and chairs; picturebooks; wooden jigsaw (3 to 4 pieces); small tricycle; toy musical instruments; large hollow blocks; hand puppets; boats, planes, simple trains; large construction

blocks (such as Lego); telephone; easy geometric form boards.

Three to five years: Set of useful tools, e.g., snips, stapler, ruler, pencil, crayons, felt pens, squeeze bottle of PVA; flower press; mobile kit; miniature garden; play house and equipment; jigsaws (5 to 10 pieces); simple construction set; blackboard and dustless chalk; painting and modelling equipment; small sports equipment; scrap book; farm set; early science activities — magnifying glass, magnet; games: dominoes, snap, colour matching, dice games, simple counting games, lotto; small wooden cars, trucks, boats, fire engines; musical instruments: chime bars, xylophone, glockenspiel, bells.