Toys and Play : with Everyday Materials

How to make a range of toys based on the folk playthings created by small-time artisans across India. Restores the sense of physical material and unstructured play an increasingly virtual world... includes a section for adults on issues of toys and play.

What is a good toy?To find out, learn to make your own! Follow the step-by-step instructions in this book, and come up with an unbelievable range of playthings using simple everyday materials. All of them are based on a vanishing tradition of so-called folk toys, which used to be created by small time toymakers from all over India. With clues, poems and jokes thrown in, children will find the instructions easy to follow on their own. Adults working with children will notice how they begin to explore, value and handle physical material intelligently – an important sense to restore in an increasingly virtual world. In addition to toy making, the book also looks at the science behind some of them. A thought provoking last section is meant for adults who would like to think through the complex issues of toys and play in today’s world: how can we enable free and open-ended play which is not tied to expensive products, virtual reality, ready-made stories, or regressive notions of gender?