The ramp of doom

I’ve a hunch that there is a gender spectrum of play; that is to say that there are games that are ‘boyish’ and ‘girlish’ but there is an imaginary gradient between the two. So some games involving grunting, goo, machines and kicking stuff which appeal more - but not exclusively - to boys. Whilst some games involving shrieking, baby goo, imaginary pink animals and kicking stuff appeal more - but again not exclusively - to girls.

This weekend No2 child set up a fairly classic boy game. After levering me off the sofa, with a puppy-dog-eye plea, to attach the 7ft high Hot Wheels V-drop. He busied himself creating ‘missions’ or what I’d have called stunts for the flying car to pass through. What I found fascinating was the way he’d go about measuring the angle of the cars jump and then search out the right items for ’snootie car’ to jump through. Snoots are the noses of the round, blue, fluffy and above all imaginary smooshies that infest the welikeplay play research centre.

This drop is a good toy. It’s fairly robust, needs some adult help - but only to get started - and can be modified. To put my geeky hat on; this toy can be hacked because its scalable and has a fairly open-source approach.  It can take most die-cast cars, it can link up with other pieces of track either by design, or the application of masking tape.  It’s design is apparant to kids who can then take the basic principles and apply them to their own creations.

Such philosophising leads me to think that, in a world where the use of technology is become pervasive, perhaps their should be more of a move to toys that can have their function twisted, as this twisting is such a useful skill for techno-mites to grow up with…  but then I’ve always been a lego fan sitting slightly to the boy-side of the spectrum.

tag... play for today, 5up, philosophising