Reviewing Toys

Whilst I am living in France, I haven’t really noticed that I am buying any toys that are specifically French. Bea’s been given some lovely French baby books but other than that most of her toys have come from the UK or the USA. Having said that, as she gets a bit older and hopefully our budget increases, I do intend on buying her some adorable Frenchified stuff that takes me back to my childhood in Paris:

Every French tot has one of these, to cart around, you know, all there French stuff, like snails and horse meat.

Sophie La Giraffe is another one. These are sold all over the place, including your local supermarket. I used to have one when I was a kid and I have yet to buy one but it’s on the list.

(Basic French is a good site for all these sort of things and it’s pretty well priced too.)

Basic French, French toys

There is an interesting article up at Mothering Magazine by Josh Golin, Putting the book back in Book Fair. Josh Golin is the program manager at Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood and puts a strong point across in his column: book fair should be about books, not another avenue for corporations to catch kids and parents to spend more money on crap. I think this is a pretty important subject because consumerism and children is pretty out of control.

Golin points out how many TV shows now target children with fun, attractive books. This is so hard for many parents because reading is often seen as an alternative to watching television when kids are young. My parents had a strict ‘no TV after school’ rule and because of that I began an avid reader. For them, reading was a way for to learn and have fun without worrying about all the advertising crap I would be absorbing if I was in front of the TV. But now many children’s books are just melted down version of the most popular kids shows. Of course, the counter argument is that reading is something that is often hard to get children interested in and giving them books that are related to their favorite shows makes reading more accesible and less tedious for them.

Overall though, Golin is spot on about book fairs needing to remain about books. It’s a pretty simple concept.

Mothering Magazine, book fair, Josh Golin, Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood, children’s books, reading, learning to read