What Are Your Favorite Old School Toys?

Tinker toys are great to help imagination. So are Legos, Lincoln logs and just plain old blocks.

For older kids they still make a lot of board games which are also good for family play time.

Blocks
Dominos
Board games

Riding toys, Wagons
we used to make a Road on our driveway with sidewalk chalk and let the kids drive around. We parked the cars at the end of the driveway so they did not roll out into the street.

Tents made of sheets.. we would build and rebuild over and over.. You could purchase old ones at garage sales.

Swing set

Board games

Discovery Toys have been around for 30 years and they last forever! Every toy comes with a lifetime warranty, so if anything does happen to it (which is rare), you can get a replacement.

We have an awesome marble run toy called Marbleworks, with endless configurations and lots of ramp and raceways. Kids love it! We also have a few different kinds of building blocks, which are a classic toy that works for all ages.

There are dozens of other toys to look at. If you tell me how old your kids are, I can give you specific recommendations. Check out Marbleworks and more at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao

My son and I still have game nights (he is 16 and still likes this!)
Monopoly is our go to board game - we own 5 versions LOL - but do others also.

Cards, chess, checkers

Legos was and is a favorite of mine - we still have a huge crate of them under his bed.

Outside we have croquette and badminton. And there is always a ball or two to toss around. Water guns and bubbles in the summer.

Then there is charades and Pictionary - you don't really even need the game to play pictionary - just pencil and paper.

Have fun!

legos are the best thing that have ever been invented. real legos that don't have pre-made designs and can only create a single thing. wide open anything goes legos. and lincoln logs.
:) khairete
S.

I was born in 1968, in Des Moines, Iowa!
My kids were born in 93, 95 and 99, in California :)
We ALL liked:
playing hide and seek, tag, blocks, water/sand, painting/drawing/play doh, legos, matchbox cars, toy guns, babies/dolls/Barbies, Fisher Price Little People (I had to get them on ebay because they don't make them anymore) playing store/kitchen/dress up/house, using cardboard/blankets to build forts and make sleds during the winter.
I also loved roller skating and jumping rope.
My girls did too, just not as much as me!!!

Marbles, jacks, jump rope, digging to China, cops and robbers, etc. for outside. For inside, you can't really go wrong with the wooden toys from Melissa and Doug. My grandkids will be playing with them I'm sure and I'm only 29!

Outdoors is a great place to be without TV. Bicycles, scooters, wagons, big boxes, sheets and blankets to build rooms with, a plot of dirt that's all their own, swings (to hang on a sturdy tree bough), a tree house if you can do it, balls - anything that will exercise the body and the imagination.

You might look at some online catalogues - Lehman's, Vermont Country Store, etc. - as it gets closer to Christmas time and the toy-stocking has been done. You might get ideas for old-school playthings you'd like to make or buy.

Lay in a supply of art ingredients - big sheets of drawing paper or kraft paper, crayons, pencils, paints, glue, scissors, clay.

I think Legos are wonderful. So are other kinds of building blocks. There are some great non-tech games available in stores today, too. My older son's family loves games - "Squarrels" is one of their favorites. "Apples to Apples" is another.

I don't know if you have boys or girls. What I still love are dolls that don't talk back, don't burp, don't sing, don't dance, don't do anything except maybe open and close their eyes, don't look like Hollywood's idea of teenagers, and appear pretty rather than sexy. Keep in mind that children need to *learn* how to nurture; they don't see nurturing all around them, so they won't just pick it up.