New York Times Article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/garden/06play.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&%2339&sq=bid%20restore%20children&st=cse&scp=1&%2359;s%20games%20momentum

Just come across this article by Hilary Stout which has some interesting points about the subject of Play and learning.

"“There’s no imaginative play anymore, no pretend,” Ms. Wilson said with a sigh."

Moving toys

These are really simple "make your own" moving toys that look really fun!

Lego

Since looking at Montessori education I have been thinking about delving more into the relationship between education and play -  how play aids or limits creativity and have been getting more fascinated with these big ideas. Just been having a conversation with Dan about Lego and how good it used to be and it actually made me think that the way Lego is sold now takes all the brilliance out of the original product which was so clever. As an example you used to get this which could then be built into almost anything imagination permitting:

Now you can barely find the plain sets of the building blocks and are more likely to see this when you go to the toy section:

(not that Hogwarts Lego is that bad as I am a massive harry potter fan but it doesn't really promote creativity if it tells you what your supposed to build in the picture on the outside of the box...)

More toys I like

Hide and seek

http://www.hideandseek.net/home/who-we-are/

Found this interesting design studio that is all about play and inventing games which is something i realy want to explore in my project next year.  They are based in London so might be a good place to try and get some work experience if they have any projects they need help with.

They did this project

David Weeks

http://www.davidweeksstudio.com/products/types/product
Really nice toys which cross over into the design project market and are just really beautiful objects as well as fun to play with.