This is how we do it at my...
This is how we do it at my house. My kids play with all three of these. The Vitali furniture is indestructible. Not as slick as the Vila Sibi or the Kaleidoscope house...bu the girls can actually play with them....which I think is the point of toys, I think.
the best toys
jesgord,
You are correct that toys are to be used (as is everything in the home). The best toys are those that impart joy and excitement in the user. I am sure that all the items pictured in this thread thus far would make some child happy regardless of the quality nor the country of origin and design.
It is good to be a child. This is our time of the year!
As a parent
.. of a six year old boy I can only speak to our experience but our son has grown up surrounded by modern art, furniture and design and he seems to like it all just fine. We certainly don't prohibit him from enjoying anything that would not be considered modernist. As for plush friends, he always gravitated more towards Ugly Dolls and sock monkeys rather than conventional teddy bears. Maybe he liked the graphic simplicity.
As a toddler, he was really into Thomas the train so we tried to stick with the wooden variety. He's lost interest in Thomas, so we packed them up for him to pass on in the future. He has enjoyed playing with vintage toys my parents saved from my childhood like Fisher Price people and playsets, Legos, wooden building blocks and he enjoys puzzles and games.
Now he's all about Star Wars. He got a big thrill when I dug up my childhood Star Wars action figures and he likes going to flea markets and finding Star Wars figures for a quarter or a dollar in bin of loose toys. We give him an allowance and expect him to budget and spend his own money.
He likes what he likes, and while we try to expose him to things that we think are of value, we don't criticize his choices. We are pleased that he has a great imagination and likes reading and drawing as much as he likes to watch TV. When we are walking the dog, he'll pick up a stick which will become a light saber for the next half hour. He does not need the plastic light-up one to have loads of fun.
Funny story: we saw the Saarinen exhibit during a visit to St. Louis last year and when he saw the womb chair he said "My time-out chair!" and did not understand why he was not allowed to touch it. The guards followed us closely the rest of the time we were in the museum.
Riki, that is the most...
Riki, that is the most beautiful dollhouse I have ever seen.
I made my own out of discarded cardboard, string, and those plastic things that came out of pizzas as a kid. And my $0.50 garage sale hand-me-downs with their pre-shorn hair and missing stockings seemed to do OK. On the other hand, maybe that weird junk-scavenging childhood is why I'm pathologically drawn to clean, modern design now.
Jessica,You share the...
Jessica,
You share the same sentiments as some of the early modernist architects who wanted to abandon the dark and stuffy architecture that was the norm up to that time. What we got were buildings like Mies "Farnsworth" and Phillip Johnson's "Glass House". I recently watched the film "The White Ribbon"*, which captured the dark and stuffy quite well. But anyway, your own Modernist transition (and likely most people here as my own) isn't too far off from the history of Modernism.
*This film also contains one of the cruelest rejections I've ever witnessed on film (or in life). Not for meek!
BTw...I hate dollhouses, but Riki's swoons me.
Before y'all think
I am the evil grandmother, rest assured that I do have also a traditional, much-loved, over-handled dollhouse that my granddaughter mauls to her heart's content. I believe, at this point, half of the tiny people no longer have any clothes and they are all sharing one tiny dish, cup and saucer.
No, no, my dream dollhouse will be a Christmas gift from me to me and will reside in the middle of the round glass coffee table, like a piece of art.
I didn't know it was available at Unica. I found it here, along with a compatible doll family, although I am wishy-washy over this particular set because their eyeballs give me the creeps. Anybody have any other suggestions for doll house people that don't look like speed freaks?
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