Kids Don't Need Toys, I have proof.

Let me take you back to Xmas morning 12 years ago. I was a college student and came home to visit my family for the holidays. Ripping open the wrapping, my 2 year old cousin screamed “I GOT A BOX!” while jumping with joy. I burst into laughter. Why did I bother putting anything in that box? I wondered. Now, as a mother of 2, I reflect on that moment as I preach and encourage minimalism to my family, who have a hard time letting go of their “right to spoil the grandchildren”.

My message, less is more when it comes to toys, and I’ve got photographic evidence to prove it. They don’t need anything to create a world of wonder.

Every year, I gift family members with a calendar of my kids. For my 2019 Calendar, I decided to use my art to put some context around my message. The books Not A Box and Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis so beautifully illustrate the concept: to create magic, all a child needs is their imagination and a safe space to play. Using these books as a spark of inspiration, some wooden dowels, apple crates, a bucket and a wooden rocker my children created so many worlds of play.

As a student of psychology, I know that this toy “lifestyle” is good for their brain. Recent research at the University of Toledo in Ohio shows a strong negative correlation between the number of toys presented to a child and quality of play. More toys = Less imagination play. Also, in a practical sense, more toys = less quality time playing with mom, since I get anxious and overwhelmed by it all.

More toys = Less imagination play

Cora teaches Max all about letters. Another great part of this project was that Cora was able to participate. She wrote “Max” and “The World” on the map, and helped color in different scenes on my Surface Book.

Dr. Cora gives Max a check up. I wish I would have taken video of this scene. Max was doing the most adorable deep breathing.

Because I rented the space at Creative Space Studios, I didn’t have endless time for them to create these worlds in studio. Instead, my children were presented with these everyday items at home, and I watched them play. I had 12 scenes planned out based on watching their open ended play for a few days.

Of course, my kids had other plans when I got to the studio and started to shoot. We had to go back a second day, because they were getting so engrossed in play, or refusing to both play in the same imaginary world at the same time. There weren’t 12 images of them together in one frame. Many of the scenes I ended up shooting were not at all on my list, which was annoying at first, but now that I reflect, they proved my point beautifully. They don’t need toys. They don’t need any with directions, especially not direction from mom. Even my basic guidance of “Sit in the pirate ship with Max” was too controlling for Cora. Instead she insisted that they weren’t in the ocean and she was pushing Max in a cart. Something he was apparently pretty unhappy about. I think he wanted to be a pirate.

My clients children were much more cooperative with my original ideas, for one, because the youngest couldn’t get up and walk away like Max kept doing. The gardening scene for example, (which Grace and Hudson displayed below) was one my daughter played at home, but was not happening for her in studio. She insisted she was cooking her brother. Of course. Not morbid at all.

This creative project was fun to shoot, fun to gift, and a constant reminder on my wall to stick with my fairly new minimalism journey, which is another blog post for another time.