jesssica:

This article is interesting, and a little sad:

“They [kids] get overwhelmed and over-stimulated and cannot concentrate on any one thing long enough to learn from it so they just shut down. Too many toys means they are not learning to play imaginatively either.”

A study by the University of Stirling recently concluded that expensive, hi-tech toys are a waste of money - children learn just as much from playing with an old mobile phone.

So should parents chuck the lot? Perhaps. In Germany, two public health workers, Rainer Strick and Elke Schubert, persuaded a Munich nursery to pack away all playthings for three months out of every year, leaving the children with nothing but tables, chairs, blankets and their initiative. Then they watched what happened.

Initially, the children were bored but by day two they had turned tables and blankets into dens and were absorbed in make-believe games. They became more imaginative and contented, and in the process learned to concentrate, communicate better and integrate more in groups.