The best among all toys.Weekend commitment.Week-232.

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Play is not a break from learning; it is endless learning, delightful and profound, engaging and practical; it is the gateway to the child's heart.
Vince Gowmon.

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Usually when I arrive at the homes of some of my friendswho have small children, there is almost never missing, in one of the corners of the room, a large drawer which contains all the unimaginable toys you have ever seen in your life.
Regardless of sex, the box is inexorable.

Cars, barbies, airplanes, kitchenettes, pots, marbles, teddy bears, crying babies, truc, shaved dolls without legs, scattered Legos, soldiers, dinosaurs, animals, and a number of objects that will continue to arrive in the bag as long as the child finds it convenient. interesting as play material. It doesn't matter if it's mommy's old lipstick, a diaper that serves as a long dress, a plastic spoon from the kitchen, an old matchbox shaped pistol, a hair brush that looks like a microphone, rubber sponges for the face, silicone bras 🤷🏼‍♀️, and anything unimaginable. Never doubt the powerful and fantastic mind of a little one.

I understand that in many countries there are children who do not know what it is to enjoy a toy, which is really sad. But at least children of my generation during the 70's and 80's "were given a nice toy" once a year during the holidays.

My little eyes lit up every year waiting to see what I got - generally it was a basic toy, not basic and directed - but if you didn't get to buy it on the first day or the second, it was very likely that there would be no left many attractive options.

This is how they gradually arrived and among those that I remember the most: a doll with red hair, another with copper-colored hair, a black baby (beautiful), stuffed animals, among them a huge Tweety, the little bird that Sylvester the cat always tried to swallow itself, a little red sewing machine, and a zoo with its high fences for all the animals, it brought a colorful rubberized mat where you could see the detailed sketch of the layout of the premises for each animal, along with a waterfall beautiful that reigned in its center, and that gave it a very realistic visuality in the eyes of any child.

_{But...most children prefer a tablet or a cell phone to play games.}

I don't remember all the toys that were accumulated, but the dolls were the stars because I spent time bathing them, sleeping them, and from time to time giving them a haircut in a very fashionable style, which my mom didn't like.😌

But the day I got my hands on the first Yaquisset (also known in Latin America as Jackes, Yax, or Matatenas), my tastes and priorities changed when it came to enjoying a toy designed for children.

When children get to know an interactive toy, they understand that a doll is still cute but no longer entertaining, and that is what happens with roller skates, bicycles, skateboards, and anything else that is adventurous and liberating.

A rubber ball with 12 plastic or lead yaquis was more entertaining, interactive, and competitive than a thousand plastic dolls, all sexy and dolled up. I don't remember exactly the age at which my first pair arrived, but I would not ever forget my mother sitting on the red mosaic floor, in the dining room of the old house,teaching me to throw the ball in the air, pick up the yaquis from the ground, and catch it again after it stung for a single time on the ground along with the yaquis with only one hand...The amounts to be collected increased, and if you did not achieve this sequence of actions you lost the game.

The rules could be complicated or not depending on the tastes and abilities of the players.
The fact is that I could play it alone, and/or with several others, but for a girl who had almost no one to play with in her childhood, it was a quite exciting and entertaining game.

The edges of my fingernails were worn down as I continuously dragged the Yaquis across the floor.

When I was in elementary school, the teachers confiscated several games from me because we played in secret, while they left us alone in the classrooms.The boys joined in, and it was hilarious to see them clumsily trying to pick up the ball in time, and throwing it as high as they could... most were a disaster, but others tried hard and did quite well.

Children's games should not be sexualized, the idea we have to categorize a child's game - for male or female - is simply learned with the family, or by imposition of society itself.

The truth is that it was a quite popular toy in my time, the rooms of the house were occupied for hours despite some reluctance from parents and grandparents, who had no other option than to throw us out of the place, or send us to the bedroom.

I suppose that being a simple but exciting game made It came easy to me fall in love with it, and without a doubt, it promoted the development of motor skills, reflective visual acuity, activated the ability to improve attention, concentration, observation, forced you to create your first strategies and plans, make decisions, and you can come to understand that life is about a little of all this, practice, effort and competitiveness.

So, my all-time favorite toys were the Yaquis.

This is my entry for the weekend topics that our host Galenkp always prepares for us every Friday.
What was your favorite toy when you were a child? Explain which one and why. Use your own photos.

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Nothing fires a child's mind like play.
Dr. Stuart Brown.

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Always very grateful for your reading.

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_{The text is entirely my own
All photos are my property
Using the Lightroom application, free version
Translation done with Deep Translate, free version.}

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