Toys

A toy is an object meant to be played with. Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult humans and some non-domesticated animals to play with toys. more...

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Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but items produced for other purposes can also be used as toys. A child may pick up a household item and 'fly' it around pretending that it is an airplane, or an animal might play with a pinecone by batting at it, chasing it, and throwing it up in the air. Some toys are intended primarily as Collector's items and are not to be played with.

The origin of toys is prehistoric; dolls of infants, animals, or soldiers, and miniature representations of the tools of adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word is unknown, but it is believed to have been first used in the 14th century.

Toys and play in general are an important part of the process of learning about the world and growing up. The young use toys and play to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills they will need as adults. Adults use toys and play to form and strengthen social bonds, teach the young, remember and reinforce lessons from their own youth, exercise their minds and bodies, practice skills they may not use every day, and decorate their living spaces. Toys are more than simple amusement, and they and the way they are used profoundly influence most aspects of life.

History

Most young mammals play, and will play with whatever they can find, turning such things as pinecones or rocks into toys. It simply makes sense then that toys have a history as old as human civilization itself. Toys and games have been unearthed from the sites of ancient civilizations. They have been written about in some of our oldest literature. Toys excavated from the Indus valley civilization (3000-1500 BCE) include small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys which could slide down a string.

The history of toys closely follows the development of human society. People constructed the earliest toys from materials they had on hand, such as rocks, sticks, or clay. Arguably the oldest toy is the doll. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls with wigs and movable limbs, made in stone, pottery, and wood. In Ancient Rome, girls played with dolls made of wax or terra cotta, while boys played with sticks and bows and arrows.

The yo-yo is considered the second-oldest toy. It is believed to have originated in China more than 2,500 years ago. Chinese yo-yos were traditionally made of wood. The first verified mention of the yo-yo comes from Ancient Greece in the year 500 B.C. The toy was made of wood, stone, or terra cotta. The Greeks decorated the two halves of the yo-yo with pictures of their gods, and youngsters gave up yo-yos when they entered adulthood.

Read more at Wikipedia.org