Toys
The Guillow Balsa Wood Airplane
The birthday of Charles Lindbergh, the great American aviator, is coming up this weekend, and that has Kevin Shortsleeve remembering one of his first airplanes.
Marbles
We’re talking marbles, and I’ve been studying up on them again in a terrific little volume called The Klutz Book of Marbles.
Mancala: Playing an Ancient Game in the Present
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Mancala-Playing-an-Ancient-Game-in-the-Present.mp3 Author Julie Sinn Air Date 2/18/2004 Mancala Transcript I’ve always looked for different games to play with my friend Angela’s daughter, Alex. When Alex was six years old, her favorite was Mancala, an ancient Egyptian counting game for two players. Unlike Hi Ho Cherri-o or Candyland, Mancala challenges players […]
Boating on Fifth Avenue
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Boating-on-Fifth-Avenue.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 8/18/2003 Boating on Fifth Avenue Transcript If you’re on downtown Fifth Avenue in New York City some time, with or without children, you could slip into another world in the Forbes Museum, on the ground floor of the magazine’s corporate headquarters. It’s free and […]
Spy Alley
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Spy-Alley.mp3 Author Laurie Taylor Air Date 8/7/2003 Spy Alley Transcript By this point in the summer, the children in your household are probably ready for some intrigue, deception, and suspense — the kind provided by daring, fictional spies and crackers of mysteries like Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the […]
The Toy that Won’t LEGO
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/The-Toy-That-Wont-Lego.mp3 Author Laurie Taylor Air Date 6/5/2003 The Toy that Won’t LEGO Transcript Some toys never seem to go away. Remember those old Lego blocks with the LEGO people’s smiling yellow faces? Well, for a number of students at MIT a few years ago, those Legos were part of a […]
A History of the Whistle
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/A-History-of-the-Whistle.mp3 Author Kevin Shortsleeve Air Date 11/6/2002 A History of the Whistle Transcript Should it be any wonder that children love whistles? Whistles are happy – they fit neatly in little hands and little pockets and they endow their bearer with a disproportionate ability to be heard-loud and clear. The […]
Creature Comforts
Listen to the Recess! Clip https://recess.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/Creature-Comforts.mp3 Author John Cech Air Date 9/18/2002 Creature Comforts Transcript I’ve just spent a few weeks around our year-and-a-half-old grandson, and so I can speak from first hand experience about the absolute truth of a new book called Creature Comforts, People and their Security Objects by Barbara Collopy O’Halloran, with photographs by […]
Unlikely Origins of Popular Toys
With the holidays approaching, Kevin Shortsleeve has been looking at toys and some of the unlikely origins of our favorite playthings.
The Laugh Test
Koren Stembridge has been in the toy stores recently and has this report about the difficulties of finding just the right plaything for her very young child.