MUMS/Cisra 2013

[Scurra]

I've only got #4 in mine.

edit: now that's a surreal top of the page post!

[MBH]

Perfect top of page post

[giraffe]

Fernando had a brilliant book with cut away diagrams of all the thunderbirds. Really detailed pictures on all the pages.

[clvrlad]

can i suggest you visit here? 68 Mountgrove Road, Highbury, London, N5 2LT

[chazzie]

And they complain about us with 'boys' conversations?

(Goes off to check that the MOLE is in the pod of Thunderbird 2)

Hmmmm...... beginning to wonder about my childhood...was brought up watching thunderbirds and then spending an hour afterwards with the lego out trying to make a lego thunderbird, and I've never heard of Sylvian whatevers!!! but I suppose thats what comes of growing up with 3 brothers......

[LAT]

I don't think the Sylvanian Families were around when I was young but my daughter loved them.
Come and stay again and I'll show you!

[Bunnylump]

Sylvanian families were only out when my kids were little, not when I was little. Another great toy my kids had was K'nex - especially the fully working motor driven big wheel. Like you, when I was young, I had Thunderbirds and lego, but also Meccano, and far preferred doing things like helping my Dad repoint the chimney and manufacturing a cement mixer than doing too many girlie things. I didn't learn to cook until I was an adult.

[LAT]

Oh yes, K'nex is good too but I have a feeling I liked it more than my kids did!

[giraffe]

Knex is too hard to take apart. It hurts your fingers, which was why my children weren't keen on it. They had Junior meccano which was great fun. Like normal meccano, but the pieces were made of plastic, so slightly chunkier, but made nice cars and things like that. They also like Playmobil, which I remember playing with with my friends when I was little.

[eirian]

I really can't wait till Thomas is old enough for lego.... (although I suspect he'll be a meccano boy given the way he studies his bike - he can't ride it yet, but I reckon he knows how it works well enough)

[Bunnylump]

Ah! Playmobil, brilliant. K had the playmobil cabin cruiser. That was brilliant. And K'nex is OK to take apart IF you use the special tool to do it with. But if you use your fingers, it HURTS.

Eirian, you are reminding me of my nephew when he was about a year older than Thomas. He found a screwdriver, and took every clock in their house to bits. There were springs and cogs everywhere!!

[LAT]

I think we have a definite theme for the next meet appearing. Forget puzzles or even board games. Just get out all the children's toys.
We have a lovely canal set that you clip together and put water in so you can operate the locks. You could bring the cabin cruiser to float in it!

[gill216]

Showing my age now. Who had cuisenaire rods to teach maths?

[giraffe]

We had them, but never did maths with them. We loved playing with them.

[Bunnylump]

Never heard of those. I must be too young.

[eirian]

we played with them too. Wulf will be able to tell us if we actually did maths with them... she has managed to dig them out again ready for Thomas, although what he decides to do with them, we'll just have to wait and see!

[giraffe]

You aren't too young! I think we just made pretty patterns with them and used them as building blocks. I think these days they are made of plastic, but the ones from my childhood were wooden and we had a lot of fun with them.

[clvrlad]

i vaguely remember something like them,
but the ones i'm thinking of had lines cut across them to separate them into units...

[Bunnylump]

Actually, I've just brought back some of my old toys from Mum's house. I had left them in the bedroom right to the last, in the hope I could whittle down the stuff I'm keeping. No, I couldn't. So I now have to find somewhere to keep the wooden doll's bed my Grampy made me, my 1967 Tiny Tears, Mum's 1925 Teddy, the home made wind up record player Dad made me...etc. etc. Trouble is, it's not as if I don't already have ALL of my childhood books (which I insisted on reading to my kids) and the funky flat roofed 1960s style doll's house with working lights that my Dad made...

Hopeless. I just can't throw things out. So in 20 years' time, my poor kids will probably be having to go through all of MY junk. Mind you, at least I'm not leaving them toxic chemicals and asbestos to deal with.

[SparkOut]

20 years? There's more life in the bunny than that.

And.

Leave them all that stuff. And everything else you can collect between now and then. Isn't that what memories are? Things that you remember, and things that remind you (them), regardless of whether you remember the actual item or not.