| A toy is an object meant to be played with. Toys | | | | whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys which |
| are usually associated with children and pets, but it is | | | | could slide down a string. |
| not unusual for adult humans and some | | | | The earliest toys were made from materials found in |
| non-domesticated animals to play with toys. Many | | | | nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Dolls are some |
| items are manufactured to serve as toys, but items | | | | of the oldest types of toy[citation needed]. |
| produced for other purposes can also be used as | | | | Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played |
| toys. A child may pick up a household item and 'fly' it | | | | with dolls with wigs and movable limbs which were |
| around pretending that it is an airplane, or an animal | | | | made from stone, pottery, and wood. In Ancient |
| might play with a pinecone by batting at it, chasing it, | | | | Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls |
| and throwing it up in the air. Some toys are intended | | | | made of wax or terra cotta, sticks, bows and |
| primarily as Collector's items and are not to be played | | | | arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children came of |
| with. | | | | age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys |
| The origin of toys is prehistoric; dolls of infants, | | | | of their childhood to the gods. |
| animals, or soldiers, and miniature representations of | | | | Hoops have long been a popular toy across a variety |
| the tools of adults are readily found at archaeological | | | | of cultures.As technology changed and civilization |
| sites. The origin of the word is unknown, but it is | | | | progressed to what it is today, toys also changed. |
| believed to have been first used in the 14th century. | | | | Whereas ancient toys were made from materials |
| Toys and play in general are an important part of the | | | | found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern |
| process of learning about the world and growing up. | | | | toys are often made from plastic, cloth, and |
| The young use toys and play to discover their | | | | synthentic materials. Ancient toys were often made |
| identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause | | | | by the parents and family of the children who used |
| and effect, explore relationships, and practice skills | | | | them, or by the children themselves, nowadays |
| they will need as adults. Adults use toys and play to | | | | modern toys are often mass-produced and sold in |
| form and strengthen social bonds, teach the young, | | | | stores. |
| remember and reinforce lessons from their own | | | | One example of this change in the nature of toys is |
| youth, exercise their minds and bodies, practice skills | | | | embodied by the changes that have taken place in |
| they may not use every day, and decorate their | | | | one of the oldest and most universal of human toys; |
| living spaces. Toys are more than simple amusement, | | | | dolls. The earliest dolls were simple wooden carvings |
| and they and the way they are used profoundly | | | | and bundles of grass; Egyptian dolls were sometimes |
| influence most aspects of life. | | | | jointed so that their limbs could move realistically; dolls |
| Most young mammals play, and will play with | | | | that could say "mama" were around in the early |
| whatever they can find, turning such things as | | | | 1800s; and today there are dolls that can recognize |
| pinecones or rocks into toys. It simply makes sense | | | | and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and |
| then that toys have a history as old as human | | | | choose among hundreds of pre-programed phrases |
| civilization itself. Toys and games have been | | | | with which to respond. The materials that toys are |
| unearthed from the sites of ancient civilizations. They | | | | made from have changed, what toys can do has |
| have been written about in some of our oldest | | | | changed, but the fact that children play with toys has |
| literature. Toys excavated from the Indus valley | | | | not changed. |
| civilization (3000-1500 BCE) include small carts, | | | | |