Play and Playthings by age: 9 - 12 years

Skill: Physical and Intellectual
Appropriate Playthings: model kits, crafts, bicycles, rubber horseshoes, pogo sticks, ice and roller skates, grooming and housekeeping toys, ropes, ladders, stilts, rackets, chemistry and other science kits, frisbees, magic sets, advanced construction sets and handicraft kits, toy models, puzzles, basketball equipment, building sets, jigsaw puzzles, books, tool benches, computers

Skill: Social
Appropriate Playthings: card and board games, checkers and chess, table tennis and billiards, sport toys and games, bats, balls, team sports

Skill: Creative Problem Solving
Appropriate Playthings: puppets and marionettes, drawing sets, workshop tools, costumes, action and career dolls

Skill: Exploration
Appropriate Playthings: compasses, magnifying glasses, microscopes and telescopes, magnets, bicycles

What caregivers can do:

• Play skill games.
• Be a referee.
• Pose riddles.
• Teach magic tricks.
• Indulge in nonsense.
• Play vehicle games. Ride together on bicycles.
• Jump rope together. Build things together. Improvise exaggerated characters.
• Play guessing games.
• Play make-believe, like going shopping or building something.
• Encourage hobbies such as stamp, rock, or coin collecting.
• Ask questions.
• Play sports.
• Call attention to qualities, similarities, and differences.
• Read to children.
• Let the children read to you.
• Be flexible.
• Do science projects.
• Grow things - flowers, vegetables.
• Take children to the library.

Play and Playthings by age reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. (1994). Play is the business of kids. In *Better Kid Care: A video learn-at-home unit* (pp. 3-18). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Cooperative Extension.