Educational Toys
Many of the toys being sold for kids in the early 1940's were
educational. They were designed to teach children skills that they would
be able to use later in life. The toys were even advertised as being
able to help the children to teach the children skills. In the December
15th 1940 issue of the Baltimore Sun an advertisement on page 26
for erector
sets told the reader how they were a good way to teach the children
how to build and engineer. At a price of $2.29 this was affordable for
most families.
In the December 1st issue of the paper there were advertisements of
Burning sets for $.98 on page 21, and on page 25 a Jr. specialist kit for
$.49 and a young chemist set for $5.00. The burning set was designed to
enrich children's handcraft skills. The Jr. specialist kit was to
teach the kids about medicine and health care. The chemistry set was
designed to help the kids with understanding the physical world around
them. Although these toys were focused on teaching, they were not focused
on safety. The burning kit had an unprotected, very hot needle and the
chemistry set came with an alcohol lamp and blow torch. These would not
pass today's safety requirements.
Making models had become a large endeavor by 1940. Making these model
planes taught the children about construction and aerodynamics. This had
become so popular by 1940 that, according to an article in the December
1st 1940 issue of the Baltimore Sun, there was a $20,000,000
industry behind the models.
In the November 26 1942 issue of the Washington Post, on page
14 there was a full page article/ad entitled "Give Toys That Teach".
This was a list, short description and image of 14 toys chosen by Good
Housekeeping. They included "The
Whittler
a wood-carving set; "Plaster Molding Set"; "Angel Face" a sewing and embroidering kit;
"Skyline"
a model construction kit; and more.
There were fashion dolls to
teach the girls how to dress and look. There were also other toys in
Greenbelt and other such towns that the children could play with and learn
from.
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