What about toys?

My boys have a lot more fun with an empty box of nappies or plastic containers than expensive toys. They love playing "pretend" with things they know I use myself...Aidan pretends to have a pizza shop and comes to take our telephone order (he has our old telephone on his desk) then goes to his "shop" and brings back a piece of cardboard (our pizza!) I guess they get attached emotionally to object they see you use ~ I gave then boxes, a set of wooden salt and pepper, empty spice containers and a few wooden ustesils. They seem to be happier with those than with toys bought from the shop.

Yep some toys are played with for a day.... Some are played with for weeks....

My sons favorite toys right now are his sisters barbie car, and his sister old doll pram....  He just loves them and Camille was kind enough to hand them over to him to keep. I just asked if he could borrow the car as he was showing intrest in it, and she said he can have it, he sits with it opens the door plays with the steering whell and says rooon rooon.  He has played with it for weeks now and forgotten most of his others... Used toys are great if they only play a day. My sister in-law has passed most of her kids toys to us.  So I have not had to buy any either...

when my kids were smaller i never needed to buy toy's as relitives did this for us, but even now i never buy new toy's unless it is something in particular, as i've realized what a waste of money it is, i only buy from the seconhand store, i get blocks, barbies you name it for not even close to new prices, i agree that toys are great for childrens learning ready for adult life, my children love to play shops and mums and dads and my youngest loves to build things with blocks, i've heard people say in the past  that children don't need toys they should learn to ocupy themselves, "yeh! with what i say, twiddle there thumbs i guess"i've even heard from a friend who does in home care with children that there are kids out there who have never coloured a pitchure and have no clue how to play, she has actually had to teach them what to do and bring in her own toys as they have none of there own, she said the smiles on there faces when they realized they could make something and express themselves through play was heart warming

My son likes the toys with sounds and buzzers, but continually goes back to his wooden blocks, he never seems to get sick of them!!

You're right. A toy that allows a child to use his/her imagination is better. Blocks for example is great, and so is legos and the like. So before grabbing toys, it's important to do a little bit of thinking.