Well, of course kids can watch television when it's a rainy day. Indeed they do anyway on a daily basis from a very early age. There is no doubt that the right television programmes for children can help them learn about the world outside whilst also entertaining them.
Watching television though is a passive pursuit, requiring little or no interaction, so it is not desirable that they should spend all their time in front of it, however appealing it may be for busy mothers who want to keep their child out of their hair. Very small children will not sit still for very long anyway, and nor should they. They need to move around, and to explore the world around them, which they do by touching things, putting them in their mouth, moving them about, and generally playing with them.
It is extremely important for a child to have some indoor toys that stimulate them and encourage them in creative play. The traditional toys such as model cars for boys and dolls for girls are all very well but, in addition to these, children need toys they can actually manipulate and do something with. Toys like wooden or plastic bricks that can be used to build something, shapes that will only fit into a board in a certain way, easy jigsaws, and Plasticine or Play-Doh, are all examples of these kind of toys that are exactly the kind needed to keep children occupied on a rainy day, whilst stimulating their creativity and allowing them to practise their skills in handling and manipulation.
Other valuable toys are those that reflect real life in model form, and can be arranged in various ways to set up different scenarios around which a child can develop a simple story. When I was a boy we had Dinky toys that could be raced across the lino, and sets of knights and soldiers which could be painstakingly laid out in battle formation and allowed various strategies to be developed to engulf the enemy. As these soldiers were made of a soft metal alloy, it was inevitable that a number of heads would be lost in the course of a battle.
Nowadays there are much better sets of models available which are virtually indestructible, and are excellent for such games. The company called Schleich is relatively small in world terms and may not be familiar to many, but it ought to be, since it produces several different magnificent sets of models based on the natural world, historical figures, and the mythical world. For example, there is a range of medieval knights, courtiers, ladies, and accompanying accessories including a castle. These figures are hand-painted, incredibly detailed, and really bring the world of the knights to life.
These kinds of activity toys, such as playing with Schleich figures, should keep your children occupied for many hours when they cannot get outside to play, and are an essential part of children's development, allowing them to interact with actual things that stimulate the mind, and to interact socially with each other.
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