The way you play is changing and that's what grandparents know well. In the past in many families toys were a luxury.
A native friend of a Galician village has told me that the first time she saw a toy was at the age of eight: a doll; gift of an aunt who came from the city and her mother before that precious object arranged to hang it on the wall so that it did not spoil, but having no toys did not prevent her from playing, there they were traditional or popular games as they are also known at the mercy of who wants to play them.
In spite of the changes of our time there are games that resist dying, games that have been transmitted from generation to generation and have even expanded to different countries with variables that the children themselves invent depending on the cultural environment. Games like the blind chicken, the viper of the sea, rice pudding, tula or pillage, jump rope, hiding place; in which you only need a group of children willing to have fun and share.
These games stimulate imagination, sociability, facilitate communication, and recreate language. They are regulated games to which children must submit, a very positive aspect for self-regulation, respect and coexistence. The body is the instrument to play: children run, dance, climb, jump, stimulating and developing their motor skills. There are also in which toys such as whirligig, comets, spinning top or spinning top are built. Or also those in which an everyday and simple object is recreated as in the game of the handkerchief, the game of the pebbles, the butter stick or the tabas.
Many of these games have a remote origin and have been preserved through the centuries. According to Miguel Cardona author of the book “Some games of the children of Venezuela” Miss X, a popular game in many Latin American countries is a survival of the sixteenth-century Spanish folk dance known as La Jerigonza. The "old woman", also called "hopscotch", "week", "stepped on" or "underworld", is played in several countries with slight variations, and even when its origin is unknown there are testimonies that it was taught by Roman soldiers to children, during the expansion of the empire. The volantines, flasks, kites or parrots are of Eastern origin and the game of marbles dates back to ancient Egypt.
The truth is that traditional games and toys are a valuable cultural contribution to the playful development in childhood. Unlike today's toys, they are available to everyone, regardless of social categories. They are a universal heritage that we should not let disappear.
