Education Big Business in Toys
Lauren Weber. STAFF WRITER
Feb 19, 2004
Not every child will grow up to win a Nobel Prize, but that doesn't stop plenty of parents from showering their kids with toys designed to stimulate, challenge and edify those young minds.
Educational toys are big business, representing about $2 billion of sales in the $21 billion toy industry.
"Educational was considered a bad word a few years ago," said Jim Silver, publisher of "The Toy Book," an industry magazine. "Educational meant boring. But now it's something parents want for their kids and they want it done in a fun way."
Toymakers are jumping in to fill that need. Inspired partly by the success of Leapfrog, a maker of technology-driven learning toys, more toymakers are offering products designed to train would-be geniuses. Fisher-Price just introduced InteracTV, a console with DVD games and puzzles for toddlers.
There are also hundreds of small toymakers selling learning toys, some using new technologies and many relying on old-fashioned principles of play, products that teach problem-solving skills, unleash children's artistic instincts and allow kids to explore the universe around them.
The toys appeal to parents, many of whom are increasingly worried about getting their kids into the right colleges and arming them with other tools for success in a rapidly changing global economy.
Teachers are another market for learning toys. But this market has been radically changed by local and national testing requirements. Now teachers are looking for products that boost test scores rather than ignite a child's imagination.
"The emphasis has moved away from learning to passing tests," said Michelle Lepler, who owns the Long Island educational toy store LL Weans with her husband Allan. "There's less creativity, less learning for learning's sake."
The Leplers spent last weekend at the 101st Annual American International Toy Fair, a trade show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, browsing hundreds of exhibits to see the latest in kids' books, games, craft supplies and toys.
Because of their specialized niche, they ignored many of the items other retailers were checking out, like Clikits, Lego's line of do-it-yourself accessories designed for girls, and Stink Blasters, a line of variously smelly figures sure to be a hit among kids, though probably not among parents.
Among the products the Leplers liked were RealKidz, a line of biracial dolls, as well as Magic Nuudles, biodegradable building blocks made from cornstarch.
The growth of the learning toy category bears out larger trends in education and child-rearing.
For instance, the Leplers said, parents today have less time to instill values and skills in their kids.
As parenting changes, so does the educational toy business. "Ten years ago, we never sold posters on manners, or identifying your feelings," she added. These days, LL Weans sells those items to teachers, since many parents expect schools to teach basic social skills.
But the teachers are caught in a bind. Even as expectations rise, time and funding are declining.
"School funding has been going down every year I can remember," Allan Lepler added. Indeed, school budget cuts in 1989 forced LL Weans into bankruptcy. The company survived and now has two stores - one in Farmingdale and one in Carle Place - and a catalog and Web business.
Teachers on average spent $589 of their own money on school supplies in 2001, up 31 percent from 1999, according to the National School Supply and Equipment Association.
But despite all the fancy toys and high-pressure learning games on the market, the Leplers said kids still need time to daydream, to stare up at the sky and let their minds wander.
"There's not enough unstructured play," Al Lepler said. "Kids don't get enough chance to just go into the backyard and play."
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 2004)