4 reasons why playing with cars when you were a kid was a good thing

There’s just something about a wheel that gets any toddler or kid transfixed for hours. Our parents are right about so much but if your mum or dad used to tell you to stop running around with your toy cars, call them up right now and tell them why they were wrong! Wait! Before that, you should probably read on and find out why.

#truejoy
Photo Source: nspt4kids

Here, my friends, are the benefits of playing with toy cars:

1. Hand skills and fine motor skills
How cars helped with this: In the beginning, we probably didn’t even know what a car was. So we would turn the wheels, maybe open and close the doors if they had those features. We would just throw them around or bang cars together. This helped with hand dexterity while making us practice the use of both hands! That’s right, just like how we needed to be taught on how to use a spoon, we also needed to learn how to use both our hands… It’s almost embarrassing except at least everyone else has to go through it too.

2. Gross motor skills or whole body skills
How cars helped with this: As we rolled the car around, we learned how much pressure to put on it and how fast or slow we could make it go with that pressure. Once we got the hang of that, we were making the car fly! Over couches and under tables, we ran with cars clutched in our tiny little hands, screaming vroooom! So here, we started to learn about our strength and how to coordinate our body. I guess this was where we learnt how hard to push our siblings when we wanted them out of the way – snap.

3. Cognitive skills
How cars helped with this: Today, we understand cause and effect because back then we learnt, “if I push it off the table, it’ll fall to the ground”. We also started to think “I wanna make it go faster, faster, faster!” and even though we didn’t understand the physics behind it, we knew that applying more pressure or letting it go from a higher ramp will do just that – make it go faster #science. Basically, we were brilliant.

#littlegeniuses
Photo Source: buggyandbuddy

4. Language, speech and early concepts
How cars helped with this: We learned to copy and make sounds as we “drove” the cars around, honking and vrooming accordingly. Stop/go, fast/slow, on/off, left/right – these are all so basic so thank the stars (and your toy cars) that you know it all! Because this world would be total chaos if even a few didn’t know – can you imagine?

Actually… Yeah, pretty much.
Photo Source: Pinterest

There you have it. You are the smart, capable person who knows the difference between left and right thanks to your toy cars. I mean, I’m sure other toys helped too… But let’s face it, as far as learning goes, this was definitely the best way! And hey, even Barbie has a car and if you didn’t steal your brothers’ toy cars then I’m pretty it was cause you had Barbie on cruise control. Now that’s what I call hands on learning. Hmmm, now I just need to find a good enough reason to play with toy cars today…