{"id":26452,"date":"2014-12-17T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T18:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=26452"},"modified":"2018-02-01T12:51:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T20:51:32","slug":"christmas-gifts-little-urbanist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2014\/12\/17\/christmas-gifts-little-urbanist\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Gifts for the Little Urbanist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Your grandpa played with toy trains. Your mom loved her wooden school bus. You loved to construct public buildings out of Lego, and now your kid can\u2019t stop reading\u00a0Richard Scarry books<\/a>. Whether or not we realize it, children are fascinated by how a city works.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never too early to get your little one interested in cities and what makes them great places to live. Here are my recommendations on some awesome gifts<\/a> for the little urbanist in your life.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

We Built This City<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kids of all ages love to build things, and they especially love to construct essential city infrastructure like public buildings, roads, and train tracks. Your young toddler could construct a city with wooden city building blocks likeMelissa and Doug\u2019s Town Blocks<\/a>\u00a0or she could build the next city hall with theirArchitectural Unit Block Set<\/a>. For your older child,\u00a0The Lego City series<\/a>\u00a0offers kids the chance to build a\u00a0high speed passenger train<\/a>, a\u00a0town square,<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0marine port<\/a>\u00a0(If you are from Vancouver, my friend and fellow former city planning commissioner\u00a0Mike Klassen<\/a>\u00a0suggested using Lego to construct the \u201cGeorgia\/Dunsmuir\u00a0Viaducts that you can build and demolish at will.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Essential Services<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cities would not function without essential services like garbage disposal, recycling, hospitals, schools, construction workers and fire and police services. Children actually find these things kind of cool. There are many toy options to teach kids about city services including\u00a0Recycling and Garbage Disposal Truck<\/a>s,\u00a0Fire, Police and Construction worker outfits<\/a>\u00a0and of course, toy versions of\u00a0schools<\/a>,\u00a0hospitals<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0police and fire stations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

The Urban Farmer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Farming is no longer outside city limits. You can help your children appreciate this by farming in your own home or backyard. Just purchase a vegetable or herb garden starter set like\u00a0Growums Garden in a Box<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Miracle-Gro Kids Ready, Set, Grow Vegetable Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

The Cyclist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Netherlands, most children ride their bikes to school, sadly this is not the case in most North American cities. Cycling can bring children great joy and independence, so find a safe bike trail and get started! There are many gifts to support your little cyclist, like\u00a0Wishbone\u2019s beautiful wooden push bike<\/a>\u00a0or theMEC version<\/a>. If he is already a cycling pro, there are some fun accessories, like the\u00a0Nutcase Classic Street Helmet\u00a0<\/a>to protect his watermelon. And, if it\u2019s too early to get her on a bike, cart her around while you ride with a\u00a0child bike trailer<\/a>\u00a0or afront facing bike seat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Planes, Trains, Automobiles\u2026and Monorails!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This list would not be complete without the obvious mention of TRANSPORTATION. Kids love toys they can move around like planes, trains, cars, ships and even public transport buses and monorails (now also available as toys). Some of the best wooden transportation toys can be found by\u00a0Brio<\/a>, including their\u00a0airport monorail<\/a>\u00a0or the\u00a0cargo harbour set.<\/a>\u00a0Unfortunately, many transportation toys still embrace the freeway urban renewal model of transport, like the road-intensive\u00a0City Life Play Carpet<\/a>\u00a0(where are the bike lanes and sidewalks?).\u00a0<\/em>If you want to avoid this, choose toy train sets and buses instead.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

How Cities Work<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If the child in your life really wants to know how cities work, there are some excellent books, board games and computer games to get him started. Classic children\u2019s stories like Richard Scarry\u2019s\u00a0Busytown<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0What Do The People Do All Day?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 are full of colourful iconic characters that illustrate city life (such as foxes as janitors and bears as school teachers). There are also some more recent books like\u00a0In the Town, All Year \u2018Round<\/a><\/em>, The Planetizen\u2019s\u00a0Where Things Are, Near and Far<\/a><\/em>, and as urbanist\u00a0Heather Garbo<\/a>\u00a0from Downtown Colorado Inc. suggested to me:\u00a0In Lucia\u2019s Neighborhood<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(inspired by Jane Jacobs!) and\u00a0Franklin\u2019s Neighborhood<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Heather also suggested a board game called\u00a0Community<\/a>\u00a0(for kids 5 and up): \u201cWhat\u2019s cool about this game is the goal is to collaborate, not compete, to create a community\u2014obviously a concept that is mirrored in real-life community-building.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for computer games that allow you to build cities, the most obvious choice is\u00a0SimCity<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0the only computer game that I and most planning nerds ever played as a kid.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Little Citizen Naturalist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No city is complete without nature, to teach your child about the importance of urban parks and nature in cities, you could give him or her a\u00a0Butterfly Nursery,\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0aWood Observation Bird House<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0a season\u2019s pass to your local botanical garden, or – since its hard to see the stars in the city, a \u201cMoon in My Room<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Jillian Glover<\/strong> is a communications advisor who specializes in urban issues and transportation. She is a former Vancouver City Planning Commissioner and holds a Master of Urban Studies degree from Simon Fraser University. She was born and raised in Vancouver and is very interested in how people in urban environments engage in their cities. In her spare time, she writes about urban issues at her blog, This City Life \u2013 which you can visit at www.thiscitylife.tumblr.com.<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your grandpa played with toy trains. Your mom loved her wooden school bus. You loved to construct public buildings out of Lego, and now your kid can\u2019t stop reading\u00a0Richard Scarry books. Whether or not we realize it, children are fascinated by how a city works. It\u2019s never too early to get your little one interestedContinue reading “Christmas Gifts for the Little Urbanist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6051,"featured_media":26459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curiosities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas Gifts for the Little Urbanist - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2014\/12\/17\/christmas-gifts-little-urbanist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Gifts for the Little Urbanist - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your grandpa played with toy trains. 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