Village Toy Shop The

Most childhoods of a certain era included active games and imaginative play: hide-and-seek, tag, Simon Says, pretend tea parties and blanket forts; playing doctor too (not to mention Operation for all those steady-handed future surgeons) was perhaps as much a game as a hopeful career path. Port Moody's The Village Toy Shop owner Kirsten Anderson, to some degree, has incorporated both; after all, she is a doctor of open-ended play and self-proclaimed Toyologist.

By Kirsten's definition, a Toyologist's qualifications are based on the ability to actively play with toys on an on-going basis with the sole intention of sharing this knowledge with others. When Kirsten is in The Village Toy Shop, along with her staff of Toyologists, they don white lab coats and carry prescription pads. Toyologists dispense a helpful list known as a "Prescription for Fun," ideas for quality toys to support a child as they play, learn and grow.

"I recall a lot of toys my mom gave me as a kid," says Kirsten." But what I remember most is the unstructured open-ended play and the way she encouraged imaginative play; she got down on the floor and played with us."