Having worked as a primary school teacher before the kids came along, I’ve seen my fair share of modern playground fads (loom bands anyone?!). Now that Harrison is about to start full time school and no doubt get caught up in whatever the latest craze is in the playground, it got me thinking about what we used to play with in the 1990’s – remember these?
Tamagotchi
These were little devices on a key chain and were the height of coolness in the 1990’s. We (or should I say our parents!) ended up spending hours caring for these damn things that needed attention every twenty seconds. A little bit like our kids…
Pogs
For anyone too young to remember these, they were little round cardboard discs with pictures on that we all collected, stacked up and then hit with a metal ‘slammer’
YoYo’s
These have been in and out of fashion ever since I can remember, but we were the first ones to have the cool light up flashing ones. My brother and me had a video (yes, remember those things?) that had all sorts of tricks to learn. I never progressed past the ‘up and down’ trick.
Panini Stickers
For girls, it was often the Spice Girls stickers which were the must haves. Boys went crazy for the football ones, buying packs of 6 for about a quid from the newsagents, and being gutted when you realised you already had them all. Did anyone actually complete their sticker book?
Alien Birth Pods
This is one I’m hoping NEVER comes back into fashion – those revolting slimy aliens that ‘gave birth’ when you squeezed them. Yuck.
Gummy Bands
Often known as ‘shag bands’, we all used to wear armfuls of them, not quite realising the less than innocent meaning behind each one!!
I don’t think playground crazes like these happen quite as often these days, and are usually banned from schools within days of them taking off. I know lots more schools are now installing playground equipment that we could only dream about as kids (climbing frames and slides and tennis courts – in your school playground? AMAZING!!) in order to encourage children to be a bit more active. In my eyes, that’s not a bad thing at all – hopefully it means I won’t be left caring for any virtual pets or buying stickers anytime soon!
What playground crazes can you remember?
Image courtesy of www.hccourts.co.uk
*This is a collaborative post
Oohhh! What a blast from the past….
I’d forgotten all about shag bands. lol and Pogs….My brother had hundreds! x