My son keeps talking about yoyos. He wants to do tricks like dad, and is excited to do the “poo dangle” (a sleeper that I dangle from my butt… yes, I’m childish, too… he love it!).
In practical terms, I don’t think he’s even tall enough to have enough string to do anything with a yoyo. He certainly doesn’t have the coordination to throw a sleeper and do a gravity pull. In short, he won’t be able to use a yoyo right now. I want to encourage his interest, and I don’t want him to be overly discouraged if I hand him a yoyo and it “doesn’t work”.
There’s always a “yoyo ball” (a ball with a retraction mechanism inside), but he certainly won’t be able to do the poo dangle with that. Besides, hard to find those anymore (not to mention a Google search revealing a whole movement to have them banned because of strangulation deaths!!! Scary!).
Anybody have any ideas? Any parents out there give their younger-than-recommended (recommended age is 6+, mine is 3.5!) children a yoyo and not have an even harder situation to deal with? (ie. child’s disappointment… broken vases…). I mean, in a normal world where things happen as you wish, he retains his interest for another year or two when he has the coordination to use his first yoyo. But in this world, he’s asking me almost every day, and I don’t want to put him off forever.
i might think about a duncan reflex, or a yomega brain. both can be found at toys r us, and they return automatically, but still sleeps, so he can do the “poo dangle” till his hearts content
Thanks. I predict picking out a lot of knots. Thankfully I can just keep cycling through my “old” strings (still serviceable, but I just like to try different stuff) if they get too knotted up.
Poo Dangle is his favourite trick (although he’s also proud of “roll the dog”)… but I don’t think he’s ready for “snot dangle”. Don’t want it to hammer him in the face.
If the choice comes down to a Brain vs. Reflex, despite me starting with the Reflex, the Brain is much better.
I worry that the 3 year old won’t be able to disengage the clutch, so I’m not sure how well your poo/snot dangles are gonna work. So, I wonder if a short string Imperial or Butterfly might be better, or even a ProZ.
if i were you power brain xp yo can always get shorter string and theres a switch for sleeping tricks as well as if he throws it down it will come up no matter what ;D
Lack of selection (didn’t have the kind with the switch I think… wife actually picked it up for me while she was out) so I have a Brain. We’ll see how he likes it!
He’s been prepped that Poo Dangle might not work. Always prep children for disappointments…!
Well, it went as good as could be expected. It’s a regular old Brain (Oz was good, but couldn’t he have given me a genius brain?? :D) and works more or less as expected. I had my little guy stand on the couch so that he could have a longer string to work with.
As predicted, gravity pull was out. Luckily he didn’t then decide to just start whipping it all around. He was happy to get the yoyo, wasn’t too bummed out when it didn’t work as expected, and there will probably be more opportunities for him to pick it up and figure it out as time goes on.
The funniest was when he asked me to do “Around the Bend” (is that what it’s called?) with MY yoyo (my new Capless). “Why can’t you do it daddy?” “I need to use your yoyo for that… I guess yours is better!” I told him.
Good on your little man for taking an interest in throwing =) And you’re right about kids being quick learners. If they want to learn something, they’ll learn it in the blink of an eye. If they’ve no interest, no amount of poking and prodding is going to work XD
Besides, hard to find those anymore (not to mention a Google search revealing a whole movement to have them banned because of strangulation deaths!!! Scary!).