Years ago I remember coming across a sentence in a book by the famous Turkish novelist Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar (1864-1944) which brought my childhood dreams vividly back to mind: 'He filled several rooms of the house with toys for fear that the child might get into mischief playing in the street.' What child would not wish to possess a room filled to the brim with toys? Dolls, marbles, jigsaws, spinning tops, binoculars, teddy bears, trains, cars, lead soldiers, puppets... As a young children spending most of our time at home, our closest relationships after other family members were with toys. Toys even provided our role models. As little mothers we sang lullabies to our dolls, waiting for the father of the house to arrive on his tricycle. We entertained neighbours on our miniature plastic tea service, and washed dolls clothes in the battery driven washing machine.

Toys both amused and educated us. Child psychologists agree on the useful function of toys, which enhance childrn'sg self-confidence, teach physical coordination and communication skills, develop the higher brain functions, and improve social abilities. Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (1782-1851), who developed the concept of the kindergarten, believed that toys should provide images of life enabling children to discover the world through creative play, while Maria Montessori designed educational toys which taught children concepts like size, numbers, and colours. . The history of toys is thought to have begun in ancient Egypt, where tops, marbles and hoops were known in 1400 BC and wooden horses in the 5th century BC. Dolls dating back to the 2nd century BC have frequently been found in ancient Egyptian royal tombs, and dolls were also made in ancient Greece, Rome and China. These dolls made of baked clay with articulated arms and legs were painted and dressed. Pottery dolls were sold in medieval markets, and wooden dolls were made in 17th century Germany.

Prof Dr Bekir Onur explains that the museum has two main functions; one to preserve examples of traditional toys that are disappearing in tody'sp world of rapid social change, and the second to conduct research into industrial, cultural and educational history through the medium of toys. The toys in the museum are classified into five main categories. The first consists of traditional toys, either home-made or the work of local craftsmen, that were available to almost every child, such as rag dolls, kites, catapults, hoops, and objects made of baked clay such as money boxes, figures of animals and whistles in the form of jugs.
The second category consists of factory made toys, the earliest of which date from 1938. These are subdivided according to the material, wooden toys being the oldest type in this category, and include carts, push-along toys and tops. Although tin toys are no longer made in the western countries, they are still being produced in Turkey, and include cars, trains, airplanes, trucks, kitchen equipment, and models of soldiers and animals.

It was from him that we learnt not to tell lies, because our noses would stretch if we did! My nose will certainly remain the same size when I say that the Toy Museum in Ankara is a marvellous planet of dreams which everyone who feels nostalgia for their childhood should visit.

* Zeynep Akın is a freelance writer.