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Let's Play Yo-Yo

Yo- Yo's have been around over 2000 years. I'm sure you all had one as a child and played with it for hours on end. The times the string broke and good old Dad always managed to repair it. Or it got in a big knot and took ages to undo!

There were all sorts of moves you could do with them, such as Walk the Dog where it walks in front of you. Inner Ring Grind where it hangs on your fingertip. Arm Grind where you grind it on your arm, Finger grind where you do the same on your finger, and the Thumb grind where your thumb is in the yoyo and it spins on it. Some of these aren't as easy as they sound.

It is thought that the yo-yo started in ancient Greece, but the modern ones it is thought came from the Philippines. The word Yo-Yo was in a Filipino Dictionary in 1860. They became popular in the 1930s when Pedro Flores began producing them in quantity in 1928. He eventually sold out to Donald Duncan and got him to run the marketing campaigns and the rest as they say is history.

The first yo-yos were made of wood, metal or painted disks. The Yo-yo is considered to be the second oldest toy and was the first toy to go to outer space. They were so colourful as well.

Do you remember the yo-yo craze in the '90s? The telly was full of commercials showing what you could do with them and everybody wanted one of these wonder toys to try and perform all the tricks that were shown on telly.

Even Snoopy can do it !

They are still around today, but a lot more elaborate and expensive than when we were kids. For such a simple toy, it amused us for hours on end and was small enough to take anywhere and everywhere. Sadly, you don't see the kids today playing outside with their yo-yos but I understand they are still as popular as ever.

Even Taff can do it

Did you have a yo-yo as a child, and could you do all the tricks?
I could walk the dog but that was about it, but I know some of the flash kids could do them all and make them look easy as well. This kid is 6 years old, well worth a watch.

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