Wooden toys for children

wooden-play-foodWhen Little Miss Green was a baby, the internet was a completely different place to the one we know now!

There were few companies offering safe toiletries, organic clothing or natural bedding.

I resorted to making all of our own toiletries and decided the next most ‘green’ option was to buy second hand bedding and clothes.

When she was a toddler we became fully immersed in a Waldorf lifestyle where I was first introduced to the concepts of simple living and the rhythms of the seasons.

I discovered home baked bread, tea made from foraged berries, nature tables and the most adorable handmade finger puppets.

I noticed how calm and orderly everything felt when I walked into our local Steiner parent / toddler group. Despite there being 10 young children playing together, there was an overall calmness and tranquillity that pervaded the room.

The children were happy, desperately happy and it struck me how muted the colours were, how everything was made from natural materials such as silk, wool and wood.

I sought wooden toys for us at home, but it was a near impossible task.

I found the odd item in mainstream toy shops, but nothing to delight me. They seemed like a small offering for the quaint families that wanted to be appeased.

There was nothing like “Wooden Toy Shop” for good wooden toys back then! Wooden Toy Shop, as the name suggests, is not a toy shop with a small wooden range, it’s an ENTIRE shop of wooden offerings.

From puzzles and games to ride on toys, to my favourite, the wooden play food, there is something for everyone. Although my baby is nearly 11, there are still things to interest her that are virtually timeless. Who could fail to fall in love with their wooden stamp sets and show me an adult that isn’t still fascinated by a well-constructed marble run…

Little Miss Green has moved on to iPods and mobile phones now but we still have some wooden favourites. Her building blocks, which she played with for around 8 years and her rocking horse on which she rode for miles, are safely stored in the attic. The doll’s house sits on her bedroom floor, in a position where it can be shoved behind a cupboard when ‘cool’ friends visit. But when she’s home alone and creativity strikes, I still hear conversations going on between mama and papa doll. Then there are the wooden hobby horses – the other day we were decluttering and she looked wistfully at her faithful horsey companions “I’m not ready to part with them yet” she said…

Wooden toys are such a timeless classic; they are not the sort of toys you can easily part with. They become the heirlooms for future generations. They hold your energy and the memories of your childhood and as such almost become members of the family.

Tell me; do you remember a favourite wooden childhood toy?

1 Comment

  1. Alicia@ eco friendly homemaking on January 14, 2012 at 1:53 am

    Oh I love wooden toys! One of my favorites were Tinker Toys. They were so cool and you could make so many different things with them.