During the quest for calm and structure, I discovered the natural toy movement (if there is such a thing). Aside from the fears of plastic (which I don’t really share), the big advantages are the open-ended play aspects. A child decides what to do with a toy rather than waiting for the toy to do something. After introducing a few open-ended imaginative toys to my 18 month old this summer, he went from looking for the button to push to imaginative play in a matter of a couple of weeks! It was really remarkable! When I first started looking into it, I found some amazing online toy stores but they were SO expensive! I can see why people think movements like Waldorf are for rich people! But there are a couple of key things to consider:
1. The point isn’t LOTS of toys. It’s a few nice quality playthings that can be used in multiple ways. We’ve been making a point of choosing playthings for our toddler that can be used for several years. (I think it’s partially a reaction to the first year where things were outgrown in months…we’re looking for longevity now!) Also, one nice long-term toy seems a lot more affordable when you can think of several uses for it and realize that it will still probably be around for your grandkids!
2. You can make most of it yourself! I dusted off the sewing machine to make felt food, dolls, bean-bags, etc, and also taught myself how to knit. We got a scroll saw on sale and have been collaborating to make some cute wooden animal figures. Purchasing playsilks at $10 a pop is pricey, but dying them yourself with koolaid is very affordable and fun!
A cool site for lots of neat ideas for all skill levels!
Playstand plans so you can make them yourself! (Playstands are simple shelves with a canopy that can be a play house, fort, store, puppet stage, reading nook, space-ship, etc etc etc.) In the plans for the nearish future so hopefully we’ll be able to post pics in the next couple of months!!
3. Some of the best things are FREE!! Bits of nature from walks at the park can make fun toys. We’re not quite past the tasting-things stage…but next spring I plan to have a couple of small bowls or baskets available to hold treasures from outside (rocks and leaves, etc).
4. A lot of the natural toy stores sell unfinished wood toys. A little bit of googling can get you to the same suppliers the toys stores use themselves!! And that’s the whole purpose of this post.
*For wooden acorns, small containers, peg people (to paint or leave blank), mini rolling pins, salt and pepper shaker, milk bottles, and lots more: Caseys Wood and also Baywerwood (the only supplier for large milk bottles I could find). Be careful to look at sizes…some things are small and some are truely miniatures.
This is about $25 worth of stuff from Bayerwood! But we “needed” more acorns so we tried out Caseyswood too. Great service from both!
***The random blog post that taught me the necessity of acorns and peg people! She was totally right!
*For silk blanks to dye: Dharma Trading Co.
*Look on Etsy for lots of artists and crafters who are making really unique toys for competitive prices!
I think that’s enough for now! I’ll run out of blogging ideas if I do it all at once!
[...] wholesale craft stores online to get the same playthings that are sold in some of the fancy shops (my blog has links to some of my favorite resources)! There are great tutorials all over the internet! Try [...]
Thanks for all these links! And how cute are those acorns?
Acorns have become a necessity in our house! You can do a ton with them! My son’s fave game (when he’s not cooking with them) is to use his tiny pasta scoop and scoop one acorn at a time from the basket to the pot. He concentrates sooo hard but has gotten really good at it so I think it’s helpful for his coordination!
[...] today… lots of goodies from Casey’s Wood Supplies. I would like to officially blame Lyneya for this shopping “trip” as earlier this week I read a post of hers about wooden toys [...]