Toys, inspiring and imaginative play for children (and adults who make them ! )

[Toddy]

Wooden toys; something very appealing about wooden toys, about toys that are both tactile, mind flexing, imagination potential rich and all round things we'd have liked to have played wtih ourselves.
I make toys, I make story books, busy books and the like, and occasionally I have a wander through pinterest looking for other inspiration too.
I followed a link and found a site with loads of things….there's even a child sized Viking tent, and a witch's cottage in a wooden suitcase

http://adventure-in-a-box.com/wooden-toys-you-can-make-yourself/

atb,
M

 

[mountainm]

I find (sadly) that wooden toys tend to appeal to middle class parents more than kids.

 

[Toddy]

Wow, scathing indictment there

If children see toys being made, they see skill in action too, thought process and the why and how things work. If children are encouraged to help, then they learn both hand and eye coordination and the brain connections that make those work, as well.
If the adults who make the toys spend time with the children they made them for then it's much better than stuck in front of the goggle box drooling after the lastest screaming flash bang must have this toy adverts.
Too many plastic toys are like prepacked food; easy to heat up and digest but not exactly as good as it might be for us.

Each to their own though I liked the ones that I linked to, I would happily have made some of them for my children, and those that I did make were well played with.

M

 

[tombear]

Except wooden swords, every kid I've seen eyes light up if offered something to wale at their siblings with...

ATB

Tom

Saying that, mine like everything that they've seen being made for them. Choked me up a bit when one pulled out a slide whistle I'd made when he was a a nipper from where're kept all his treasures.

 

[Toddy]

I made wooden swords, and shields, for my sons. A friend gave me a row for doing so. "Those will hurt", she said.
I replied that that was part of the point of it all….if you hit your brother with a pointy stick he'll hit you back with his, and it will hurt, so it's not a good idea
Boys seem to learn to duck and defend, and counter attack very quickly


M

 

[dewi]

I find (sadly) that wooden toys tend to appeal to middle class parents more than kids.

Depends on the toy... the wooden blocks with the letters carved onto them are always well played with, as is the version with the string-drawn wooden cart for the blocks. My daughter has a fantastic wooden dolls house which she plays with a lot instead of the computer... and the computer is a tough toy to compete with.

 

[dewi]

Except wooden swords, every kid I've seen eyes light up if offered something to wale at their siblings with...

ATB

Tom

Saying that, mine like everything that they've seen being made for them. Choked me up a bit when one pulled out a slide whistle I'd made when he was a a nipper from where're kept all his treasures.

Again, depends on the wooden swords... the kids are going nowhere near my wooden sword!



Bought this one from a stall at Nottingham forest... he had a huge range and they're really well made.

 

[tombear]

I'd forgotten shields. Actually them never used them much as I'd gone a bit AR on them and made them too pretty, the 2/3rd sized Norman kite shield is a typical example, did I really need to make formers and laminate it into a curve just to be hacked at with lengths of beech? D'oh!

ATB

Tom

 

[Jared]

I did end up on http://www.themarblerunshop.co.uk/ and coveting their wooden marble run kits a while back

 

[Goatboy]

Knowing my love of castles as a kid (and his too as we were allways visiting them), my Dad made me a wooden castle when I was wee. Had all sorts of tricky features that were hidden on real castles so that my little knights could knock lumps out of each other. Played with it for years and eventually gave it to some mates wee lad who also liked castles. Wooden toys can last and last.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Robson Valley]

I planned to carve 100 spoons. Got burnt out at 70. It's very important for very young children to begin to develop their fine motor control and hand& eye coordination.
The spoon blanks (birch) were about 1" squares x 14". I chopped up a few blanks into 2" and 3" lengths. No letters, no paint, just simple smooth wooden blocks for little hands.
Crawling and sitting up, their front paws are all over the floor then into their mouths. Why bother with a finish, either? Most valuable, I'm told. I'll make my own observations in 4 days.