There’s a big movement in the parenting world right now, more and more people are choosing to ‘say no to plastic’ and are opting for alternative wooden toys instead. I’m not going to pretend that my house isn’t the plastic ridden jungle that it is, but I do also make an effort to make sure that Darcie has some lovely wooden toys as well. I thought I would share some of our favourites with you in case it can give inspiration to anyone else trying to ditch some of the plastic.
Grimms Houses
These colourful rainbow houses provide a lot of entertainment for Darcie. They can be cleverly stacked in many different ways to make inventive towers. They are great for teaching her about balance and which way to stack objects that aren’t square in the most stable way. She also just loves playing ‘houses’ with them, they are painted with little windows and she loves arranging them and pretending they belong to her little figures and animals. They are also a really good toy to use to teach her about colours and also counting. Grimms toys are on the pricier side but they do last really well and are a nice investment for future children too.
Jemima Puddleduck Xylophone
Find me a toddler that doesn’t like to make noise! You can’t do it can you? Darcie loves making noise, the only time the house is ever peaceful is when she is asleep and even then she’ll often be mumbling in her sleep. I think it’s just in their nature and I really wouldn’t change that for the world. It’s no surprise that Darcie loves this Xylophone that was kindly sent to us by Born Gifted for her second birthday. The toy is really well made and painted using very durable paint – none of it has chipped despite it’s daily battering at the hands of my toddler! They have a fab selection of toys and gifts on their website, definitely worth checking out!
Pull Along Horse
This is one of those toys that constantly has me questioning ‘is it a horse or is it a cow?’. I’m sure I’m not the only Mum who struggles with that sometimes but either way Darcie loves this toy. She has a few pull along toys and is at the age now where she thinks it’s such good fun to take them all on little walks around the house.
Wooden Tea Set
I was very happy with this Amazon find. I bought this for Darcie for Christmas to go with her toy kitchen and it’s been one of those toys that she has grown to love more over time. One of her current favourite games is to make cups of tea for everyone, even for ‘the baby’. She pours a cup of tea and holds it up to my stomach, it’s seriously adorable. Sometimes she says she has made soup and serves us that instead. It’s a fab toy for expanding her imagination and I love that it looks so cute as well. I see so many plastic tea sets and this one just blows all of those out of the water. The set actually has a lot more components than are shown in this photograph but obviously they were nowhere to be found at the time I wanted to take this!
Other wooden toys that Darcie loves playing with include a spinning top, a rainstick, building blocks, stacking rings and skittles. I’d love to know if you have any recommendations for wooden toys or for places to buy them. I’d really like to reduce the amount of plastic we buy even further.
