To think wooden toys aren't necessarily better than plastic

[BleepingSooty]

I was reading a blog where the author told a story about how she had an unexpected visitor and was worried because her son's toys were still lying out in the living room. Rather than be put out by the mess, the visitor praised her for being such an excellent mother for buying her son wooden toys. She then went on to list the benefits of wooden toys and how they last longer and have more educational value. She did make an exception for Lego.

Now, my kids are very hard on their toys so I feel somewhat qualified in this subject. We have had a mixture of wooden toys and plastic, cheap toys and expensive (mostly gifts) and I have to say I see no difference. The wooden toys break just as much as the plastic ones. We especially have problems with paint flaking off. I also don't get how wooden toys have more educational value at all.

I know I probably should have written this on her blog but don't want to upset her. And yes, her blog is a tad self absorbed but I love reading it!

Of course babies use all their senses to 'play' with their toys but they don't need each toy to satisfy them all- it would drive you crazy if everything had to make a noise! They can have variety like everyone else. They are not going to chew the plastic enough for it to be a problem and who is to say that the varnish on wood is any better?
As an adult of course a house of tasteful wooden toys looks better - but DCs don't see it the same. There is a lot of snobbery in it.

My dd has a mix of quality wooden toys (some vintage, some German-made) and plastic ones we have bought from charity shops (we found a kiddycraft marble run from 1984 in a charity shop yesyerday for £1.99 yesterday!) I'm not so concerned with wood vs plastic to be honest what bothers me more is the shear quantity of toys some children have these days. I know a lot of families can't help thid as a lot of the items are gifted but it seems so excessive and surely is overwhelming for the child???(unless rotated as exoticfruits says)
I refuse to buy loud, flashing toys though...

oh and I agree with the poster that said that some wooden toys lend themselves to mixing with plastic ones. We had a wooden castle set with lots of plastic knights and dragons and horses and the kids combined it with a playmobil pirate set we had. We also had a wooden pirate ship that had plastic characters and accessories on it that regularly attacked the castle. However the dragon and the troll usually saved the day.

There is a lot of snobbery in it.

There is a lot of sneery inverse snobbery in it too.

Why not just present the DC with whatever is around and leave them to it? The best one we ever had was a cardboard roll that had a carpet around it. You can't avoid plastic- they will get it once they are out of their own home and they will get presents. I buy presents without asking the parent for advice. People will insist on thinking that once they have a DC they can control their whole environment, whereas they can only control themselves.

athing can and will be anything in her mind. I was supposed to put

Agree with soupdragon.

Any thing wooden toys do is cost more which means less stuff, which means more play.

We do have some plastic but avoid ELC, Fisher Price, plasticky crap like anything. So a fab Schleich castle, knights and animals and a couple of hot wheels tracks have crept in.

Exoticfruits, if the wooden toys are bought from a reputable company, they won't have varnish on them. Good quality wooden toys will normally have something like beeswax rubbed into them as a finish or coloured wooden toys like the HABA wooden play fruit and veg will have a non-toxic dye rubbed into them, rather then a varnish or paint that will chip off.

The cheaper wooden toys that are available from more mainstream companies that are painted do have a tendency to chip, we used to have a pastel coloured play oven from Letter Box and unfortunately it chipped quite quickly & the door snapped of when my DD fell on it!

I then went onto to buy a wooden oven from Myriad as the quality is stunning, it was sanded pine finished with a natural oil from what I can remember. It has created the most beautiful little home corner for the DD's :D & they love it. They really are investment pieces and will last for years. If it gets a bang it can just be sanded out and re-oiled. They will have good resale value or can be passed on to future generations.

The wooden toys from Myriad are sourced from Europe and so aren't air freighted & the wood will be sustainably sourced of course, a plus for environmental reasons. We also love the HABA wooden fruit and veg, which is from Germany, again the quality is beautiful and they make lovely play objects.
HABA also make the cutest tin of play gummy bears, little biscuits, pasta shapes....kids just think it's super cute!

My DD's are currently playing with their Lego, and DH is joining in to! :D
I need to start a new thread actually to see what people think to the Lego Friends sets?! I know that's controversial... :D

I agree about the inverse snobbery. Ds1 is 2 years 10 months (so neary 3) and as I type he is playing with his fireman sam toys, using part of the tv stand as a sliding pole for the firemen. He's been at this now for at least 45 minutes. Fireman Sam has rescued a cat out of a tree, has collected nappies and wipes for the baby, has had a cup of tea in Ponty Pandy firestation and shared porridge with Goldilocks. Currently saying: "Elvis, I haven't seen you in ages, come to Ponty Pandy station for a cup of tea" - oh, now the van has crashed and they're off to the hospital. "I didn't like you bashing my van Tom Thomas! That's not very friendly! I just wanted a cup of tea!"

Kids play, that's what they do. At ds's age, a bit of scaffolding with props that make sense helps combined with household stuff to fill in the gaps... but they will play no matter what. I really don't see how the material makes much difference once they are out of that early sensory exploration. Wood just looks a lot prettier, but kids don't play with things based primarily on aesthetics but on aspects of function that suit their play purposes. Their imagination fills in the rest in a way we just can't appreciate.

Whether it is snobbery or inverse snobbery doesn't matter two hoots-the important thing is, as thunksheadontable says

but kids don't play with things based primarily on aesthetics but on aspects of function that suit their play purposes. Their imagination fills in the rest in a way we just can't appreciate.

Wooden looks nicer. My DSs had a kitchen from a car boot sale that was plastic (a rather horrid colour), and of course wooden would have been nicer, but it only cost me £2 and they had hours of imaginative play from it. I didn't find a wooden one in a car boot sale and to go out and pay a lot so it looked nice to me would have been madness when the imagination and play value would have been the same.

I'm glad someone mentioned Melissa and Doug as we have had a couple of their toys and they are absolute rubbish. The paint chips of the wood and they just fall apart.

We have a beautiful wooden toy shop near us but the toys are just so expensive. I just can't bring myself to buy any if them. I think if we were richer I would but I just can't spend 100 plus pounds on something and it gets buried in the garden or thrown in the bath.

We have some M&D velcro play food that has lasted through many children (my 3 plus out on loan many times), however, it is probably ten or more years old so perhaps the quality is different now.

We have some haba teabags in a tin. I admit, I bought them because liked them and thought they were cute, but DS used them a lot for his 'cafe'.
www.eurotoyshop.com/Toys/HB-1515/HABA/Tea-time-tin.html?gclid=CIq7goHboLMCFW-CQgodvEQAeg

I love wooden toys they are so lovely and tactile too. Big Jigs have been mentioned about which are great quality but not expensive. We also have a lovely wooden train from Ikea that was only a few pounds.

Unfortunately small children have no taste and often prefer plastic rubbish. What can you do?

Fluffanstuff Wed 24-Oct-12 15:56:09 www.themarblerunshop.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=107 We have this at preschool ...amazing and changeable and lasts.

Slightly OT, but how stable are the Haba marble run's once they're set up? Do you need to make sure that you've got the clamps to hold them together? Some of their marble run packs look rather freestanding on the pictures. And seriously tempting, despite the cost.

Dd has the velcro food stuff. We bought it last Xmas and it seems to be lasting pretty well despite enormous amount of use so I think it is still good.

Having said that I think dd is pretty gentle on her toys. We've loved some of the M&D jigsaws and had no problems at all with paint coming off. Can't think of any broken plastic ones either. I guess there's a limit to how much damage you can do when your main aim is to line all your toys up, change their nappies and tell them it is time for nap so shhhhhhh.

Dd 11 months loves wooden toys, I also buy her plastic toys. I believe the ideais that plastic toys tend to have lots of buttons and gadgets on them and therefore makes imaginative play slightly harder. Personally I like a mixture of many materials - wooden, plastic, cloth, paper etc.

I equate wooden toys with the whole Montessori, up its own arse ethos. My MIL who never stops talking about how she is a Montessori child and how it is better than everything else (even though she lacks social skills, has gazillion problems with herself and didn't excel educationally after Montessori) thinks wooden toys are the bees knees. I think they are nice to have but I would not pay more for them than plastic toys and I think they are a bit pretentious and earth-mothery. If I find them in a charity shop I would buy them or if they are the same price as something that is plastic I would probably buy them but I wouldn't spend loads more just because they are wooden.