Best wooden toys

[Chloebella]

I am looking for a good wooden kitchen / play and learn type of toys. There are so many out there but I am looking for a relatively cheap set that will go a long way. We are intending to follow Montessori method eventually but rather loosely as I find some of their teaching don't line up with my believes.
I found this on vinted https://www.vinted.co.uk/items/3866974581-wooden-educational-toy-by-george-kitchen-bbq-set-montessori-method
Anyone bought this or similar one and can share their opinions?
Any recommendations welcome! Preferably Vinted or ebay as I don't wanna spend too much on it!

Ikea or whatever is on your local FB marketplace or ebay local cash on collection.

The one in your link looks flimsy like it will break easily.

We had a IKEA kitchen, it is still in really good condition and they are often available on Facebook Marketplace. Our favourite wooden toy was our wooden train track. We acquired bits from all over and it all fits together. At the moment wooden toys are definitely having a revival and I often see things in Aldi and Lidl whereas when my boys were little it was much harder to find.

Melissa and Doug

I’m looking for something more educational like the play kitchen etc but will definitely check ikea, thank you!
We are trying to eliminate plastic from our life as much as possible and like you said, luckily the wooden toys are becoming more popular these days

Have a look at Plan Toys. They sell lots at Babipur which is a brilliant ethical toy shop with lots of wooden toys (Grimms, Plan Toys, Bajo). The role play toys are brilliant. We have lots of the kitchen stuff - cutting fruit, the sushi set, tea set and ice creams.

OP, I'm going to kindly suggest that you don't get all PFB and snobby about this. There's nothing 'Montessori' about a wooden play kitchen, 99% of kids have them and the IKEA one is no better or worse than the BBQ you've linked to. If anything, the IKEA one will be more educational as it better replicate an actual kitchen. By all means research the various types of parenting, but flexibility, resilience and realism will be more important

gently, I think you might be overthinking this

having one particular version of a wooden kitchen over another is not going to make your child smarter or happier. Having engaged parents who talk to baby and read lots of books and etc is much more important than a particular toy.

I'd rather a play kitchen than a play BBQ 😜

IKEA has tons of great wooden toys. Or post on your local ads.

I was referring to a train toy set she mentioned, not the ikea toys in general. Read the post properly before you post irrelevant reply.

Well, if you want to be pedantic, you actually asked for suggestions for a wooden kitchen and play and learn type toys, so the idea of a train set fits entirely within that brief. I'm also clearly not the only one that thinks you sound rather silly

Thanks for another irrelevant post. I asked for suggestions for wooden toys, not your opinion on my post.

Nothing beats the Disney Kitchen that makes frying, sizzling, boiling water and other kitchen noises

Wooden toys are just boring AF

The Brio train set is fab and ikea woken tracks fit it

But nothing beats the battery operated plastic Thomas the Tank engine that zooms around

You need fun when you play

We had someone open a wooden toy shop in our very child centric eco friendly blah blah town and it shut down with the year

My mums dad used to make them wooden toys in his shed

Life has moved on a bit since then

No cupboards on that one, the cupboards have always been my kids’ favourite bit. Honestly I’d look on marketplace. We had an Asda one which was good, then swapped it for a little tykes that someone was giving away because it had more parts to it which my kids loved.

On “educational” - don’t fall in to the trap of thinking too narrowly when it comes to learning. Train tracks (as they’ve already been mentioned) are brilliant for learning about shape, size - if you want to build a track how many curves do you need, how do you go up to get a train over a track, etc. Really valuable stuff which contributes to understanding numbers, fractions, etc, well before they have the language for those concepts.

I totally agree that plastic toys are often more appealing but we’re trying to be more eco friendly. I already pass on all the unused toys we have to ensure they don’t just go to landfills but I still feel guilty for buying them in the first place.

But if you must bore your DC to death my DD did like the wooden Velcro fruit and veg you could cut up when she was 2 / 3

DS loved his Brio train set and was puzzle mad

He discovered Nintendo DS age 4 with every other DC at the time so that was that really

It taught him to read well in record time so I was delighted with that side of it

Luckily iPads weren't a thing when they were little thank god so I do understand a bit where you're coming from OP but there needs to be an element of fun

DD played with her Sylvanians for years and I highly recommend them and before that she was into Happyland from ELC - all plastic of course but amazing for creative and independent play

I bought DS a wooden castle from ELC and he loved lego which again is plastic but excellent for creative independent play

Actually DD had a beautiful wooden dolls house that came with loads and loads of gorgeous wooden furniture and bits abd pieces abd wooden people I bought from Gumtree

Honestly look on second hand sites like FB marketplace or whatever people use in your area

DD loved her wooden dolls house

Then moved onto Sylvanians- mist of which we bought secondhand because they'd stopped making certain items like the Hotel etc

You can't ajways be ECO friendly esp as they get older but actually there are some wonderful wooden toys out there

@Chloebella If you're looking to develop your child's creativity and to be more eco friendly then have a Google of loose parts play or the Curiosity Approach. These use real world items and are great for using in a multitude of ways.

If it's wooden toys you're looking for, have a look online at Big Jigs. They have a great selection, especially when it comes to train track.

I will say the wooden train tracks are really good for building loads of pre-skills required for stuff like maths, physics, engineering, geometry - because in building the track, they come to understand how they can physically fit together, and how they can't. Building more complicated tracks helps them learn things like how they have to match the up slopes to the down slopes, and how stable a bridge support needs to be. Can they make a curved bridge? They can find out. What happens when you try to pull a really long train up the bridge? (It falls over). How steep can the curve be at the bottom of a hill? Frustration tolerance, trying again, trial and error methods etc can all come in here.

Learning about real world train networks can come in too. What are signals for, how to keep trains safe from crashing, what's the difference between steam vs electric trains.

Probably 80% of my daughter's toys are wooden and second hand. The only toys that don't get played with are the plastic ones. Press button hear sound or see light for my daughter gets boring quite quickly.

We have a tool bench, kitchen, train set and doctor & vet kits and all get played with equally. Probably the matching doctor and vet kits get played with the most at the moment. A few months ago it was the kitchen. I wouldn't judge by brand but look at which look in the best condition second hand and the most accessories. Our kitchen cost £15 and another £10 to replace a broken sink with a metal pie dish. Our trainset is used as a linking toy. She has a number of wooden farm toys - shape sorter and threading toys. She has a tractor for the train set and builds the train set around a field full of animals that the farmer tends too. She has a fire engine big jig train set which works with the wooden police car. We are a big fan of toys that add on to existing toys.

Buying something that can be added on to the existing toys is such a good idea!

The IKEA kitchen is fantastic in my view. We got a new one for my DD but its going strong 6 years later with DS. I love that you can also use it as toy storage in a very small room as it has a few cupboards and a couple of shelves! I put some fairy lights round ours and it doubles as quite a nice gentle bedtime activity.
With some metal pots and pans, and also wooden food/teasers etc your child can have hours of imaginative play. At the moment my nearly 2 year old DS loves serving up tea and biscuits to me and his furry friends.. and he also loves the wooden pizza.
Ikea kitchens are ten a penny on Marketplace so you don't even have to get one new, and they last really well.

Melissa and Doug are great for wooden toys.. I like their dolls houses - simple but cute in a sort of Scandi way..and you can add stuff / make bedding from tissues/fabric or whatever. Always a lot of Melssa and Doug stuff in our local charity shop.
Wooden toolkit also great...standing height for my toddler.
Personally not keen on the BBQ thing you e posted as I think it's a bit limited. IME kids love to open and close the doors of the fuller kitchen toys, turn on the hob, clash pans about, even use the little sink...