Wooden Toy Safety

October 26, 2008 admin No comments

Wooden Toy Safety

Four Considerations Why You Should Make Wooden Toys For Your Children

Toys are most important because they teach children to interact with the world around them. Toys will help them to learn the law of cause and effect, and they will practice a lot of skills that they will need as adults.

I recently learned that the first toys in history are discovered by Archaeologists in Egypt. These toys from about 4000 years ago, were made out of natural materials such as stone or wood. Ancient toys were mostly made by the parents or family of the children who used them.

Is this only history, or can we still make wooden toys for our (grand)children?
Just take some time to read the rest of this article and you will understand why we still can.

Safety and durability
All parents want their children to play in a safe environment. For that reason responsable parents prefer wooden toys at home because they are safer and longer-lasting than their plastic equivalents. Plastics can become brittle with age and have a tendency to break into sharp shards. Besides that plastic toys are likely to contain toxic chemicals, which are used to harden or soften the plastics.

And best of all wooden toys are strong. They can handle the child's rough handling and the toy will be still perfect and unbroken. This gives your child freedom to do anything with the toy it can imagine. The fact is that wooden toys can last for many years. Many kids visiting their grandparents will play with the wooden toys that their parents used when they were young

Educational Benefits
Kids sitting in front of a television is not the playing environment most parents seek for their kids.. Rather than simply watching a screen, children benefit from the use and manipulation of real wooden toys. Do you know that a child's ability to handle his toy as he wishes builds creativity and decision-making skills? Playing with real wooden toys also stimulates his imagination and builds hand-eye coordination.
Wooden toys give your kids an opportunity to create new games each time they play with them. For this reason kids will keep coming back to play with these toys. This makes wooden toys the best choice for your child.

Fun to Make and Fun to Give
Most children love wooden toys, and a lot of (grand)parents love to make these toys. Just think about the satisfaction you will experience when you see your (grand)children play for hours and hours with a home made wooden truck, wooden doll's house or rocking horse?
I am over 50 years of age now, but do you know what I still remember of my childhood? Yes, I still remember the wooden toys my father made for me and my two brothers.

Easy to Make
"Easy to make?", you will ask. "I am not an experienced woodworker, not even a skilled hobbyist." That may be true, but let me give you some tips for beginners:

As a starter:
- Read some books about different type of woods and how they can be used, various tools, etc
- Find a skilled person, and ask him to help you with your first project
- Find a simple project to start with, like a birdhouses and feeders or different kind of wooden toys.

And best of all there are many woodworking plans available for non skilled woodworkers. No I don't mean cheap, difficult to read copies. I mean clear, detailed, and step-by-step guides on how you can make wooden toys, tables, book cases or plant holders. When you start with a simple project, then I am sure that you will become a passionate woodworker and your (grand)children will be very happy with the results of your hobby.

I hope this information was useful

About the Author

The author, Albert Hoogendoorn is the owner of the website Woodworking Ideas that is dedicated to woodworking for woodworkers of all skills. A great resource to find ideas for wooden toys.

I have a rabbit and I was wandering what other people do to keep their homes "rabbit proof"?

My rabbit is a youngster that just LOVES chewing and people say that you should never put rabbits and wires together. I have a computer in my room and a wooden bed and dresser but all I do is put 1 or 2 toys in the room with my rabbit and she doesn't get into ANYTHING! But just for safety what would you suggest?

My rabbits are kept in my bedroom and the best thing i can recommend is unplug all electrical wires and move them away from the rabbit when you arent there to watch him/her.
My male rabbit chews through any wire he can get to, and the best thing to do is switch the plug off when not in use. He recently chewed through my phone charger but as it was switched off he didnt get electrocuted and i just bought a new charger.
If it is out of reach though he wont bother jumping up to chew them.

I also have to keep the food bags out of reach or they will tear them open and eat all their food lol. Cardboard boxes are also a lot of fun to rip up, which is fine if its an old used box, but if it is storing things inside the rabbtis then have access to that too.

If i have enough toys for them though then they are happy and with wooden chew toys they dont normally chew my things - although he has chewed a biiiggg hole in my bed sheets lol