Green Options

Say “bye bye” to toys made of bad plastic and covered in lead paint. Instead reach for the wood- wooden toys that is.

Plan Toys offer superior quality wood toys made with environmentally friendly kiln dried, chemical free, rubberwood. They also use E-Zero glue, water based non-toxic colors, and recycled and recyclable materials. And at Plan Toys they do everything with “green” in mind.

Rosie Hippo shares the “green” passion and sells only ethical, quality, eco-friendly toys for children.

We paid a visit recently to one of my favourite toy stores in the whole world, Hot Toads.  The physical store itself isn’t all that impressive — it’s a small, concrete-floored basement room in a medical building, with sparsely-stocked wooden shelves, draped with puppets and stuffed toys hanging by clothespins from simple lines strung across the room.  The back wall features a working 10-foot long model train table made entirely out of Lego.

But it’s not about the decor — it’s what they carry that makes this place special.  Plan Toys.  HaPe.  Schylling.  Plastic toys made from recycled milk jugs.  Non-toxic wooden toys.  Toys intended to enrich the mind and body of your children, not just feed into consumerism and branding.

And for me, it is a local store, within driving distance, right here in Atlantic Canada.  Unfortunately for my American friends reading this, while they do take online orders, Hot Toads only delivers within Canada.  Sorry, eh?

One of the many cool items they have is a line of large toy cars called E-Racers, from HaPe’s Bamboo Collection.  I had a nice chat with the fellow working there, and learned that apparently these were the first toys to be made from bamboo.  I was surprised that, while bamboo has been used for clothes, cutlery and dinnerware, flooring and even wallpaper for some time, the idea of bamboo toys was still relatively new.

He also filled me in on a fact I had previously been unaware of.  Of course, bamboo is the new golden child of the eco movement: it grows easily and quickly without pesticides, and is therefore a readily renewable resource with low environmental impact.  Bamboo wood is attractive and sturdy, and bamboo cloth is soft and has natural antibacterial properties.  As worldwide consumer demand for bamboo has increased dramatically in recent years, some companies have taken to clear-cutting hardwood forests in order to make room for bamboo plantations.  And despite bamboo’s rapid growth, difficulty in seed propagation combined with over-harvesting has even threatened some species to near-extinction.

Ugh.

Hammer Balls from Plan Toys is a curved wooden box with three colorful balls and a mallet, this toy helps children to improve hand-eye coordination, aligning, slotting and aiming. Pound the balls and watch them roll out one by one. It is now one of my all time favorite toddler toys.

We got Hammer Balls for our 3 year old son as a green Christmas gift and not only does he love it, his older siblings do to! It is just a simple wood block with a lovely curved shape that has three holes in it. You place one or all of the three colorful, wooden balls on it and then you use the hammer to pound the balls through the holes. They roll out from underneath and the fun begins again. The concept is incredibly simple but it is fascinating to most young kids. It is similar to the idea of wack-a-mole but without the violent concept of striking an animal.

Fancy a new online store for eco-friendly children’s products?  Green product website Ambitious Green calls itself a “fun place to buy great products at the center of today’s environmental issues, concerns, and debates.”

Says Ambitious Green: “We think the environment and education are challenging debates worth having. Every time you make a buying decision you are telling manufacturers and the market what’s important to you.   We share the same frustrations you do - finding products that are natural, functional, friendly and fun. We believe that what’s good  for you can be good for the planet.”

Here are a few of the latest toys at Ambitious Green:

Dancing Alligator, $19.99 (shown above) “This award-winning, wooden alligator pull toy struts his stuff as he wiggles, bobs and click-clacks along.”  These toys are made in Thailand by Plan Toys, a green company that emphasizes socially responsible manufacturing.   It’s green because it’s made of organic rubberwood, non-formaldehyde E-Zero Glue, water-based dye, recycled and recyclable material and soy ink and water-based ink.

Another great toy by Plan Toys, the wooden Pirate Ship is made of natural rubber wood and comes with a multitude of accessories. Offered by Magic Cabin, the Pirate Ship is made in Thailand and comes with:
A wooden pirate figure
Four crew members
Two ladders
Two cannons
Anchor
Barrel
Treasure chest
Small rowboat
Plank
Crow’s nest
Felt sail

My son received the Pirate Ship for Easter two [...]

My son received the Plan Toys Crane Setfor his third birthday. This toy is aesthetically pleasing and made of salvage rubber wood. All paint colors are derived from vegetable dyes. The Plan Toys Crane Setcomes in three pieces, which snap together. Our set was very difficult to assemble, and we eventually took a rubber mallet to pound [...]

Children today are bombarded with plastic, limiting toys that do not expand their imaginations or aid their development. Not only can plastic toys be harmful to children’s health, but the production of plastic toys further increases our dependence upon petroleum and leaves a greater carbon footprint than natural, wooden toys. There are many companies that produce wooden toys; however, not all of these companies provide information about the kind of wood they [...]

Children today are bombarded with plastic, limiting toys that do not expand their imagination or aid their development. Not only can plastic toys be harmful to children's health, but the production of plastic toys further increases our dependence upon petroleum and leaves a greater carbon footprint than natural, wooden toys. There are many companies that produce wooden toys; however, not all of these companies provide information about the kind of wood

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In follow up to the Magic Cabin Mini Kitchen post, it was suggested by Jeremiah McNichols of Z Recs that I review other dramatic play kitchen items that are less expensive. Our cabin is small, and we do not have room for a separate play kitchen. By purchasing a few natural toy kitchen items for pretend play, we have been able to foster our children’s natural instinct to cook and prepare [...]

Boys and girls alike love to play with heavy equipment toys. When I was a child, these toys were made mostly of metal, and you still see them around today rusting in second hand stores. Today, these same companies make bulldozers, backhoes, etc. out of plastic. Once again, I went in search of quality, wooden versions of these toys for my children and preschool classroom. Plan toys makes a nice version of a wooden [...]