Greener toys for the holidays

So the holiday season has snuck up and smacked me square in the back yet again.  It’s like turning your back to the ocean you stare at it for a long time and get comfy with it, then turn your back to talk to someone and WHAM your off your feet and on your butt in the middle of the sand & water.

Back to the point!  How did this holiday season end up here so fast and what to get the wee ones in your life?  This year I’ve really started looking at the materials used in toys and where they were made.  I am trying to buy toys and gifts that aren’t made of plastic or made in China.  It’s actually a fun challenge if you think about it, I’ve gotten a chance to really look at some cool toys that I might not have found otherwise.  So I am going to give you a few of my favorite finds.

The first toy I found was at the Green Expo in San Francisco.  This is an amazing doll that is similar to the old fashion rag dolls, but with an Eco twist.  The company is called The Earth Friends and they make great dolls from organic, recycled and sustainable materials.  For more info about The Earth Friends, check out their site http://www.theearthfriends.com I think my favorite thing about this doll is the little details that remind me of dolls that my mom made me when I was little.  The yarn hair, the big eyes, the tiny line nose and so many other things.  Did I mention that B spent about 30 minutes lining the dolls up trying to figure out which one Santa might bring her.

Here is one of their fun dolls.  Did I mention that they are sewn here in the US!
This is one of the little girl dolls that they have.

And here is one of the little boy dolls they have.

The next toy that I found is made of recycled plastic, the thing that really surprised me about this toy is how sturdy it was and how interesting the texture is.  It’s made from recycled plastic, but doesn’t have that super smooth, cold, hard feel that plastic does.  I love this dump truck and there are a growing number of recycled plastic toys out on the market so keep looking.  Here’s one of the dump trucks from Green Toys, check out http://www.greentoys.com for more of the great products that they have.  They have a great tea set that my little B loves, haven’t bought it yet, but it’s on the list.

There are a few other items that I am interested in looking at first before I make any recommendations about them.  Until I get myself out of the house and into a store here are a few sites to check out for ideas on Eco toys.

http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toys/toy_categories/green_toys/index.cfm The cool thing about this site, besides the mass quantities they have of toys, is that they break down the “Econess” of the toys. They have categories which range from sustainable wood-recycled product- organic cotton.  They also let you search by interest, age, gender and origin of toy.  There really is a lot of items on this site.

http://www.moolka.com This is another company that has a lot of organic, wood toys.  They carry a brand called Haba majority of their toys are made in Europe, mostly Germany but they do outsource to China.  The thing is that this site offers you the ability to search by county where the product was made.  They also have a lot of other brands as well. When B was little we had a lot of toys from Haba that came from England, my parents spent about 5 weeks in England the summer after B was born and seemed to bring back one of every toy they could find.

This is a block puzzle and these have become B’s favorite type of puzzle. They have different scenes on each side. This one happens to be made by a Swiss company.

I hope you found this helpful.  If you have any other recommendations I would love to hear about them!  I’ll try to post more products as I find them.

Cheers!

To Greening up our kids!

plastic toydom update

I’m proud to say that I have made a real effort to avoid the new plastic toy trap, and buy things made from wood or better yet bamboo.  I haven’t really gotten rid of anything, but that is coming up soon.  I am planning on going through B’s room and donating all of her old toys to the local good will or salvation army.  I’ll be keeping the toys that she really liked as we are currently getting ready for infant round 2 and will be using B’s old toys for this newest member of the family.

I will say I made a random purchase recently.  I think I made specifically because it wasn’t plastic.  I have no idea what I was thinking since B is 2, and my purchase looks exactly like Jenga.

Only this particular toy is made of bamboo and doesn’t have “Jenga” written on the side of it, otherwise it’s the same.

So I bring this new toy home and my husband looks at me and says “really what is she going to do with that?”

My response “I don’t know, but look it’s made of bamboo”  because that makes it all better.

So this new toy sits on the shelf in the box for a few weeks while we try to figure out what B could do with it.  We finally figured out that if you give a kid a toy they will

A. figure out what it does

B. leave it alone because it’s a toy only an adult would like

C. Play with it the way they see fit for it to be played with.

Well sure enough B didn’t see a Jenga game, she has no idea what that is, she saw building blocks.  Now her new bamboo building blocks are used on a daily basis to build all sorts of tunnels and houses for her plastic toys that I bought before I new any better.