Wooden Toys – #WhatWoodYouPlay?

We love toys in this house – as anyone can see from a quick look around our living room! We have all sorts of toys, but by far the favourites are always the wooden toys. They tend to be more durable, more sturdy and less noisy than their plastic counterparts.

Don’t get me wrong – we love our noisy, lights-up, sings-a-song/dances-a-jig toys too – but there’s just something about a well made, painted wooden toy isn’t there? Plus, you can’t accidentally knock the toy box at 3am and set off a cacophony of wooden toys!

We were delighted then, when George Home contacted us to ask if we’d like to try out one of their gorgeous range of wooden toys. Of course, we said yes!

We chose the wooden train set and table, which retails at £75. When it arrived my sister and I put the table together while S was at nursery, and then rushed off to collect her. I wish I’d taken a photo of her face as she came through the door; her coat didn’t even come off before she began playing.

This is so much more than just a train set! The table has a built-in drawer so that you can put all of the track etc (90 pieces) away… but if I’m honest, none of it has made its way to the drawer yet – we’re too busy playing with it!

As well as a train with two carriages that link together magnetically, there is also a crane with a magnet which lifts the loads off the truck (above) and the train. It also lifts the helicopter onto the helipad. S is in love with this!

As well as a train, trucks and helicopter there’s a boat, a bank, a police station, street lamps, a digger, trees and bushes and wooden people…

… as well as all of the wooden track, and the background printed on the table top!

The absolute best part of this is watching S play with it!

The people talk to each other; the trucks bump into each other and chase each other around the track. The crane shouts at the trucks for bringing the wrong load to him; the helicopter shouts at the crane for… whatever he feels like; he’s the helicopter and he does what he likes!

See? That helicopter lands wherever he feels like landing. Even on top of a bridge. Nobody tells him what to do. I think he probably knocked the bank over (in the foreground) before he flew up there too.

I’m including this photo from a different day because I just love the look on S’s face. She really gets into playing with the toys, and it’s so wonderful to hear her shouting away to herself.

This train set arrived last Monday, and S did not watch TV for that entire week. She didn’t even look in the direction of the TV. On two mornings, she was downstairs in her pyjamas before 6:30am, playing with her train set.

The great thing about a toy like this is that S is 3 now, and can enjoy just running the vehicles around the track – but as she grows, she will still enjoy imaginative play and role play. She can come up with more elaborate stories for the vehicles.

Wooden toys never go out of fashion; I played with wooden toys when I was little, and so did my parents when they were small. They last longer too; you can bash them about, they can have crashes, drop onto the floor or fall down the stairs and the worst that will happen is a little dent or paint wearing off. No splits or smashes or cracks; no ruined toys!

I’ve a feeling we’ll be getting more wooden toys for Christmas this year.

Do your children play with wooden toys?

For some great toy ideas, check out this guide to the best wooden toys for kids from My Kid Needs That.