If you’ve got a little one who is overly enchanted with fairies, then how perfect is this sweet hat idea! Little ones will adore these charming flower blossom hats, and you have to admit, they’d look super adorable on a baby. Great for birthday parties, a photo opp (just add wings or some fairy-minded clothing) or use them for costume play. Each soft hat is wool felted in the USA. Available in fairy-perfect colors of yellow, orange, pink or periwinkle with a medium green stem. Comes in sizes for infants up to three years and for children ages three to ten years.
If your tot is in the crawling and cruising stage, push toys are perfect for playtime. Manny & Simon recently added this four-car train to their already amazing array of sustainably made wooden rolling toys. Their collection of push toys is made from 100% post-industrial recycled wood residuals and painted with non-toxic, zero-VOC paint. This colorful toy is sure to keep your tot moving and groovin. Choo choo!
Your kids, and you, will fall in love with this sweet and lovable block puzzle set from Manzanita Kids. While it’s likely too late to get this in time for Valentine’s Day, this wooden puzzle set is still a great find for everyday play. It will even make a wonderful baby shower or wedding gift. The four puzzle pieces …
When I was a little girl, most of my favorite books had slices of nature incorporated. Pippi Longstocking climbed trees, shimmied up mountains, frolicked in the woods, sailed on lakes and had many other nature adventures. The girls of Little Women and Little House went ice skating, jumped in barns, held picnics and walked everywhere. My favorite kid-detectives even solved most of their cases by snooping around outside gathering clues. In fact, even the more modern books I enjoyed showcased kids outside, doing typical kid-minded activities like building forts, walking to school, camping and more. Kids today, unless they’re prone to only the classics, are missing out on this significant nature slant in books, at least according to a new study. The study analyzed 296 books receiving Caldecott awards from 1938 to 2008 and found that as the years go on, there have been significant declines in books that depict natural environments and animals, while what the researchers call, “Built environments” have become more common.
With Studio Ditte’s Paper Robots you can build six colorful robots. All you need is scissors, a ruler and glue – no tech skills required! Sure, these robots aren’t made from recycled paper (What a shame!), but they are super-lightweight to ship and easy-peasy to recycle once your child moves on to other toys. These aren’t the first paper robots to hit the scene though – a few years back we shared the cut-fold-connect PIPEROID paper robots from Takashi Tsunoda …
Thanks to Cool Mom Picks we fell in love with MarbleDear’s handmade personalized pillows that are embellished with eco felt.
Bring coloring and building together with these non-toxic beeswax block crayons discovered by Better Living Through Design.
How great are Sucre & Spice’s wooden utensils found on Babyccino Kids?
If only these Geometric Neon Art Blocks, posted about by Handmade Charlotte, …
The PlanToys Workbench is perfect for kids who love to build. The set includes plenty of workbench items, including six handy tools, 27 cool construction parts and a removable storage unit to keep everything tidy. The various construction parts can be placed on both the table and back panel, and the back panel doubles as a tool holder. The wood clamp included in this …
Is your kid crazy about choo choos? Give your child’s train set an eco upgrade by adding three cars that are on a recycling mission. The Recycling Train, which is compatible with all other Plan Toys rail sets, is made from recycled rubberwood and non-toxic finishes. You can use this train to help you explain recycling to your children and what types of items might go in each of the different colored bins aboard the cars.
We’re all for open-ended natural blocks in square and rectangle shapes, but these Mini Natural Wood Castle Blocks from Imagine Childhood will add some really cool, royal elements to your tots building repertoire. Hand made from reclaimed local Walnut in Colorado and finished with mineral oil, the castle blocks are perfectly sized for little hands to maneuver. Each set comes with six blocks.
If you’re worried about toy safety – that’s good – you should be concerned. Thus far, toy safety has been widely overlooked in the United States. Hopefully though, in 2012, this will change. On December 15th of last year, ASTM-International sent a revised toy safety specification document to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in hopes that new safer toy standards will be adopted in 2012. The new toy safety revisions mainly concern toys that may contain heavy metals and how to measure those quantities for child safety. Other issues covered include the stability of ride-on toys; jaw entrapment; toys with spherical ends; requirements for squeeze toys attached to rings; use of cords, straps and elastics; packaging film; and yo-yo tether balls.
Created by Takashi Tsunoda, the Japanese toy designer behind PIPEROID paper robots, Monster Cubes offer a similar paper-folding DIY experience. You’ll get a perforated sheet of paper that can be punched out and folded into monster – no tape, glue or scissors required. You can even put little items or notes in the monster’s hands or mouth. Tsunoda created these cubes using moder box-folding techniques inspired by traditional Japanese handicrafts. Bring one of these lightweight and easy-to-pack Monster Cube sheets …
Your kids can super-size their skyscrapers with these big City Building Blocks from Pottery Barn Kids. You’ll get six blocks in each set including pentagon, square and rectangular shaped buildings, all which are made out of sturdy recycled corrugated cardboard. Don’t want to buy the blocks? Go DIY. Get creative and transform old tissue boxes and other boxes you have around the …
How cool is this flatpack playmat discovered by Kickcan and Conkers? While it’s probably not the easiest item to buy since it’s made by a Czech company, perhaps it will inspire a little DIY project.
Dreaming of snow? Here’s how to make a snowman without any of those cold flakes.
Got an old suitcase around the house? Upcycle it using one of Babble’s 14 ideas.
Thinking about making DIY Valentine’s already? What about repurposing some of …
Tots looking for a soft landing, to outfit they’re indoor teepee or tent, or while kicking back to read a good board book, will love Smiling Planet‘s new collection of organic floor pillows. We dig the inspirational words and sweet graphics in neutral and pastel hues — and the peace …
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