A Toy Garden: Play silks and more Easter fun

You may have noticed that many of my recent posts include brilliantly colored play silks in the background. You may also have noticed that I keep mentioning that play silks are a safe, eco-friendly alternative to Easter grass. This is because Santa Claus was very nice this year and he replaced our tattered homemade playsilks with brand new, beautiful play silks from A Toy Garden.

Since Santa had several stockings to fill, he selected the set of 12 silks for $60, but the silks come in all sorts of combinations. I love the colors in the spring set, so I'll say it again - perfect for Easter :0)



These are nice, thick, smooth and silky play silks that are woven in China, but dyed in the USA using low impact silk dyes. Play silks make great backgrounds for block cities, table cloths for doll picnics, decorations and nature tables, capes for Super Linnea, hiding places, and Arielle says, "sometimes you can bug your sister with them." Thank you, Arielle.

Here are a few pictures:

Arielle playing "nest" in a laudry basket.


Hiding from Dad. I bet you can't find Linnea.



Arielle builds a zoo.


Cassie drinks tea.



We are very happy with our new play silks. If you are buying play silks, then check out A Toy Garden for other Easter treasures. Some suggestions:

Bunny Push Toy ($18.95)




Wood Duck Family ($9.95)




Wooden Eggs ($3.95-$13.95)

The eggs come in various sizes. Arielle loves to wrap them in a play silk and pretend it is a nest. They are also great for do-it-myself decorating.




What's Hiding In There? ($15.95)


Easter is coming soon, so order soon to leave time for shipping.

Connectagons at Magic Cabin

Connectagons Treetops ($24.98)



Our playroom window looks out on a huge maple tree. Every day we look out and talk about the changes we see. "What color are the leaves?" "What kind of bird is that?" "Uh oh, where did the leaves go?"

I chose the Connectagons Treetops building toy for Arielle because its a fun way for her play to reflect the things she is learning about AND because the 242 pieces include 3 types of birds - cardinals, blue jays and goldfinches. This is still not enough birds for Arielle who says "the good thing about trees is that birds can live in them." And, of course, the set also includes tree bases, branches (Arielle thinks the half-rounds look like nests), and leaves in five different colors.

According to Arielle this tree is good for "playing birds, and that is it!" I think it is a little more versatile than that. She had a lot of fun building and changing her tree. And, while it is fun to play with, the tree also makes a fun and interactive addition to a nature or season's table.






The pieces are made of wood and painted with non-toxic paints. Yes, like many Magic Cabin exclusives, they are made in China. All products sold by Magic Cabin must undergo safety testing by their Product Safety and Quality Compliance team. You can read more about safety here.

Connectagons are recommended for ages four and up. Linnea (almost 3) found them frustrating and difficult to manipulate, but Arielle (5) could build her trees quite easily. The Connectagons Collection is exclusive to Magic Cabin and HearthSong and includes several styles of Connectagons that can be used separately or combined.

Magic Cabin and HearthSong are participating in the Campaign to Reforest America. For every tree used for catalogs, two seedlings are planted, and when you make a purchase, they will send a seedling to your choice of three state reforestation program. So, playing trees helps trees.

Star House on Etsy

Star House Folk are sweet, handmade wooden figures that are perfect to use with blocks, dollhouses, and for all sorts of imaginative play.

The figures are made of local, sustainable poplar wood. They are drawn, cut out with a saw, sanded, the details are burned onto the wood, then they are sanded again, painted with US made non-toxic water colors and finished with bee's wax and jojoba oil. All very safe.



Heather says that her designs are often inspired by her six year old daughter. They often sit and draw together, and that is when she come up with her designs. First, Heather has an idea and gets really about a new design. Then, her daughter starts talking about how she really wants one and about how she is going to play with it. Their collaboration is a fun way to spend time together, drawing and talking.

Heather's designs were originally intended to be a children's book. One day, Heather plans to write and illustrate her own children's stories. She says that her goal is "sending love and light to all the littles and bigs and biggers of the world through positive fun stories!"



When Heather was creating her first folks, some family friends came over. Their nine year old daughter had a lot of input when Heather was developing her initial style. Her father was one of the first people to encourage the Star Folk designs as a business by lending Heather his uncle's scroll saw. And, so a toy business was born.



Right now, Heather thinks about how children and adults use Star House Toys to create their own stories and finds that exciting and inspiring. Recently, she was asked to create the Bremen Town Musicians for a special order and just loved the way they turned out. Soon, she will do some for her shop, and she plans to add other classic stories as well. So now, inspiration comes from customers too!

Heather has a new baby now, and is looking forward to seeing what future inspiration comes from her new daughter. Congratulations, Heather!

Arielle is playing with a set of little rainbow "tweets" ($28.00) and a set of pink and blue lovebirds ($20.00).

Arielle's Story.

Once upon a time, Mommy Cardinal met Daddy Blue Jay and they fell in love and then they kissed and got married.



They built a nest, and the Mommy Cardinal lay six eggs. They kept the eggs warm until they hatched. Then they had six little chicks named Arielle, Linnea, Merlin, Elfie, Frank and Brett, and Daddy Blue Jay went to get worms and grubs.



Then they stacked the chicks in a pile and took care of them.



Then they fed them all day because the chicks were very hungry.



After they ate, the chicks played.



Mommy Bird and Daddy Bird put the chicks in bed after dinner.



They told them a story and pecked them gently on the head and said "Good night beautiful birdies, sleep tight."



The end.

Hartia Toys, only at Moolka

When I was in elementary school, there was one particular winter where we had a month of snow days. My very smart mother stocked up on paper toys - toys that required us to cut them out and assemble then before we could play. Just setting everything up could take all day.

I'd never seen anything like the things she found. I think she may have bought them in England. But, Hartia Toys Coupicoles ($15.99) are similar.

These award-winning paper toys keep children entertained and busy while they develop imagination, attention, concentration, the ability to follow directions, three-dimensional thinking skills, and fine motor skills.

Couplicoles (from the French verbs "couper" cut, "plie" fold, and "coller" paste) are made in Canada and, in the USA, are sold exclusively at Moolka.

There are eight designs available: Polar Animals, Insects, Tropical Animals, Martial Arts, The Farm, The Ocean, Vegetables and Exotic Birds. Arielle and I tried out Exotic Birds - of course!

Arielle was very excited to see that the kit contained a cockatoo. A blue cockatoo! What a strange coincidence. She was telling me a few days earlier that she is a grown-up bird scientist, she is going to marry a blue cockatoo and have four chicks. Blue cockatoos are just as imaginary as rainbow ones.



Each box contains twelve sheets of figures to cut and assemble. The kit is rated for ages six and up because cutting the figures out does require at least intermediate scissor skills.



They are classified according to the degree of difficulty (on a scale of one to four). Younger children will need the help of an adult and will gain the skills to work independently as they work through the package.

Couplicoles require a ruler, scissors and glue. I found that tape, an exact-o knife, and paper clips were also helpful. I used the paper clips to hold parts in place while the glue dried.

I wasn't sure if Coupicoles would be too hard for Arielle, and, indeed, they were too complex for her pre-school scissor skills. Instead, we decided that I would cut and she would help with the gluing and, of course, the playing.

These do take time - about fifteen minutes each. The birds, because they are made of paper, are delicate; definitely not for toddler sisters. But, Arielle really enjoys them. I think that after she plays a while, they could also be strung up to make a nice mobile for her room. Of course, eventually, they can be recycled.




I'm saving blue cockatoo for last.


What an excellent and educational way to keep older children busy during school closings or summer vacations. Thanks Moolka!

Birds

I think it was November. Arielle stopped being a girl and turned into a bird - a Rainbow Cockatoo, to be exact. Rainbow Cockatoo's are an imaginary species. They are very rare and are the only cockatoos in the Northern Hemisphere. Most live in Australia.

Arielle has always had an imagination. But, six months later, she is still a bird. I've been trained to refer to her hair as her "feathers" and to tooth-brushing as "beak-brushing". When I ask what she'd like for dinner, she asks for "worms and grubs", so I'm creative with food names. Spaghetti is now "juicy worms".

So, we've been growing our imaginations. But, we've also been learning. In January, we took a trip to Ottawa, where we visited the Canadian Museum of Nature. The museum was being remodeled, but they have a wonderful bird exhibit complete with a tiny lab where children can pretend to be ornithologists (scientists who study birds). Arielle was thrilled. Now she is determined that when she grows up she will be a bird scientist.

Pictures from the museum






When we left the museum, we bought a bird book. This sparked an interest in bird identification. We put up bird feeders in our trees and bought some identification guides. Grandma gave Arielle a pair of binoculars.



When the weather turned warmer, we saw new birds every day. We bought a CD to teach us about bird songs and listened to it in the car. We built a bird house.




And we didn't stop there. Cockatoos are common in Australia, so Arielle wanted to learn about Australia. We found Australia on the globe. We cut out pictures of Australian animals - there are lots at OzAnimals.com - and we decorated our geography area. Arielle practiced writing the names of Australian birds and animals in her notebook. We learned about Aboriginal art and decorated homemade rain sticks. We got stories from the library and from Amazon and learned about Aboriginal myth and about animals.





I have learned a lot, too. Even two-year-old Linnea can identify robins and starlings. Arielle's interest shows no signs of waning and it is both fun and a challenge to find new ways to direct her curiosity and eagerness to learn. Here she is painting an outline of a bird that I drew for her - a homemade coloring book of sorts. The bright water colors and heavy duty paper are from Stubby Pencil, of course.



And here she is playing pet store... finding good homes for those birds and also a chance to learn about money.





Taking advantage of your child's interests seems like such a natural and fun way to learn, doesn't it? There is such a fine line between learning and play, and there are so many more things we can and will learn as long as she is interested.