It’s summer time and here’s a cheerful coloring page. You can download this groovy camper van colouring page by clicking on the image below!
Seen in May’s edition of Vogue our Rowen the rabbit fair trade rabbit soft toy doll. See image 3.
A fun printable activity and recycling game to help your kids get familiar with recycling. Great as part of a lesson plan or just an educational activity. Builds on concentration and motor skills.
Click on the image below for you free download:
Happy Earth Day from Wild Thing Toys everyone!
Even though earth day is every day, it’s nice to have one day every person on earth has in common wherever you come from or whatever your background is. A day we can all contemplate and think about making some sustainable choices and appreciate this planet that gives us so much.
Whatever you’re doing today have a great day!
We love toadstools! Here is a very sweet toadstool garland for you to print out and display. Would look lovely in a woodland themed room, pretend fairy garden or a nature corner.
Click on the image below to download!
Yes it does seem strange for a toy manufacturer to say ‘buy less toys.’ However here at Wild Thing Toys we truly believe less is more when it comes to toys. A few good quality heirloom toys made from natural materials are worth far more than an entire room of plastic themed dolls or toys that need a switch to move or talk or flash. With pre-determined toy, especially true of merchandised toys, everything in that toy is intentionally planned out so your child does not need to use their imaginative skills at all. The fantasy and discovery of play is restricted.
Two German researchers, Elke Schubert and Rainer Strick in the 1990s conducted an experiment where toys were taken away from Munich nursery for three months. After short period, researchers say children re-adjusted and their play became more social and creative. You can read their findings here.
Of course, we are not advocating a toy free world for your children. Toys are an important part of your child’s life, they teach your child about the world around them and about themselves, but limiting the amount of toys you give to a child will have greater benefits.
Less toys leave room for a child’s participation and creative imagination with the toys they do have. Simple open ended toys are the toys children comeback to again and again. These toys are appealing and long lasting because of their ability to fuel the imagination. Research shows children who are encouraged in imaginative play prove to be more creative in later years, have better vocabulary, have less aggressive tendencies and are more confident with other children.
Being bombarded with too many toys, a child will go from this toy to that toy, for temporary amusement and distraction without feeling inspired. A study by Claire Lerner, a childhood development researcher funded by the US government to run pre-school educational programmes across America reported that children under the age of five that have too many toys, cannot concentrate on one thing long enough to actually absorb from it, instead they feel duty bound to rummage everything without ever fully immersing themselves in any one activity or ever learning from it. “Our studies show that giving children too many toys or toys of the wrong types can actually be doing them harm. They get overwhelmed and cannot concentrate on any one thing long enough to learn from it,” said Lerner.
A toy given only on certain occasions only or not very often, will hold more value to the child and the child will have an emotional investment to it knowing that he/she had to look forward to this toy and it is something special. The child takes care to look after it and appreciate it more, as they know that there is no replacement at hand.
Children with fewer toys to play with learn better at how to improve their personal relationships and social skills with other children and adults. They spend more time in natural play as well as outdoor play. Endless toys which require staring at a screen and pushing buttons will only have a passive negative effect on building the social skills they require.
Less toys can mean more time to play out doors, read books and paint and draw. Good old fashioned childhood activities such as kicking a ball about with friends, playing with marbles, inviting friends to play with dolls, making dolls clothes, making paper planes, and reading a book in a cosy corner are all unstructured play activities that nurture their creativity, intellect and social skills.
Our Bluebell fair trade doll has been seen in the April 2017 edition of the glossy magazine ‘House And Garden’ in the ‘Kinder Garden’ section.
Finally it seems spring is here! In celebration of spring, we have a free spring theme flash card activity for the kiddos. These cute insect and animal cards can be used in many ways, such as a memory game, ‘snap’, word recognition or even a scavenger hunt.
Click on the image below to download
Happy international women’s day!
In celebration of women everywhere here are five favourite motivational books for young children.
An enchanting book with beautiful illustrations of strong female role model’s through history.
Ideal for ages 4-10 years.
The inspiring, story of Malala Yousafzai, a young girl from Pakistan who stands up and speaks out for every child’s right to education. The book is well written l so children can understand the facts, which are dealt with in an age appropriate way.
Recommended age is 4-7 years.
This book is brimming with the stories of 50 amazing women who made their mark in science, some not so familiar, who have brought important facts and information to our lives.
Recommended age is 8-12 years.
From the ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ series, this book follows Maya Angelou, from her early traumatic childhood to her career, civil rights campaigning and eventually, one of America’s most loved writers.
Recommended age is 5-8 years.
A super inspirational book full of interesting stories and fact about women and girls doing great things and invented ingenious innovations that have made our lives simpler and better.
Recommended age is 10-12 years.
We don’t sell books here but we know that little readers make great leaders, or at least have an open heart and mind and hopefully a lifelong passion for reading.
A book is a device to ignite the imagination. – Alan Bennett
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. – Neil Gaiman
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. – Franz Kafka
A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking. – Jerry Seinfield
A first book has some of the sweetness of a first love. – Robert Aris Willmott
A good book has no ending. – R.D. Cumming
A house without books is like a room without windows. – Heinrich Mann
A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Marcus Tullius Cicero
A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it. – Samuel Johnson
Books are a uniquely portable magic. – Stephen King
Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. – E.P. Whipple
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. – Henry Ward Beecher
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. – James Russell Lowell
Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home. – Anna Quindlen
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers. – Charles William Eliot
Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own. – William Hazlitt
Books were my pass to personal freedom. – Oprah Winfrey
Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. – Emilie Buchwald
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. – Mark Twain
I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book. – Groucho Marx
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. – Jorge Luis Borges
If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. – Toni Morrison
My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read. – Abraham Lincoln
My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter. – Thomas Helm
Never judge a book by its movie. – J.W. Eagan
No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. – Confucius
No matter what his rank or position may be, the lover of books is the richest and the happiest. – J.A. Langford
Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. – Harry S. Truman
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. – Frederick Douglass
One of the joys of reading is the ability to plug into the shared wisdom of mankind. – Ishmael Reed
Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape. – Nora Ephron
Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. – Joseph Addison
Reading takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. – Hazel Rochman
Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you. – Harold Bloom
So many books, so little time. – Frank Zappa
The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most. – Theodore Parker
The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. – Oliver Goldsmith
The greatest gift is a passion for reading. – Elizabeth Hardwick
The love of books is a love which requires neither justification, apology, nor defense. – J.A. Langford
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. – Dr. Seuss
The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. – Jane Austen
The wise man reads both books and life itself. – Lin Yutang
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. – Saint Augustine
The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. – Clarence Shepard Day
There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all. – Jacqueline Kennedy
There is no friend as loyal as a book. – Ernest Hemingway
There’s so much more to a book than just the reading. – Maurice Sendak
To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. – Victor Hugo
Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. – Margaret Fuller
What is reading but silent conversation? – Walter Savage Landor
When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue – you sell him a whole new life. – Christopher Morley
Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. –Vera Nazarian
You cannot open a book without learning something. – Confucius
You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. – Paul Sweeney