For example take the wooden steam train sold by www.GreenOwlToys.co.uk.  The cargo on its wagon is separate to the wagon. Inside is a bell and ball which is perfect as a rattle. This is great for 6 month baby to hold and manipulate.  It also provides stimulation to sound and movement. As the baby grows you can introduce the train.  By 18 months your child will be able to say “choo-choo” and have endless fun pushing/pulling this gorgeous Wooden train around. Plus it has an interesting way of moving. Have a look at this video: Wooden Steam Train in motion.

Another type of growing toy is the window stacker, sold by the same company, has a starting point between 18 months to 2 years. First of all its a stacker. This type of toy develops the childs hand-eye coordination. Then it aids in language: saying and recognising colours.  All the while it is a great alternative to the standard building blocks.

Children love to play. Playing with toys encourages their imagination to develop. But what else can it elicit? It can do wonders to help with their social skills.

While Babies and Toddlers are playing they are continually learning about the toy and the environment they are found in. Playing with their toys have different persons have different social environments. A toddler playing an adult gives your toddler plenty of practice to feel confident and to naturally interact with you. Listening to him and praising him builds their confidence. Being confident encourages social skills and language. Play time with an adult encourages good behaviour and better playing skills.

Babies playing with babies is particularly a rare thing to witness. Toddlers are only interested in playing with other children at 3 years old. Prior to this they are very happy playing and entertaining themselves and find no need to interact.  But by 3 years old it is important for toddlers play with their peers.  Playing with other children teaches them about society, their role in society and more importantly how to get people to listen to you and the importance of listening to others. These skills are very important in life as good friendships are based on these very fundamental skills. The topic of : “social skills for preschoolers” is a topic that is taken very seriously at Preschool and Nursery.

Toys that elicit interaction are most toys but mainly fall on role play toys, for example, work benches, toy kitchens, fireman sets, cars and dolls.  Games can encourage turn taking where they learn that every person has a chance and that sometimes you get earn a point, sometimes you don’t.

However, if we are to focus primarily on the materials used to make a toy a “Green Toy” then there are several in the market already.

One such material is wood. Wood is recyclable and can last for many years.  The best wood to use is ones that originate from forests that are under the Responsible forest management.  The toy would bear the FSC or PEFC mark.  FSC is an international, non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world’s forests. The FSC runs a global forest certification system with two key components: Forest Management and Chain of Custody certification. This system allows consumers to identify, purchase and use timber and forest products produced from well-managed forests.

Another is cotton, cotton can also have the organic logo.  Cotton becomes organic in the way it is grown. Organic cotton growing is intended to establish a balanced ecological system: organic farming and environment-friendly fertilizers preserve the fertility of the soil and protect the ground water.

And lastly, the use of biopolymers and recycled materials in plastic products contribute to ecological sustainability.

All of the toys in Green Owl Toys Ltd are green because of their material that is used to make them.  The dumper truck is green in the materials used and green in the function of recycling it provides.  Even the building bricks are made from eco-plastic!  Its good to think about the world around you and how it may effect others.

There are many views on this. TV in some ways can make your child go into a “sleep-like” trance and actually gain nothing while watching TV. This kind of state is useful only when you are tired, terribly sick or mum/dad have to get on with the cooking or DIY and it is too dangerous for children to be involved.

Science experiments

However, the scooter now has a challenger…the balance bike!  It made me wonder what was all the hype behind balance bikes? I stopped a couple of mothers to understand a little more:

“Jake had very little confidence on his cousins bike when he first tried so we bought him a balance bike. He loved it! He could keep his feet close to the ground for reassurance without the pedals getting in the way. He soon got used to the “wobble” which happens on both kinds of bike.  When we bought him a proper bike – it took him 2 or 3 tries and off he went! “ – Lisa mother of 2.

“Oh Sally has had a balance bike since she was 2. When she was 4 she went straight to a bike without stabilizers and had no problems riding it. But as you can see she still loves her balance bike and rides it on lovely stretches like this.”  – Natalie mother of 2.

I did not hear any negative views about the balance bike. So I did some further research.  Most balance bikes are made of wood and generally bought over the internet.  When you search there are quite a few to find and its difficult to decide which ones to buy.  The 4 categories to consider are: from which age, seat, weight, and design.

Age: I would suggest to go for the smaller bikes with adjustable seat height ( where the lowest setting of the seat is 30cm from the floor).  In this way your child can grow with the bike and not wait to grow to the height of the bike.

Seat: Aha! I think this is what defines a good balance bike to a mediocre one.  Here is where the reviews of products on the internet come in very handy. Some seats on balance bikes have a wooden base on which a padded seat is placed on. The wooden base seems to make the seat wider and makes the childs’ legs stick out the sides.  It might be a thought to find a seat without the wooden bit.

Weight: Wooden bikes feel great to ride but wood is not light, aim for the lightest possible bike.  They are only young .

Design? Well, there are many designs to choose from and I think this is up to personal taste.  Maybe to keep in mind: the bike needs to be slender for their legs to sit naturally on both sides, keep it looking fun for children and possible easy to get on and off.

There are many balance bikes out there for everyones tastes but one thing is for sure every child reacts with the same, sheer excitement and eagerness to ride their very own bike!

At first young children’s drawings may look like scribbles, however this in fact is called markings and this is first step to writing.  As children become more co-ordinated and their perception of the world develops, their drawings become more representational as well as more detailed. Once children have gained this co-ordination and also understand that symbols can have meaning, they will be ready to start recording. As with reading, early years settings can give children the desire to record. The word ‘record’ is being used rather than writing as , at first, children should be given opportunities simply to make marks and have a go at ‘writing’ for themselves. This is often called emergent writing.

A great tool for those very first scribbles are large chunky pencils. The ones where they wrap their fingers altogether around the pencil. Pencils with vibrant colours encourage more scribbles and fun in seeing what they have drawn.  Jumbo pencils are perfect for this they have a great little bump on ones side that stop the pencils from rolling off the table.

The European Union’s Council Directive 2009/48/EC on the safety of toys limits the use of 19 types of heavy metals, while only eight types were restricted by the previous regulations. During toy testing, the new regulation includes 57 articles where previously there was only 16. Due to this new testing machines will need to be acquired. It also forbids the use of 55 allergenic fragrances and limits the use of 11 others for the first time.  This is the toughest regulation toy manufacturers have seen so far.

What does this mean for the consumer? The consumer can trust the production of toys more however, this may come at a cost.  For retailers it means its easier to be aware of the dangers. Green Owl Toys Ltd has always been on the look out for quality and safety.

The next text I am going to lift directly from the article made by the BBC – you can find the full article on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14012541

“Stricter rules on toy safety will come into force this month making it easier for consumers and authorities to trace the origin of toys.  Under the new rules, importers will be responsible for ensuring that toys they bring into the EU are safe.  Contact details must also be carried on packaging.”

Green Owl Toys Ltd, has always been concerned on the safety of toys and the regulations the head office has on its factory.  In one of our earlier documents we mentioned it is easier to have control on a factory that is just round the corner than a factory based in another country.  We have sourced our products where the designer and factory are in the same location.  This is both beneficial to safety and carbon footprint on the product.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman will announce proposals to extend a voluntary code on cutting packaging on toys after an official review of waste policy. She has invited toy makers to join a working group aimed at cutting down on packaging. The packaging should go straight into the bin and recycled.

This follows on from my original article about Green products. One of the 4 issues of a “green” product is the packaging of the toy.

There are a few companies that are thinking of the environmental impact their packaging has. One of these companies is Bajo.  Their toys are all green and all their packaging are easily recyclable.  No plastic is used  - there is a window to see the toy and see it “as is”.  The products are all wooden so they are pleasant to even look at and once touched you can feel their great quality and care given to each toy.

There are factors of:

~ What the toys is made of: Wood, Bamboo, card, from FSC sources

~ What is the production cycle : from collection of raw materials, to end result of the toy

~ What the toy represents : Does it teach about recycling or fuel efficiency

~ How it is packaged : Is the packaging made of recyclable materials

As long as the toy falls under one of these categories it is thought of as “Green Toy”.  I will write about each topic separately.  Green Owl Toys Ltd is continually watching these factors when purchasing toys.

“Children with a history of reading problems at school entry scores significantly below average on reading in year 5.  As well, children that shows very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored similarly low on sentence reading in year 5. ”

J Learn Disabil. 1999 Sep-Oct;32(5):464-72. found on http://www.child-development-guide.com/

So how early do you start?  Well, good question! There aren’t any good guidelines but I would start to introduce books when they are still fun and easy to follow because of all the lovely pictures. All the early years books have got pages mostly with pictures, or beautiful pop ups or touchy-feely pages.  These kind of books make these static pictures fun and interesting. As they grow older and the books have more words and less pictures they will be hooked onto the imagination books inspire and create. Books are great fun and its easiest to show them from a young age.

The preparation for this  can be done in 3 main ways:

• By developing children’s hand-eye co-ordination
• by helping children to hold pencils and other drawing tools
• By providing plenty of opportunities for children to draw and record.

One idea is large drawing.  Drawing at a large scale can be done on an easel or on easel paper or drawing on the ground with Jumbo Chalk. Jumbo Chalk is thicker and stronger than the ones used on chalkboards. Use Jumbo chalks to draw circles, lines and zigzags. Here the motion of the arm emphasises what the child must do with his/her hand.

When reading a book, (this is best with books you have read many times) –  don’t actually read the words but talk about the pictures.  Create a conversation where you ask questions about the figures in the picture and let your childs’ imagination run away with the words he/she knows.

Or play charades!  Yes, there are now games geared for the younger children and even younger who haven’t learnt how to read yet!  Its great fun watching them laugh and giggle because they cannot say anything.  And even their proud faces when you have guessed something they are trying to express! Now you might think how is this improving language well … how to explain… it is a fun way to reinforce their language they already know.  Making them to think how to solve a problem or different ways to express the same word. They are practicing and learning without knowing it.

Be prepared to work hard in not saying the answer to soon so that they work hard on the word.

Sustained shared thinking involves the adult being aware of the children’s interests and understandings and the adult and children working together to develop an idea or skill.  The adult shows genuine interest, offers encouragement, clarifies ideas and asks open questions. This supports and extends the children’s thinking and helps children to make connections in learning.

The interaction can be fun and a great way for the parent to realise how their childs’ mind works or how much they can really comprehend. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much they understand and how developed their analytical mind is.  Typical games you can play with toddlers are memory games (memo), peg boards, puzzles and board games.

The article “Puzzles for kids – how do they benefit” gives more information about which puzzle is best.

Great toys that exhibit these qualities are stacking toys.  There are many types of stacking toys that is with or without a central stick – The Carmen Stacker is a great example of a wooden stacker with a central stick. Please see this great video of the excitement she brings.  Or you can get stacking toys that fit one into another like the Rocket or Pyramid. They need not be simple stacker with only method of stacking them. Variety is very good seller like the Clown stacker.

There might not have been much talk about it in the years when you and I were kids because times have changed. We are now more aware of bacteria and germs and have quite a few products that we use on our surfaces to kill them. We can even buy a little bottle of “Hand Gel” which “Kills 99.9% of bacteria” to carry in our handbags!

Messy play might be taken out of our kids “everyday” way of life. Due to this change we need to introduce “messy play” into play. This need not be a big task from yourself – it can be fun and everyone can enjoy themselves. Some centres now have “messy play” sessions or you can make one in your own home. (“Children and Family Centre”).

Messy play is useful for children to feel and touch. To understand different textures and feel comfortable with their environment.

There is a great little pack of finger paint that you can buy that does not stain most materials. (lets face it – if you want the vibrant colours some white shirts will just hold onto those colours). The Giotto range of finger paint have a great paint mixture that looks after your surfaces. Get involved and enjoy the squishing, smooth paint between your fingers and feel how it tickles your feet when you paint it on.

Other types of messy play can be found in this article.

Go on! You’ll love it

Salt dough is brilliant because it is totally made of natural ingredients.  If your child decides to taste it – it would not harm them!  All they would do is pull a face from the salty taste.

Salt dough is great for creating decorations. Instead of buying something in the shop, mix up the salt dough with the kids. Then cut up the dough with dough cutters.  For this time of the year, the shapes would be of Easter Eggs or Bunnies or Chicks.  Don’t forget to pierce a hole at the top of the shape while it’s still wet. This is so that you can put a piece of ribbon/string through it and hang it up. 

And now for the great household arty Salt dough recipe:

Salt Dough Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup cold water

Directions: In a large bowl, mix table salt and flour together. Gradually add 1/2 cup of water and mix to desired consistency. Knead the dough on a flat surface, adding a few more drops of water as needed (but not making it too moist).

Once the dough is made, roll it into 3mm thick pieces with a rolling pin. Use dough cutters to cut into the shape of your choice, and place the shapes on wax paper or other surface to dry. If you want to make hanging ornaments, pierce the dough through with a toothpick while it’s wet.

Allow the shapes to dry for about two days, turning them over periodically to speed up the drying process. You may need to re-pierce the hole several times during the drying process. After the shapes dry, you can use a fine grit sandpaper to gently smooth any rough edges.

If you would like to speed up the process:  you can bake them in the oven at 100 degrees C  until hard. Baking times varies depending on oven and dough thickness. Make sure the dough is completely baked. You can cover the dough with aluminum foil if it starts to darken before completely baked through.

Painted objects should be sealed on all sides with polyurethane spray or clear varnish to make them lasting gifts or keepsakes.

But for them to learn what they really mean, they will need a lot of repetition. Encourage them to count with you to get the word formation correct and the numbers said in the right order (1,2,3,4,5  and not  1,6,7,4,9!)   Using nursery rhymes is very effective.  It  makes it fun to sing and it reinforces what children are taught in PreSchool.  There are so many new things to learn but if words are linked to a melody it is so much easier to remember.  The most common counting nursery rhyme is “One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Once I caught a fish alive”.  A fun nursery rhyme is “One, Two Buckle my shoe”

One, two, buckle my shoe.
Three, four, shut the door.
Five, six, pick up sticks.
Seven, eight, stand up straight.
Nine, ten, a big fat hen!  (cluck, cluck, cluck )

If you are looking for something new:  this is a good nursery rhyme with which you can practice counting and have a visual representation of the numbers: (found on http://www.brighthub.com/education/early-childhood/articles/77949.aspx)

Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed (children hold hand in a fist)
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest. (put thumb and fingers up one by one)
They grew and grew (raise hand in the air very slowly)
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP! (children clap hands together)

Here is another good poem I found in a “BookStart” booklet given to UK Parents of 2 year old children. I think it is a great way of showing that numbers is all around us and is easy and fun to practice:

Numbers are fun!

Do some counting every day
It’s a clever way to play.
Numbers are fun so count with me
let’s start slowly, 1, 2, 3

Two bright eyes
and one little nose
How many fingers?
How many toes?

Count the flowers by the gate.
Count the peas upon your plate.
Count the ducklings near a boat.
Count the buttons on your coat.

Keep it easy 1,2,3,4
As I get bigger add some more
If we do counting as I grow
what big numbers I will know.

Happy singing!

For example, my first child takes forever to eat a meal but eats all types of food. My second child will eat quickly but is very selective to which food to eat. How is this possible?  I thought that maybe this selective eating habits was because they went through slightly different process of getting onto solids. Or maybe my approach was a bit different to the second child, trying to compensate for the falls of the first child, that I have now ended up with eating habits so different.  But by talking to other parents I am not so sure.

A few years ago, a friend of mine continuously complained that her child never ate vegetables. I thought “how strange” but then I had a few evening meals with them and noticed that they themselves did not include vegetables in their meals.  Then you wonder from what example did the child have if their parents did not eat vegetables. The child might think “well, if they don’t, why must I?”.   Another family complained that their child claimed not to eat anything white. So… no potatoes, no rice, no pears, no apples…. “Wow!”, I thought, “That is quite a profound statement for a 4 year old”. Then I met the child’s grandparents and they said that their son (child’s father) never liked the same things. And then the penny dropped.  Children learn by example.

So now I am back to my second child, what am I doing that shows that eating vegetables or fruits is bad? Myself and my husband eat everything I cook – and I try to have a carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables present at every meal. I eat fruit most days too.  So where has this behavior come from? Have I ever said anything wrong? Or is it like the doctors say that “if the child:  isn’t ill and/or doesn’t look unhealthy and/or functioning well – all is well and you should continue as you have been.  When the body will need the extra vitamins then the child will start to eat vegetables and fruit”.

Well, as a mother I cannot live on that theory alone or else I will live in a bottomless pit of guilt at every meal time.  So I try every now again to introduce vegetables and fruit on the plate with meals.  In between that, I hide the vegetables in the potatoes and pasta – it works 90% of the time. I am now introducing smoothies with fruit in it. I am trying but I don’t know how long can I go on like this…?  I am starting to think this is not a habit of my second child - just … I have a VERY picky child on my hands.