Wooden Toy News

Every generation believes that they had it harder than their successors. How does that Monty Python sketch go again? “When I were a lad…” etcetera etcetera. Consequently, it would be easy to think that children today have a much easier life than their predecessors. Our current Secretary of State for Education certainly seems to think so: he believes our children don’t work hard enough or long enough, so we should extend the school day and shorten school holidays. Well, I’m not any kind of expert in educational matters, but there are two very experienced teachers in my family and I’m pretty sure they don’t think it’s as simple as that. Here at WoodenToyShop we think it’s just as important to let our children play. Continue reading →

There comes a time in your life when you have to take a deep breath, roll up your sleeves, count to ten and then fix something. I remember my friends saying to me when we were students, “You can’t go through life never having wired a plug!” Well actually, I think you probably can avoid that particular task these days, but every now and then a floor board needs screwing down, a paint job needs touching up or a bannister spindle (it has happened to me) needs replacing. Whenever I am scratching about under the stairs trying to find my tool box, I think about how much I would have appreciated a Melissa and Doug workbench as a little boy. Continue reading →

Food and eating can be a thorny issue for parents of young children. Some kids will eat everything put in front of them, whereas others (and hands up, I was one of these) don’t seem to like anything at all. How my mum and dad put up with me pushing every little bit of food to the edge of my plate and crying “can’t swallow it” I will never know. If only I was so circumspect with my diet nowadays. Apart from maybe a joke fried egg, I can’t remember if we had play food as children, but it occurred to me recently that this could have been a great help to my parents. Continue reading →