Saturday 2 July 2011

Plastic.

Plastic is beginning to find a foothole in this 'ere house.
I ain't overly enthused, but it would be disrespectful to ignore Rye's interests, and quite possibly be delaying his development...

So, when Shell from My Handmade Haven advertised that she had toys she wanted to sell, I had a nosey.  Ooh lovely myriad toys and I did indulge a wee bit and requested the transporter below...... but Shell was also selling a huge banana box of duplo lego and a rather lovely cooker... I tapped my fingers, I'm ummed and arred and then I asked her to look into postage costs... and wow, about £12 to have the lot couriered to me!

So I splurged and my house is now awash with duplo lego, it's only a matter of time before there is a lego induced injury to this mama... which I'm reliably told is one of the rites of motherhood, lol.
 And there's the cooker.  Ooohhh, so lovely.  Yes I know already got a cooker, a perfectly servicable ELC one... for a while now though I've had the idea of setting up some play areas outside;  we have the sandpit area, there's the rug on the decking for various toys to be played with on it... and I thought it would be really nice to set up a "kitchen area" for the kids to play too.  I was going to buy one of the kids gazebo's to go over it, to give a bit of protection and shade, although I'm currently having fingers on chin waggling moments and re-thinking about that, perhaps I could make a shade.... 

There are a few other toys that are plastic that have made it into the house, and been snuffled away for Yule, a remote controlled 4x4 and a stunt hoop a hoop track for all those diecast cars Rye has accumulated from various charity shops.   Oooh and the bubble machine above, still that is a rather nifty contraption and did turn my garden in a bubble haven earlier, the colours of the bubbles shimmering and the kids running around.. it was quite otherworldly.  Beautiful.  And while Rye is slowing outgrowing many of the wooden toys... brio is not one of them, so I've treated him to a brio delux expansion set AND a brio remote controlled train.

I have always had some plastic, the sandbox toys are plastic..and I quickly discovered the sand can damage wooden toys  a LOT, so I picked up a few secondhand diggers, bob the builder vehicles etc from charity shops and they live in the sandpit, and then a couple of the ride ons are plastic - again second hand, the balls, space hopper etc.

Still indoors, it was wood haven, beautiful, new and secondhand wooden toys arranged on shelving and on the window sill... so beautiful almost ornamental.... and now my floor is covered with duplo.  Still, I thank my lucky stars, Rye is very rarely exposed to advertisements and because at home he only watches DVD's he has no idea about, er Ben10 is it?  And other toys like that, toys which do make me cringe because they seem so, I don't know, so brass, the colours jarring... so at least my home won't be invaded by that gawd awful stuff.  (Although I accept that one day he might want toys of that nature.... urgh, hope not lol)

Still, after the toy splashing out, that's Yule pretty much sorted, and for his birthday I'm seriously considering getting him a sit on digger for his sandpit,http://www.amazon.co.uk/Childrens-Metal-Garden-Sandpit-Digger/dp/B000LRZXLS/ref=reg_hu-rd_dp_img    If we get snow, I'm sure he will enjoy digging that as much as the sandpit...lol.

7 comments:

Fiona said...

I agree that the whole 'plastics or not' is a tricky conundrum. My girls also have lots of Duplo (all second hand), and play with it endlessly.

I used to think I would never allow plastic toys (en mass at least), but I have now learnt they can actually be a good thing too. Stuff like the Duplo is still 'free form' and encourages creativity and story telling.

My two spend hours building unicorn houses and fairy castles, and although they might be made of plastic they are still a joy to behold and our lives would be poorer without them.

So it would almost be narrow minded and short sighted of me to 'ban' such toys simply becasue they are not made of wood. But I also strongly believe that by buying 'quality' plastic toys (reusable, free form, long lasting, etc) we are still making a statement that we will not allow our children to be fobbed off with junky plastic things, just becasue they are 'themed'. We also don't have tv, so have managed to avoid all the current 'must haves'.

Liz said...

Lego is mosst definately in this house, great big boxes of it! Lego I don't count as plastic tat though as the creative side of it is endless! Wait til you get little 'grown up' lego OUCH it is really painful. My boys are currently Octonauts obsessed, a tv prog I don't mind as it always has a 'learn about a sea creature' type theme, but now the Octonauts are bringing out toys (little sub' type boats) and I think I may consider them for the boys as they already do so much imaginary play based on them being the Octonauts! Wooden toys are still used but I think that to deny them their choice entirely is, what's that word bandied about 'inauthentic', I may guide towards X, I may say a definate no to Y (guns right now) but at some point I surely have to honor their path and choice?

Unknown said...

oooh the toys look fab, i must say i have a plastic heaven here, fromfriends and relatives, although I am buying more wooden toys myself and slowly replacing. I ave had my eye on kitchen similar to the one you have just gotten, but at almost £80 i is a little too expensive right now

Jacqui said...

It is so hard to avoid - and I find that many of the beautiful wooden toys - particularly ones with moving parts tend to seize up quickly with the slightest drop is water. J took a dumper to the peat bank and it was soon being immersed in the bog - lol - lots of wd40 now required. Duplo is fab. So many imaginative games happen here with it - mostly involving long and complicated sea journeys at the moment xx

arwen_tiw said...

We have lots of lego (mine from childhood, some of it inherited from my Dad's childhood!) - but it works the same as the non-percussion instruments, ie it lives out of reach and I bring it out every now and again because I can't cope with it all over the floor all the time! I guess we have tinies as an excuse though lol, and started right on the small-size lego! We've had days where there was a wooden castle in the middle, with tree-block turrets and a pine cone forest, surrounded by lego cars and a little lego pyramid, complete with mummy in tomb... Lol I love it! Embrace the randomness. :)

Valerie said...

A sea of plastic is so difficult to avoid. I have read many posts on natural toys only and IMO the are sometimes a bit righteous sounding. Dont get me wrong, I love wooden toys and natural fibers, but some of us cant afford them. Plus as you say, we need to respect some of the child's wishes, no child lives in a bubble (or shouldn't). I am always reminded of my ex-husband who desperately wanted an 'action man' in the 1970s. His Dad was an old fashioned guy and said, no son of mine is playing with 'dolls'. His Mum told me he swapped his rugby ball for an action man and hid it under his bed when his Dad was around.
They find a way don't they lol
V
xxx

Joxy34 said...

Its the cheap noisy tat that tends to aggravate me the most. And I do prefer if I must buy plastic for it to be largely unbranded...but as Rye gets older and older, he will no doubt want things I can't stand, and we'll have to compromise.

And bless him when i asked him what he'd like me to make him for Yule.. he said a "snail" not quite sure what it is with snails, he's mentioned this a couple of times. Ok he did then go on to name all his cars/trains etc and ask me to crochet them too... lol. Instead I think I'll make him some scenes etc to go with his train tracks.