{In the photo above: Lexi’s first time hitting the drum properly (let’s forgive the whole “holding the drum stick by the wrong end” issue). And I caught it on camera! Amazing!}
What company comes to mind when you think of all wooden toys? For me, it’s PLAN TOYS!
Green company, green materials, green manufacturing.
Get this! They even skip the fertilizer three years before the rubberwood trees are cut to make the toys. How cool is that?
Formaldehyde-free glue, water-based paint without heavy metals including lead and lots of wood wood wood.
Before I got into this whole “mommy business” I thought wooden toys were for babies. Small teethers and blocks cut out of wood. Simple toys.
But you can make so much more out of wood than just things to teethe on.
PLAN TOYS spans the whole childhood: age 0 to 100 ( hey, some adults are just big kids).
We are talking…
Table of Contents
The coolest looking wooden food items:
and large scale wooden appliances
and dollhouses
Toys for preschoolers
and toys for babies
A whole city of wooden toys ( streets, signs, houses, cars)
We had more simple toys to play with.
What older infant doesn’t like a sorting cone, wooden blocks and a drum to bang on? I had such a blast taking photos of her playing with the toys, so you get a bit of a photo overload on this one. 🙂
At first I thought that these toys would be simple enough that you can get them from any company and pretty much get the same thing. It wasn’t until I sat down to write this review that I realized how unusual every item we got was. These weren’t just blocks, a drum and a cone sorting.
A WOODEN DRUM!
What can be simpler?
This drum however is divided into three parts with each giving you a slightly different sound. Maybe not anything a baby would notice, but give it a toddler and he/she will quickly realize that there’s music to be made on it. I love that pattern too. It looked perfect in our Christmas photos 🙂 Up until now, Lexi has been obsessed with the drumstick, but the day of these photos she actually started mimicking us and banging with it on the drum. It was so insanely adorable! I’ve got a future drummer growing!
WOODEN BLOCKS
Not so simple. Each block has a feature: a suncatcher or glass inside, some textured material, holes, a bell, a chime. Three auditory blocks, 3 textured blocks, 3 visual blocks, all in different colors, too. In the picture below you can see Alexis shaking the blocks to hear the chime in the red one ( she doesn’t realize the purple one doesn’t ring). Every day when we bring her into her playroom, she crawls over to the blocks picks up the red or the blue one and shakes them vigorously.
CONE SORTING
This one is for a slightly older baby, but it does entertain Alexis in a different way. At first glance,it’s a simple cone like you see everywhere, but it contains additional sorting wooden shapes inside, which seem to be more appealing to Lexi even more than the actual cone. We can’t assemble the cone fully, before she rushes in to grab the top of it and pull it apart. It’s become a way of getting her attention. If she doesn’t want to crawl over to one of us, all you have to do is assemble the cone and as soon as she hears it and see it being put together, she speed crawls over to knock it down.
And in this picture Lexi is saying:
“Have you bought your baby a PLAN TOY?”
Disclosure: Plan Toys sent us 3 toys to facilitate this review. All opinions are our own, as always.
Are these made in the USA? The website doesn’t state where they are made and wondering if its on the packaging. Thanks
I think they have a factory in Thailand. Check out their about us page.
My husband works for this company the are made in China and not as safe as one thinks.
I just looked it up. Their factory is in Thailand, so no, they are not made in China.
We have a few of these toys at home, and really love them! I’m all about wooden toys, and love finding brands that have such unique, fun items, but also are very eco-friendly.
Lexi looks adorable in that outfit. 🙂
Hahahaha that last photo kills me! We have been debating whether or not to get that drum for Christmas or save it for one of his birthday gifts. Love all of their stuff I have seen cant wait to order a few things
I love wooden toys! Thanks for sharing!!
We have the Plan Toys wooden baby walker, which is filled with blocks… my almost 10-month old LOVES it. He pushes the walker around everywhere, and is ALWAYS playing with the blocks. He’ll be getting more Plan Toys for Christmas 🙂
Also, I keep meaning to ask, but do you know anything about the IKEA toys? They have beautiful wooden toys that are very reasonably priced, but I’m wondering if they’re safe…
I dont Sarah!
I’m sure if you email or call their corporate you can get that answer.
I would imagine they are though. Ikea has the only non lead Xmas lights.
I was just reading about them yesterday the topic was PVC and phthalates and the article had only positive things to say!
Wooden toys are a nice alternative to the more common plastic toys.
The pictures are beautiful as is your daughter. Love you reviews on toy safety. Although I try my best to avoid plastic toys and any kind of contact with ‘unsafe’ components, I cannot help but wonder about the ingredients in a mother’s cosmetics and to what extent are babies exposed to them on a daily basis. How much is too much? Any thoughts?
Thanks xx
Oh yeah! Make up is no good. I finally just recently managed to switch my main make up to at least stuff that is phthalate and paraben free. But make up is much tougher than just buying safer toys. I think that if we are talking about our babies being exposed to our personal products, what is important to switch is the foundation, lotions and creams and definitely perfume (those are full of nasty stuff). The rest in my opinion is negligible exposure.
I live in india n v v keen to buy plan toys. Pls help…