Best Waldorf toys?

[mamaUK]

Hello!

I am brand new to this concept...I have been rejecting buying plastic toys for the past year b/c I thought they were all so horrible and after lots of research about creative play I found out about Waldorf and am so happy to realise that children don't 'need' to have all the plastic toys in the toy shops::
As I have not been buying anything for the past year (my girl is three)we hardly have any plastic to get rid of, she hardly has any toys at all!!! So at least I won't feel guilty about throwing away stuff...and my DH can't have a go at me for wasting money!
My question is what Waldorf natural toys should be top of my list to buy, I don't have heaps of money so I will have to build up a nice selection slowly over the year.
What do your children love to play with????
Thank you for any help you can give me!

[Oriole]

I'm not a traditional Waldorf parent, but I love Waldorf toys:

Dirt Cheap:
* Baskets with pinecones, shells, river rocks;

A little more expensive:
* Tree blocks, regularly shaped wooden blocks, all kind of blocks
* Knitted or felt fairies and gnomes
* Wooden trucks, cars, animals
* Sewn or wooden foods

Pricey:
* A doll / family
* A wooden catsle with knights, horses, farmers, etc.
* A wooden barn with barn animals
* A wooden tree-house with fairies

Artsy:
* Crayons, wax, construction paper.

[yukookoo]

playsilks - you can get the silk pretty cheap online and dye them yourself with kool aid

stacking arches, blocks bowls at nice and very open ended.

honestly, dd is 1 and doesnt want anything to do with her very nice waldorf toys and new playstands she wants anything electronic in the house, books to rip apart and eat nd loves the plastic toys she sees at playdates and friends house.

[cat2116]

Hi,
My kids are 4 and 2 and these are a couple of their favourites:

-playsilks (we use these on the nature table and for dressing up)
-Stacking toys
-baskets (seriously my DD carries these around all day.)
-A Doll
-cars and trains
-kitchen stuff, pots, pans, play food, iron etc.
-Beeswax crayons (pricey but last ages)
-outside...a sandpit and a little garden where they grow their own veg and flowers.

Also I noticed your user name, are you in the UK?

http://www.myriadonline.co.uk/index.php -is a lovely site for waldorf toys etc.

[mamaUK]

Originally Posted by Oriole

I'm not a traditional Waldorf parent, but I love Waldorf toys:

Dirt Cheap:
* Baskets with pinecones, shells, river rocks;

A little more expensive:
* Tree blocks, regularly shaped wooden blocks, all kind of blocks
* Knitted or felt fairies and gnomes
* Wooden trucks, cars, animals
* Sewn or wooden foods

Pricey:
* A doll / family
* A wooden catsle with knights, horses, farmers, etc.
* A wooden barn with barn animals
* A wooden tree-house with fairies

Artsy:
* Crayons, wax, construction paper.

I'm so inl ove with the Ostheimer figures..........................but they are just so expensive, I would love their Forest Animal selection!

[mamaUK]

Originally Posted by cat2116

Hi,
My kids are 4 and 2 and these are a couple of their favourites:

-playsilks (we use these on the nature table and for dressing up)
-Stacking toys
-baskets (seriously my DD carries these around all day.)
-A Doll
-cars and trains
-kitchen stuff, pots, pans, play food, iron etc.
-Beeswax crayons (pricey but last ages)
-outside...a sandpit and a little garden where they grow their own veg and flowers.

Also I noticed your user name, are you in the UK?

http://www.myriadonline.co.uk/index.php -is a lovely site for waldorf toys etc.

Yes, I'm i the UK.Before I found this forum I had found this website and ordered the catalogue, the things are adorable, I have just started a new thread listing the play basics I've chosen

everyone has been so nice and helpful on here!
Thank you!

[blumom2boyz]

Part of being Waldorfy also means less is more, so don't feel bad about not having a lot of toys for her.

My boys regularily play with their trains, cars, and their marble works. They also like to dress up, sometimes in costumes and other times in daddy's clothes. We recently got a Melissa and Doug food set from Toys R Us (with a certificate) that includes several pieces of food that is velcroed together, a knife and a chopping board. That toy occupied all three of them for nearly the entire day!

[Attached Mama]

As far as the wooden animals, barns, dollhouses go, you can make them soooo easily with a simple scroll saw or table saw and scraps of wood. You'll invest about $100 in a saw and get many hundreds of dollars worth of toys out of it.

For the animals, you just draw the shape on the wood and then cut it out with the saw. We like to copy the expensive Waldorf toys we see.

For a barn, think a little bookshelf shape with one shelf near the top and then a pitched roof. You can cut doors into the sides. Seriously, they can be so easy to make. Dh hadn't done any woodworking since Jr high shop class several decades ago.... and he's figured out how to make all sorts of things. Tonight he's making dd a doll house similiar to the one in Nova for her birthday which is tomorrow. I guess I'll have to sand and beeswax it *after* she gets it.