Plan to Have Plan City Toys

I must admit that I have been guilty of coveting. I have been enticed, if not lured by the subliminal messages that melodically stream out of those bright, multicolored, battery powered toys often advertised on television.

Why, every child that plays with these plastic creations is happy! They appear to play with the toy for hours (or at least 30 seconds) and these supposedly educational toys promote early walking. That's good right? (For more information on the IMPORTANCE of crawling, read Crawling: Is it Important? by Madeleine Fitzpatrick.)

I clearly remember the first time my imaginary toy broke and I became aware of the deceiving depiction that plastic toys solve all the woes of young children. A former student's mom showed some surprise over my baby registry. She wanted to know where the wood toys were.

She shared fond memories of wood toys under her Christmas tree enabling hours of open-ended and delightful play that was not xeroxed the following day. She never felt like she was losing her mind, because there was no repetitive song that played. She didn't contribute to the landfill with toxic batteries (yes, I know that rechargeable batteries exist, but they don't last NEAR as long.) Her house didn't look like a toy store. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem admitting that children live in my house, but it is nice when the toys blend in with the furniture. And her toys, wood toys, could be passed down to her grandchildren because they were durable and not made with toxic chemicals that had been recalled 20 years prior.

So . . . my curiosity was tweaked. However, I learned too late of the wonderful world of wood toys. I had opened all of the presents from various baby showers.

I began asking for wood toys for each birthday and Christmas. Our first introduction to wood toys was from Plan City. We got the coolest wood Jeep track. Five years later, it is still one of our most used toys (and it has had a few additions!)

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