Play food might seem like an odd concept as an adult, especially as we tend to discourage children from playing with their food. But there are many many benefits to the type of imaginative play that play food or a toy kitchen encourages.
Playing with wooden food stimulates the imagination while also incorporating real-life skills, making it the perfect educational toy. Children get to have fun pretending to be mum or dad, chef or shopkeeper while learning about different foods, practising their fine motor skills, and developing problem-solving and reasoning skills.
The range of wooden play food available is amazing and you can find the perfect treats for every imagination whether they want to cook up a feast for mum and dad, throw a tea party for their dolls, go on a teddy bears picnic or open up their own grocery school or cafe.
Having a great range of play food can also help your child learn about different foods and encourage them to make healthy choices and try new things in real life. Plus the creativity and experimentation they can have in their own kitchen is great for boosting confidence and self-esteem.
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Why choose wooden play food rather than plastic
Wooden toys have a number of advantages over plastic toys and many of them apply to play food as much as they do to anything else.
To start with wooden toys are timeless and durable.
So many of the wooden toys available today resemble the toys we and our parents played with as children. They have a timeless quality about them that comes from the natural feel and texture of the wood and the fact that they are not dictated by the latest fads or technology.
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Wooden toys are also far more durable than plastic toys. Plastic fruit and veg are easily squashed if sat on by your toddler whereas wooden toys will last for generations. (Although it’s worth noting that wooden toys from generations ago may have been painted with lead paint that we now know to be harmful.)
Wooden toys are more tactile than plastic toys. They have a weight to them that requires children to be more intentional when they play, and they connect children to nature even when they are playing indoors.
Wooden play food is safer for both our children and the planet
Sustainably made wooden toys, painted to stained using non-toxic paints are both safer for your children and better for the environment which, considering our current situation, we all need to be thinking about every time we buy something new.
All our toys are made by ethical suppliers and many are made from rubberwood which is a waste material from the rubber industry. Trees are harvested when they stop producing rubber and new trees are planted in their place.
Wooden toys are beautiful.
This might not seem like a particularly important thing to think about when you are buying toys but even if you have a dedicated play area that you can shut the door on you are still going to have to look at them every day. And so are your children. There’s a stunning range of toy picnic baskets and other play sets out there that will look fantastic in the nursery
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