All natural toys and art/craft supplies
I’ve been on the hunt for all natural toys and drawing/crafting supplies for our kids ages 7 and 2. I found some really great products and websites that sell them. I’m all about supporting companies that don’t promote the “made in China” toys. With all the recalls and other safety issues with excessive lead etc found in toys made in China, I have changed gears to find safe but fun alternatives to the commercial toys.
I found a website called Stubby Pencil Studio for great art supplies and cards that the kids can color and decorate themselves. All the pencils are eco-friendly and non-toxic. When our order came, our kids were so excites to color with the triangle colored pencils and the funky looking monkey pencils. Our son wanted to take them to school right away. I had also ordered crayon rocks and our 2 year-old was so excited to color with them. Be sure to supervise your little one with these if he/she is under 3 years old. The colors are beautiful and they fit her hands very well allowing her to color beautifully. I highly recommend this website for all your art supplies.
I wanted to make a hand-made birthday crown for our 2-year old. (She is turning 2 in just a few days). I was looking for 100% wool felt. Not the awful polyester kind at the fabric stores. I found some great websites such as Nova Natural and Child’s Dream Come True. I ordered some naturally dyed felt from Child’s Dream and it was beautiful. Also the felt pieces from Nova Naturals were very nice and perfect to work with. I had also ordered all natural play dough from Child’s Dream and our kids love it. It’s so easy to work with and I really like it because there are no chemicals in it. There is no reason to buy the commercial Play Dough when you have healthy alternatives like this. I can highly recommend both websites for your crafting supplies as well as some natural and very beautiful toys.
Toxic toys
In the awake of the recalls happening with toys made in China, I’m glad to have replaced a lot of our children’s toys with non-toxic wooden toys. It can sometimes be a challenge to find good quality wooden and non-toxic toys that hold the child’s attention like the plastic junk counter parts. I’ve found some websites that really help with shopping for a good quality heirloom toys that hold the child’s attention and grow with the child.  Websites like oompa, moolka and Nova sell brands from all around the world and the toys are really neat. Also FAO has a good search tool to search for toys based on their country of origin. I’ve studied about the different standards in toy manufacturing and have found that the European Union is a lot more strict with their standards than the US standards are. Since I’m originally from Europe I tend to search there for answers. Toy brands that I can highly recommend are HABA, Bajo, Kettler, Brio, Kathe Kruse and my new favorite Plan Toys.


