Choose Natural Toys (no batteries included!)

Natural toy shops are to be found in many towns, and focus on dolls, games and toys made from natural materials. Basically, you don’t have to press buttons to make toys ‘do things’, instead encouraging creative play without batteries (which are choking hazards too). Of course, no toys should be left alone with children.

But look for brands that carry proper safety kitemarks, to ensure they have no parts that can be swallowed, and are treated with nontoxic paints, and also made sustainably.

Green Toys (made from recycled milk jugs)

Green Toys is a US brand, but with good safety caveats, and a best-seller over the pond. It basically recreates all the usual favourites (plastic ducks, boats and toys along with ‘buckets and spades’) but makes them out of old milk jugs, rather than support the new plastic (oil) industry. Everything’s packed in cardboard, printed with eco inks.

This company is quality. It doesn’t cut corners (so no glues or screws) and the toys surpass standards for safety and environment.

The site has age guides and safety info by product. The tool set (for girls or boys) includes a tool box, two screwdrivers, a hammer, saw, wrench, pliers, two 2-hole connectors, two nails, two bolts and two nuts.

Safety for Children’s Toys

Mentari (natural toys from reclaimed rubberwood

Mentari Toys is a quality brand of children’s toys, made from reclaimed rubberwood in Indonesia. Rubberwood is basically the reclaimed wood leftover, from making latex. And for every tree grown for the rubber industry, these Indonesian workers plant another one.

Wooden toys are designed to last for generations, and help to stimulate a child’s imagination and cognitive/motor skills. The range (which includes age guides per product) includes:

Stacking Dinosaurs will give all children hours of fun, not just those who live near the Jurassic Coast!

They will have hours of funning trying to balance Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Iguanodon and Pterodactyl, before stacking them away in their own cotton drawstring bag for next time. Coloured with non-toxic water stain.