#whatwoodyouplay

We love toys in this house – as anyone can see from a quick look around our living room! We have all sorts of toys, but by far the favourites are always the wooden toys. They tend to be more durable, more sturdy and less noisy than their plastic counterparts.

Don’t get me wrong – we love our noisy, lights-up, sings-a-song/dances-a-jig toys too – but there’s just something about a well made, painted wooden toy isn’t there? Plus, you can’t accidentally knock the toy box at 3am and set off a cacophony of wooden toys!

We were delighted then, when George Home contacted us to ask if we’d like to try out one of their gorgeous range of wooden toys. Of course, we said yes!

george-asda-wooden-train-set

We chose the wooden train set and table, which retails at £75. When it arrived my sister and I put the table together while S was at nursery, and then rushed off to collect her. I wish I’d taken a photo of her face as she came through the door; her coat didn’t even come off before she began playing.

george-wooden-train

This is so much more than just a train set! The table has a built-in drawer so that you can put all of the track etc (90 pieces) away… but if I’m honest, none of it has made its way to the drawer yet – we’re too busy playing with it!

As well as a train with two carriages that link together magnetically, there is also a crane with a magnet which lifts the loads off the truck (above) and the train. It also lifts the helicopter onto the helipad. S is in love with this!

wooden-train-set

As well as a train, trucks and helicopter there’s a boat, a bank, a police station, street lamps, a digger, trees and bushes and wooden people…

wooden-boat-toy

… as well as all of the wooden track, and the background printed on the table top!

wooden-train-set

The absolute best part of this is watching S play with it!

playing-with-wooden-train-set

The people talk to each other; the trucks bump into each other and chase each other around the track. The crane shouts at the trucks for bringing the wrong load to him; the helicopter shouts at the crane for… whatever he feels like; he’s the helicopter and he does what he likes!

wooden-train-set

See? That helicopter lands wherever he feels like landing. Even on top of a bridge. Nobody tells him what to do. I think he probably knocked the bank over (in the foreground) before he flew up there too.

wooden-train-set

I’m including this photo from a different day because I just love the look on S’s face. She really gets into playing with the toys, and it’s so wonderful to hear her shouting away to herself.

This train set arrived last Monday, and S did not watch TV for that entire week. She didn’t even look in the direction of the TV. On two mornings, she was downstairs in her pyjamas before 6:30am, playing with her train set.

The great thing about a toy like this is that S is 3 now, and can enjoy just running the vehicles around the track – but as she grows, she will still enjoy imaginative play and role play. She can come up with more elaborate stories for the vehicles.

Wooden toys never go out of fashion; I played with wooden toys when I was little, and so did my parents when they were small. They last longer too; you can bash them about, they can have crashes, drop onto the floor or fall down the stairs and the worst that will happen is a little dent or paint wearing off. No splits or smashes or cracks; no ruined toys!

I’ve a feeling we’ll be getting more wooden toys for Christmas this year.

Do your children play with wooden toys?

For some great toy ideas, check out this guide to the best wooden toys for kids from My Kid Needs That.


Vicky Charles

Vicky is a single mother, writer and card reader.

3 Comments

Sabrina (The Mummy Stylist) · 08/10/2015 at 14:57

Ahhh I love this! My boy Tyler is a huge fan of wooden train toys, he would love this. I didn’t even realise George/Asda did wooden train tracks – that is good to know. Now we have somewhere else to go shopping for them! Sabrina xx

    Vicky Charles · 09/10/2015 at 08:34

    I hadn’t realised either! They’re really good quality and I think the drawer in the table is a clever addition.

Colleen M. Story · 10/10/2015 at 21:26

So true, Vicky–the wooden toys are really cool, and anything that distracts from the television is a good thing! Looks like a neat train set. :)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.