Wooden toys can be the closest to perfection. Why Wooden Toys Are Ideal for Children’s Development? Toys made from natural materials inspire our little ones to create their own worlds by providing a healthy, safe, and inspiring environment for children in Montessori education.
Considering that the first discovered toys were also made of wood, natural materials are always the most durable.
Up to 40% Off Melissa & Doug Toys: Perfect Picks for Toddler Development!
They help children focus
Research shows that play and learning environments containing natural elements like wood help children concentrate, focus, and even calm down more than other types of environments. Specifically, physically touching wood soothes children, implying that playing with wooden toys could have a neurological effect on a child’s brain.
A study by the National Institutes of Health in 2017 found that “contact with wood leads to physiological relaxation.” In an age of overstimulation and constant input, toys that support a quieter and more sustainable play environment can be extremely beneficial for young children and their cognitive development.
More use = fewer toys
When it comes to toys for overwhelmed babies and young children due to too many options, less is often more. The minimalist spaces of Montessori and Waldorf homes and classrooms demonstrate this philosophy in action; they tend to have narrower, more versatile, open-ended wooden toys.
A study in 2018 gave a group of newly walking children two different play environments, one with 16 toys and the other with only 4 toys, and found that “when measured with continuous play and various play styles, newly walking children had a higher play quality in the Four Toy condition compared to the Sixteen Toy condition.”
Children naturally form closer bonds with toys and delve deeper into their play when there are fewer things to choose from. The open-ended nature of wooden toys allows children to create their own play styles and spend more time with a single toy.
They encourage creative play and teach cause and effect
The toy market is filled with flashing lights, vibrant colors, screens, and loud noises. While such features provide instant gratification for young children, they also shut down opportunities for problem-solving and creative play.
Wooden toys, being simpler, also support cognitive milestones that flashy ones cannot. For example, around 9 months old, babies begin to understand cause and effect more clearly: hitting a block on the ground makes a sound, dropping one makes it disappear. A wooden toy like a block set or a simple puzzle distills this concept: “When I do something, it results in something else happening.”
Wooden toys provide a beautiful, tactile, open-ended “canvas” for a child to explore at their own pace and on their own terms. Extra bells and whistles that could instantly make other toys more appealing tend to restrict and direct how children play with them.
A quiet entry into the real world
Toys serve as an introduction to how the physical world operates in many ways: they are the first objects children touch, put in their mouths, and play with. Simple wooden toys offer silent, calm lessons on physics, cause and effect, object permanence, creativity, problem-solving, and many other fundamental subjects.
Yes, a determined baby or a walking toddler can make noise with anything, but wooden toys are often quieter and support a more tranquil play environment than the noise of many plastic toys (not to mention lights and motion).
They inspire
Wooden toys are perfect for creating new worlds from scratch. Blocks and other wooden toys can be transformed into anything a child desires and can follow a child’s development from simple symbolic play to complex imaginative play. Montessori practitioners (like many other educators and caregivers) argue that simple, natural materials often provide more meaningful and sustainable engagement.
Whether children are building a city, assembling a wooden car, or laying down a train track from room to room, they can use their burgeoning imaginations to build, invent, fix, believe, and create.
They introduce children to math and physics
The original STEM toy, stacking and balancing wooden blocks, requires manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and tons of fine motor precision. They also support important skills for learning math, such as pattern matching and recognition.
Without magnets or connection systems to lock blocks together, children must focus on coordinating their hands and eyes to build and balance different elements. They learn early physics lessons when a tower falls after the 6th block is placed or when a ball rolls down a ramp.
Sustainable Toys
There’s a reason why wooden toys are the most donated, passed down, and inherited toys. With proper care, you can preserve your wooden toys for a long time.
Montessori encourages young children to explore toys and objects in their own way; for babies and toddlers, this may involve repeated mouthing, throwing, and rolling. This means safety is a significant consideration when choosing toys: which ones will stand the test of time and remain safe as they age? Wood is among the safest materials nature offers for babies and children.
They’re Beautiful
Aesthetics may or may not be high on everyone’s list of toy selection criteria, but beauty is important when choosing toys that will last a long time. Whether painted, stained, or left natural, wooden toys tend to be visually appealing as furniture, art pieces, and other objects. The Montessori philosophy places great importance on physical beauty: clean lines, attractive (but not overly bright) colors, and delicate arrangements support a calm learning environment. Wooden toys often fit naturally into these spaces, as they can be stacked, easily cleaned, and aesthetically pleasing to display.
Here some wooden toys for one years old kid.
Buy on Amazon – Rainbow Balls in Cups Toddler Montessori Toys for 1+ Year Old Kids
Ulanik Rainbow Balls in Cups Toddler Montessori Toys for 1+ Year Old Kids Wooden Matching Game for Learning Color Sorting and Counting — 7 Balls, 1.18 in
Buy on Amazon – Wooden Educational Toys for Age 1 2 3 Year Old
Toddlers Montessori Wooden Educational Toys for Baby Boys Girls Age 1 2 3 Year Old, Shape Sorting Toys 1st One First Birthday Girl Gifts for Kids 1-3, Wood Preschool Learning Fine Motor Skills Game
Buy on Amazon – Wooden Hammering Pounding Toy for 12+ Months Kids, Montessori Toys for 1+ Year Old Babies
IDWILL Wooden Hammering Pounding Toy for 12+ Months Kids, Montessori Toys for 1+ Year Old Babies, Early Development Toy with Pounding Bench, Xylophone, Number Sorting Maze, Gifts for Toddlers Age 1-2
