Does Anyone Else Love Green Toys? I Love Green Toys
The perfect, simple, and fun toys for your kids to play with when you don’t want toys that play on their own.
Disclosure, this post contains affiliate links. First, they were carefully chosen by me because I like the products that they link to. Second, if you use these links to buy something I recommended, thank you for allowing me to impact your life. Third, I may earn a small commission from that purchase. Fourth, I hopefully can buy a coffee with said commissions. Fifth, thanks for reading whether you helped me buy a coffee or not.
Do you find that many toy options for kids include so many bells and whistles that even you can’t figure out them, or even get through every button and lever to play every song or activate every light? You are not alone. Kids' toys get more and more complex. Sure we want our kids to learn at faster rates, but what good is that if the toys being offered play by themselves? Isn’t that what having friends for your children is for? Simple toys are the best because they allow a child to develop their own creativity and think for themselves.
Another issue is the waste from all of these fancy toys that kids discard after five minutes of usage before they want to move on to their next toy. Sometimes I wonder if there are more toys or more diapers that occupy our landfills. A great alternative that has been a part of the Montessori craze is to outfit your children with expensive wooden toys. The knock isn’t the toys themselves, but the cost. Making toys out of wood costs more, and the higher price point removes it as an option for those families trying to save a few pennies anyway they can.
Ok great. So we shouldn’t buy complex, blinking toys (unless they make you breakfast and do your laundry) because they don’t allow kids to learn to be creative and because landfills are now overflowing with useless robots, blinking things, and other toys with no staying power? Yes! Exactly! And we shouldn’t buy wooden toys because they are expensive and a part of a crazy? No, not exactly. Wooden toys are great and much preferred. But the next best option is toys that use recycled materials, like plastics before they end up in landfills. It’s great to see any company reusing plastics.
A company I have purchased many toys from is Green Toys. They bost that their toys are made of 100% recycled materials, they are made safely and proudly in the USA, and they are simple. Lots and lots of milk jugs given a new purpose. A truck can be a truck and your child can learn to make the noises on their own. They can imagine the lights and make the honking noises on their own, thus saving our landfills from the addition of many batteries. As a parent, you don’t have to fish around for new batteries all the time.
I also like that they have partnered with Sesame Street and Disney to incorporate their characters into some of the toys. Good for recognition between toys and a learning program. They also make a lot of toys for use with dough, and could certainly be used with the larger dough name brands. Now that my son stopped trying to eat the dough I’ll get him some of these next.
Thanks for reading so far. Here are a few of my favorites from Green Toys that have gone over well in the household:
Submarine
Perfect for bathtime or the pool. I use it in the tub to help rinse off the suds. My son likes to spin the propeller.
Fire Truck
The side ladders come off, and the big ladder can be raised up to reach the cats stuck in the trees. Or, my son likes to have his various play figures climb up them.
Recycling Truck
Right now, this is more of a transporter toy that my son stuffs his play figured in to go for a ride. He then dumps them out, excited by the back compartment lifting up.
Rescue Boat with Helicopter
Another fun toy for the bathtub. Any of these toys are fine getting wet since they are all recycled plastic. The propellers are fun to spin on the rescue copter, and my son likes to put different objects on the back of the rescue boat. The two included characters are fun to play with as well. The boat has a spout in the front to make it easy dumping the water out.
Train
Who doesn’t love trains? This one is bigger than most toy trains and easy and lightweight to push around. The top comes off the passenger car for more imagination and giving other characters a ride.
Car Carrier Vehicle Set
This is a great and safe step before a toddler advances to diecast Hot Wheels sets. Lightweight and easy to load and unload the cars from the trailer.
I have many others, like the School Bus, Seaplane, Dump Truck, Tractor, Airplane, and Elmos Wagon, but instead of posting pictures of them all, I encourage you to use your own imagination to determine which ones you might like for your child.
I think you get the picture that I like them a lot. My son definitely loves them. But maybe I am more into the toys than my son is. They are all the cool things parents love, such as lightweight, safe, easy to keep clean, dishwasher safe, and can be recycled (and they were already recycled once). They are also very durable as well. But most importantly, they are fun and my son loves playing with them.
Cheers to happy playtime!
