They have had their share of plastic toys but mostly good quality toys such a Lego and also plenty of little metal cars, wooden and metal train sets , board games and jigsaw puzzles but many of their toys and gifts have been hand made from natural materials and meant to feed their spirits; head, heart and hands.
My two sons are now 21 and 18 but I have tried to go back over our Christmases and remember the gifts we made or handmade toys we bought that you might be able to make too.
Most of these things have been packed away for many years, well at least since the time that Kate stopped playing with them.
I am going over the boys gifts this week and the things we gave Kate next week.
Household toys become everyone's toys as the family grows and Kate of course played with most of her brothers toys too.
My children did not attend a Steiner/Waldorf school mainly because for many years the school here was so small and tended to implode every so often and eventually closed altogether but Kate went to a Steiner playgroup for a few years. I have always felt strongly that children should be allowed to be children, to have time to play, time to rest, time to be bored, time to grow, at their own pace and in their own way and the philosophies of Steiner early childhood education and their respect for the stages of childhood sat well with our own philosophies.
The list of gifts below reflects Stephen's and my own ideas about child development and the way the way we live our lives.
The focus of this list is hand made and home made but our children also always received lots of books and balls and bats and bikes and skittles and dart boards and all those kinds of things too.
 |
| the castle and knitted people |
The List - Homemade, handmade and handmade-ish things we have given our boys and their boy cousins over the years:
~ wooden barn with flap top lid and wooden animals and fences inside made by Stephen
 |
| the barn and some of the animals that Stephen made 20 years ago |
~ playmat with fields of different colours and an island with moat in the middle plus hessian and cardboard castle with knitted people, horses, a dragon and unicorn made by my friend Kate.
You can see something similar
here
~ mini quilt for chess or checkers
 |
| the checkers board quilt |
~ marbles bag with marbles
~ kite shaped rice bags
~ bag of wishing stones
~ stick with favourite colours ribbons on the end to run with
~ cardboard castle made by my dad
~ hobby horse
 |
| the king , the prince and the unicorn near the apple tree |
~ wooden rifle made by my dad
~ wooden truck made by my dad
~knitted jumpers, cardigans and hats for teddy bears
 |
| hobby horse |
~ special bought mug with hot chocolate makings
~ book of chocolate and candy recipes with candy thermometer and wooden spoon
~ a cactus plant
~ a homemade colouring book with photocopied pictures from various vintage colouring in books and line drawings from vintage story books
~ a big lump of clay and some clay modelling tools
~ some soapstone and appropriate carving tools
~ patchwork cushions in favourite football team colours
~ ball made from rubber bands
~ knitted gnomes
~ wooden treasure box
 |
| Nine man morris game |
~ elastic waisted trousers - many pairs in many colours
~ magician's cape
~ superhero's cape
~ pirate hat and eye patch
 |
| Jacob's ladder |
~ pixie hat and shoes
~ Santa Claus hat and beard
~ pirate flag
~ knights wooden sword and shield
~ reading quilt
 |
| the snuggly reading quilt |
~ tyre and rope swing
 |
| the acrobat bear |
~ small cardboard gnome house with a little wood and felt gnome family
~ the makings of chocbit cookies including a cookie cutter
~ a complicated wooden puzzle made by Stephen
~ felt finger puppets
 |
| finger puppets |
~ a collapsible carved castle bought at the Salamanca Market
 |
| felt animals |
~ hand made very beautiful kaleidoscope ( for the whole family)
~ tiny gnomes with beads for heads
~ very own chocolate cake to eat and share as they wish
~ wooden tic tac toe
~ wooden track made by Stephen for Brio train set
~ wooden Jacob's ladder
If you have any questions about anything on the list please just ask and i will do my best to answer.
A great things about toys you have made yourself or that are hand made is that you can repair then or even modify them if you need to.
The Rapunzel doll above was given a harsh haircut by Kate many years ago and then when she wanted the hair to grow again I sewed some new locks on.
Of course
I would have rathered the hair wasn't cut in the first place but it was easy to fix.
Lots of toy ideas cam from this gem of a book.
It is a Steiner/waldorf craft book that I think is popular in many countries.
It's very simple illustrations and lack of flashy photos are one the joys of the book. Everything in it works, everything I have made from this book has been a joy. It is suitable for older children as well as adults and our boys often used it to plan what they would make for Christmas and birthday gifts.
Another book is Toymaking with Children by Freya Jaffke.
This book is full of wisdom about the importance of play in children's lives as well as lots of projects to make.
I am having all sorts of problems today trying to put links in this post so I will have to add them later when Mr Blogger and my computer are having a better day.
A word about materials for your projects.
I think it is a goods idea , when you can , to use what you have around you rather than buy a whole lot of new stuff.
You will be surprised what you have if you have a good look.
The barn that Stephen built was made from various off cuts, the quilt and nine man morris game used remnants and bits and bobs.
You can use felted knitting instead of felt,
The reading quilt is made from the scraps from all the pairs of corduroy trousers I made the boys.
Another thing too is not to expect what you make to look professionally made, it might but it will most probably look hand made or should I say hand crafted but that doesn't matter.
If you want something that looks shop bought then you can buy it from a shop.
I'm not saying to be slap dash with what you do but handmade things will always look handmade,
that is part of their beauty
and they always contain the love and energy of the person who made them,
that is their magic.
Again, any suggestions, comments, links that can add to what I have written would be greatly appreciated and definitely added to next Thursday's post.
Comments and Links
In the comments last week we had suggestions and links so I have copied them below for you.
I also had an email from Jo who explained that she was making domestic goddess baskets with pot holders, aprons, tea towels etc for her grown up daughters but that could easily be suitable for all ages.
Kimara@weefolkart said... 
Posts
