Loving Our Local Toy Library
Over the weekend we visited a different Toy Library (still within our Local Government Area). It's much larger than our usual Toy Library so it was fun to see more toy options!
Our Toy Library has a range of toys for children from birth to around 12 years. It includes puppets, dress-ups, ride-on toys, outdoor toys, construction toys and a huge amount of educational toys, puzzles and board games. ❤️
I love the concept of the Toy Library and wish it was available in every Council area. It has the real potential to expose children to new learning opportunities and also relieve the financial pressure on parents and other caregivers to provide toys for their children. The Toy Library promotes social cohesion and a circular, shared economy.
Otto (4yrs) gets a lot of enjoyment from selecting new toys to try and I'm more than happy to say yes, even to toys I wouldn't normally pick for him. If they don't suit or are too easy or too hard, we simply return them!
Despite what it looks like in these pictures, the Toy Library was super busy. Our libraries have only just opened after lockdown and restrictions. Generally, I allow Otto to borrow what he chooses but sometimes we negotiate, especially with the larger toys.
The downside is we need to be really careful and not lose any pieces from our toy library toys. We take good care of our toys at home but I worry with some of the larger toy library toys that we may lose a piece or damage a box.
Our Toy Library is a part of our local Council Library, so access is always incredibly simple. The Toy Library requires a separate borrowing card and we pay a small joining fee.
We can borrow eight items at a time. Let's see what we've borrowed and enjoyed!
We live near the beach so this surf rescue puzzle is relevant. Our Toy Library has a good range of wooden, photographic and realistic puzzles suited to young children. These puzzles are expensive to buy and are often used at child-care or educational centres, so it's wonderful to be able to borrow them and use them at home.
A Dinosaur matching game.
Ladybugs Early Number Cards and Ladybug Counting Stones.
The cards come in varying difficulties and I love the nature themes used.
This game is fabulous. It's Combino by Hape (AU). There are wooden boards and acrylic tiles. The child needs to match the acrylic tiles to the board. I presented only one board and the eight matching acrylic tiles above. As the acrylic tiles can also be flipped, the child really has to think to position and match the tile correctly.
Camelot Jr (4yrs+) is another fun game for cognitive development. It comes with a booklet including 48 challenges (and solutions). The child places the blocks from the challenge so that the Knight can get to the Princess. The challenges vary in difficulty. We also love Castle Logix (3yrs+) which is similar but for younger children.
This is Build-A-Saurus. The child builds Dinosaurs using the construction pieces.
Our Toy Library has games by First Nations Peoples. These are Sea Creatures Dominoes by Sisters Dreaming.
Gears, Gears, Gears (looks the same as this set). We won't be returning these anytime soon!
These are fantastic and I absolutely recommend them. Good gears toys can be difficult to find, but these work smoothly and were easy to put together. Otis (10yrs) loved playing with them too.
Previous Toy Library articles include:
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