Melissa and Doug Wood Blocks

Melissa & Doug are one of the better known wood toy companies. You can often find this brand in major retail stores as well as online. This company has a wide variety of wood toys for babies and toddlers. You can choose from simple wood block sets or musical instrument sets, or surprise a toddler with an elaborate wood doll house, puzzle or shape sorter sets. Melissa & Doug's classic ABC/123 blocks are a very popular gift for toddlers.

Wood blocks may not be as sophisticated as some toys we find in stores or on TV commercials, but they are ideal for learning because they involve the child as a whole. How they move their muscles, the way they discover how different objects feel in their hands, the way they think about spaces and shapes, and the way they develop thoughts and interests of their own.

Apart from wooden painted blocks, dolls and miniatures made out of wood are also quite an interesting option as toys for children. The wooden dolls are mainly of two varieties - hand made and machine made. Hand made dolls are crafted out of wood and given different shapes of miniatures including animals, birds and dolls etc. Hand made wooden dolls are mostly colored again manually and those who love more natural and earthy type of toys would appreciate this variety more. In fact the pre historic excavations have shown that even in those times man was capable of crafting wooden toys like miniatures, dolls and even vehicles with small details like rotating wheels etc. The machine made wooden toys are certainly more sophisticated to look at and the intricate details can be achieved in an easier way than in the hand made toys. Earlier on, it was carts that were common wooden toy vehicles now of course it has given way to more sophisticated looking cars.

Home-made toys are generally longer lived than store toys because the boy or girl who expends a certain amount of effort producing gives them better care. Home-made toys have a greater value than boughten ones because there is as much
fun making them as playing with them. Doing something interesting, getting satisfying results out of the work, putting an idea into tangible form, and having a toy to show of which it can be said,"I made this all myself," these are the factors
in toy-making so fascinating to boys and girls.

It is no less a child's nature to want to do that which is most pleasing to him, than an adult's, so why not encourage this wholesome activity of toy-making to which the child takes as readily as a duck takes to water ? It trains the mind to think clearly, the hands to work cleverly, replaces destructive thoughts with constructive ideas, and, in making the boy or girl dependent upon himself or herself for toys, is invaluable in developing resourcefulness. Recognizing how easily the child's interest is attracted and held by anything of a building nature, toy manufacturers have placed scores of so-called construction sets upon the market,but,though excellent as these outfits are, the toys they form are merely assembled, not really made by the child and much of the value of making is lost. Furthermore, there are many, very many toys in HOME-MADE TOYS FOR GIRLS AND BOYS which are beyond the limited possibilities of construction sets.

The wooden toys available today can be divided into two categories. One category consists of classic wooden toys that have remained a favorite of kids all over the world since time immemorial and modern wooden toys that have essentially been conceptualized in the recent past. The other consists of the new generation toys.

It does not take a lot of effort to list out the popular classic wooden toys. These invariably happen to be the first toy that a kid ever plays with.

The most popular classic wooden toy that has attained iconic status is the wooden rocking horse. No person, no matter how old he is, will ever forget the joy of riding the wooden rocking horse. All of us, at some point of time in our childhood, have climbed on the wooden horse and imagined ourselves to be adventurers. This toy was and remains the most popular classic wooden toys of all times.

If the boys move on to wooden soldiers and wooden vehicles after they outgrow the wooden rocking horse, the girls move on to wooden doll houses, wooden kitchen play sets, wooden doll furniture, and wooden puppet theatre.

All these classic wooden toys remain very popular amongst a majority of the kids in the world today. Despite new technology games intruding in our lives, the innocence of the dolls and doll houses simply refuses to fade.

Another popular classic wooden toy is the wooden train on the wooden tracks. Nothing matches the thrill and excitement of watching a train run on its tracks.

One classic wooden toy that is the favorite of all kindergarten school teachers is the wooden building block. Wooden blocks can rightly be described as the key that unlocks the imagination and creativity of the children.

The best thing about the classic wooden toys is that they are so exquisitely simple. It does not take a lot of effort to understand how these toys work. Yet, kids never seem to tire with these classic toys.

Kids play these toys for years and years and yet these toys succeed in retaining their charm. The reason why classic wooden toys are so popular is that they never try to entertain the kids themselves. They are simply means to an end. They are the tools in the hands of the kids who entertain themselves using their creativity and imagination.

It is the girl who visualizes the wooden doll as a living person and builds a whole world around the doll. The doll is merely an object and that is the reason why such classic wooden dolls are so helpful in the development of the kids.

Another popular classic wooden toy is the 'Yo-Yo'. Now this is a no brainer. This toy has redefined the meaning of fun for innumerable children. Further, this toy helps in the development of the motor skills and reflexes of the children.

Despite modern toys, kids still swear by classic toys because of their simplicity and the scope of freedom that such toys offer to the kids. All can have fun by playing with the classic toys.