Product Review: Poppy Baby Co Wooden Toys

Hey guys! Today let’s talk TOYS! With the holiday season upon us its easy to get sucked into the vortex of buying tons of toys simply because they are on sale or just regularly cheap. Sometimes a flashy, loud toy will catch our little ones eye while walking through a store and the next thing you know, it’s found it’s way home with you. Before you know it, that toy has already found a spot on the back of a shelf or at the bottom of the toy box, never really to be played with again.

I would be lying if i said that I haven’t made an impulse toy purchase or two, because I definitely have. I try my hardest to be intentional about purchases, especially when it comes to toys for my little one because they can truly be an investment or a waste. Besides, who wants to waste money? Not me.

Toys fall into two categories: open-ended and close-ended.

While close-ended toys are great for encouraging task completion and building attention, they usually aren’t going to entertain your little one for months and years to come. Close-ended toys are toys that have a specific end point. Think of a puzzle, book or shape sorter. Once your little one completes the puzzle or reads the book, it’s done. They might complete it a few more times, but beyond that they will likely lose interest and move on to the next activity or toy they see.

Open-ended toys are the opposite of close-ended toys in that they don’t have a definite ending point. Open-ended toys are designed with imaginative, creative play in mind. These toys can be used in many different ways and really promote pretend play, expanding language and encourage interaction with others.

While both types of toys provide important benefits to your child, if you’re looking for “bang for your buck,” a quality, open-ended toy your child can play with in many ways will last a lot longer than a shape sorter or puzzle in my opinion.

With that being said, I was beyond thrilled to come across Poppy Baby Co and browse through their assortment of open-ended, beautiful wooden toys! They were also beyond generous to gift us three of their beautiful toys to review and share with all of you!

Here are the toys I chose from their site:

-Montessori Color Sorting Wooden Toy Peg Dolls in Wooden Pots- Set of 12

-Classic Wooden Blocks for toddlers, 36- pieces

-Rainbow Wooden Beads Lacing Toy

Let’s start with the adorable Montessori Color Sorting Wooden Toy Peg Dolls in Wooden Pots, shall we?

I instantly loved this toy the moment I saw it simply because of the countless hours of imaginative and open-ended play I knew it would promote. These little dolls are hand-painted with water-based paint, made of beech wood and fit perfectly into little hands.

Aside from imaginative play, i’ve found these dolls to be a fantastic way to encourage the development of hand-eye coordination, sequencing, counting, color matching and sorting.

My little one was immediately drawn to these little peg dolls the moment she saw them. Being almost two years old, she’s loving to learn and identify colors. She loved taking each doll out of its pot, stating what color it was and then immediately placing it back into it’s corresponding pot. I would even take it a step further by removing all of the peg dolls from their pots, “mixing” them up on the table, and then asking her to “find the yellow doll” and “put it back into the yellow pot.” I did this with all of the colors and she loved the challenge! I also love that as she grows older she will be able to play with this toy in SO many different, fun ways.

The next toy provided are these adorable handmade 36-piece set of classic wooden blocks. In my opinion wooden blocks are simply a childhood staple. Almost everyone has had a set of their own blocks because much like the peg dolls, the possibilities of imaginative play are endless!

I can literally recall countless hours i’ve spent as a child building castles, houses, bridges and everything else under the sun with my own wooden block set. If you’re looking for the creme de la creme of open-ended toys, a classic wooden block set is it in my opinion!

This 36-piece set from Poppy Baby Co comes in it’s own wooden storage box with slide-on lid (in the photo below you’ll notice the box is placed on top of the lid). The blocks are also made from beech wood and safe for little ones to chew on without fear of splintering. Each block is individually sanded until smooth and various shapes are included in the set as shown below.

If you’re looking for a timeless toy that will not only nurture your child’s imagination and creativity but also help facilitate their gross-motor coordination, these blocks should be added to your shopping cart immediately.

Poppy Baby Co offers five different wooden block sets to choose from ranging from a smaller 20-piece set to this 36-piece set. They even have a set that is composed of five different types of wood and comes in the various natural colors of the woods!

Our third toy from Poppy Baby Co is this adorable Rainbow Beads Wooden lacing toy. This toy comes with seven large beads and like the other two toys discussed above, is hand-painted with a water-based paint, made of beech wood and is sanded until smooth. These beads are also the perfect size for small hands to hold and manipulate.

Much like the wooden peg dolls, I loved how this toy could encourage learning and identifying colors! This particular lacing toy also promotes the development of fine-motor coordination, dexterity and problem-solving.

My little one definitely loved the challenge of lacing the beads and required some assistance from Momma for the sequencing at times, but it kept her attention and is a toy I feel she will definitely enjoy mastering with continued practice!

In regard to the prices, I found that they were as to be expected for handmade, wooden toys. They aren’t going to be as cheap as majority of the plastic, flashing toys you see on a Target shelf. Personally, if viewed as an investment and something that you know your little one is going to actually play with for YEARS to come, you won’t feel the sting of spending a little more for a quality, heirloom item.

Here are the prices for the three toys discussed above:

-$41.00- 12 Montessori Color Sorting Wooden Toy Peg Dolls in Wooden Pots

-$42.00-Classic Wooden Blocks for toddlers, 36- pieces

-$17.00-Rainbow Wooden Beads Lacing Toy

In a nutshell, if you’re looking for beautiful toys that are educational, open-ended, and won’t end up at the bottom of a toy box, I highly suggest browsing through the selection that Poppy Baby Co has to offer! Thank you for reading my review and I hope you also learned a thing or two you might not have known about toys! Now click on the link below to check out Poppy Baby Co’s site!

XO, Nikki