Natural Wooden Toys

A mom gives the gift of play to her children by crafting her own wooden toys

Learn Erin Freutchel's easy method for making Waldorf-inspired playthings

(LANCASTER, PA) A stay-at-home mom, Erin Freutchel, wanted to give her kids the kinds of toys that would inspire endless imagination and prove safe in a sea of plastic, mass-produced junk fills the aisles of so many stores. When she couldn't find what she was looking for, she began making natural wooden toys herself.

And with her new guide to crafting delightful designs, Natural Wooden Toys (Fox Chapel Publishing, October 1, 2010) you can too. Freutchel's new book includes 75 colorful toys that provide open-ended play and hours of fun - like a mama squirrel and babies, a 3-D castle, a dragon and cave stacker, a tractor and farm truck, a princess, volcano, airplane, ladybug wand, and much more. Kids will enjoy a variety of wooden toys with fairytale, forest, farm, ocean, and city themes.

Natural Wooden Toys includes cutting patterns and material lists for each design. A Getting Started section provides everything a reader needs to know about operating tools, where to buy used tools and wood, and non-toxic materials for staining and painting. The author also includes a sidebar in each chapter discussing the Waldorf theory of education, which encourages the use of natural, found objects, like shells and acorns, into play, and how you can incorporate these items with each toy.

About the Author:

Erin Freutchel is a stay-at-home mom with two young children. Concerns about the safety of her children's toys, as well as the low level of play and imagination they were promoting, led her to purchase a scroll saw on Craigslist and learn to make wooden toys from scratch. Her previous experience with a sewing machine made the transition to the scroll saw effortless. She began selling her creative, colorful, and child-safe toys on Etsy.com, and was chosen from over 2000 applicants to become a part of Etsy's 25-member Second Community Council where she represents the areas of toys and woodworking. As Erin put it, "I am evidence that your typical mom with very little familiarity with power tools can learn to make simple, safe, creative, open-ended wooden toys for their children."