When we built our little glass-house, we used lots of 2x4 timber for the frame and rafters. The offcuts from these were lying around for a while and destined for the wood stove, until we came across the idea of making some attractive play blocks for the kids.
Christmas was coming along and with it, the threat of more plastic toys appearing in the house unless we came up with some alternatives that would be at least as entertaining for our youngest.
Have you ever looked in the plastic “recycling” skip at your local centre…it’s not pretty…nor is it very recycle-able. So trying to avoid more of this stuff in the world is worthwhile also. Although we didn’t have strong feeling about plastic toys in the beginning, as time goes on and we watch our kids use the various toys that have appeared, the simpler and more natural ones seems to engage them more. Play blocks are one thing they keep going back to. Making these was great fun. We had to do it after the kids were in bed in the run up to Christmas. Some websites say that food colouring will work for this, but we tried it and for the timber we were using it just didn’t take. Also you want something that will be safe to suck on and won’t slowly come off on small hands. Liquid Watercolours however worked really well and gave the blocks a very appealing bright colouring. We plan to add more to this set in the future as wood working projects provide.