Toy Making at Playgroup

At playgroup this week I set the mums up to make some farm yard fences.

 Here's what we used. The original cordless drill for drilling holes on the posts. A hand saw for cutting the posts and rails, sandpaper for smoothing all the wood, and beeswax for a lovely finish.

I'm never sure how the mums will take to my craft ideas. Most playgroups provide craft for the children, but from my experience they are just as happy to free play and watch/help mum make them a new toy. And what a great gift for a child , a mum made toy. And as a permaculture practitioner  and a steiner advocate toys made of natural products are so much the better. All the wood for these fences were collected from the farm. We used prunings from our fruit trees and some natives and fallen twigs from the gums.

They feel lovely to hold and took very little to make. When they are no longer wanted or break they return to the earth from whence they came. Compare this to a plastic alternative that takes a lot of non renewable energy to produce and doesn't break down once discarded.

Feedback about the activity has been good. Fences were taken home to complete, with the enthusiasm to make more.