The feel of a wooden toy is magnificent. The simplicity and tradition of the crafting ties generations of people together. We are thrilled to have some new and timeless toys from Maple Landmark here at MightyNest.
Mancala, shown below, is a beautiful and fun game to have at home. Leave out on the coffee table and you'll be sure to have impromptu games happening in your house. Beyond the aesthetic bonus of the object, playing also allows your kids to practice their counting, while they scoop up and deposit the smooth, colorful glass stones into the hand carved wooden wells.
The word mancala means "to move" in Arabic. The game of mancala consists of moving your stones around the game board and capturing your opponent's stones. The player that ends up with the most stones at the end of the game wins the game.
The satisfyingly smooth Soma cube is also new to us. A cousin to the plastic rubik's cube, this one is the subtle, minimalist type, void of any chemicals too. Based on an ancient brain-teaser, the soma cube is a challenging puzzle for both children and adults. There are seven unique shapes that combine into a simple cube and luckily there's more than one solution. The pieces also form a variety of 3 dimensional shapes.
My first train is perfect for the kid eager to move 
wheeled objects around the house. Easy to roll over all sorts of flooring and under furniture and through imaginary worlds. Made from locally sourced maple, this train is 2 feet long when connected! Since the cars connect with "knuckle hitches", it's easy for little hands to coordinate the linking of each of the 4 cars. This train can also be towed on the 24" wooden stick that accompanies the toy.
As always, we feel comforted knowing that the little hands handling these toys for hours on end are safe from toxic chemicals. Wooden toys also tend to be passed down to future generations. Do you have particular wooden toy that your family cherishes?
