Playing With Nature

May 21

Flow Play Mat by Marieke Lienau

Sum­mer is almost here and it’s time to go out­doors and have some fun. We live in the coun­try­side and my kids love play­ing in the gar­den. Savannah’s into mak­ing per­fume from rose petals right now and Miles wants to build a new den.

Sound famil­iar? Chil­dren sel­dom get bored if they can explore out­side, in the woods, a park or even a mar­ket gar­den. Of course, not every­one has access to green spaces or sun­shine all year round. Rainy days can be long and frus­trat­ing, but there are plenty of sim­ple, nature-inspired activ­i­ties and games for them to play indoors.

Here are a few that recently caught my eye…

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Traveling Light

May 16

BUM travel chairs for charity by UM Project & BAGGU

The min­i­mal BUM stool by BAGGU and UM Project (avail­able from Lin Mor­ris) fea­tures a nat­ural can­vas seat, maple base, and brightly-colored shoul­der strap. All pro­ceeds from the sales of the travel seat go the to Brook­lyn Recov­ery Fund for local Hur­ri­cane Sandy relief efforts.

Lean To for Camping by Scout Regalia & Reunion

This fab­u­lous camp­ing lean-to by Scout Regalia & Reunion, also avail­able from Lin Mor­ris, quickly & eas­ily con­verts from cov­ered shel­ter to open air.

The per­fect acces­sories for trav­el­ing light this summer—love!

Small Friends for Small Folk

May 15

Playmobil-inspired DIY Soft Toy by De Rien Madame

Small is beau­ti­ful, so they say. In my expe­ri­ence, lit­tle ones can learn great things from play­ing with their minia­ture friends. We’ve all dressed up peg dolls, held tea par­ties for plushies, fought never-ending bat­tles with mini toy sol­diers or soothed teddy with a night­time story, haven’t we?

Although I love quirky vin­tage wooden dolls I’ve been mak­ing the most of my secret pin­ter­est boards to curate a small col­lec­tion of mod­ern mini folk that I hope your lit­tle ones will enjoy…

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Play Kitchens

May 06

Play Kitchen for Kids

As you already know, pre­tend play has many ben­e­fits. While doing things exactly like mom or dad, your child devel­ops his/her cre­ativ­ity, ana­lyt­i­cal skills, log­i­cal rea­son­ing but also com­mu­ni­ca­tion and social devel­op­ment skills.

Play Kitchen for Kids

Play kitchens are among favorite pre­tend play games. Here are a few of our favorites…

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Milan Design Week 2013: Modern Design For Kids

Apr 09

Father Moose, a 9ft tall moose with bookshelves and a place for kids to read, hide, and sleep.

Any­one with an inter­est in design knows that Milan is the place to be this week. Today marks the open­ing of the much-anticipated fur­ni­ture fair and Fuorisa­lone 2013, which—for the third year running—includes Kid­sroom­ZOOM!, the most cel­e­brated children’s design event in Milan.

So what exactly is Kid­sroom­ZOOM!? In a nut­shell, it’s a unique cel­e­bra­tion of mod­ern art and design for kids. Orga­niz­ers Paola Noé and Thomas Maitz def­i­nitely have their fin­gers on the pulse of the children’s design indus­try, and they always sur­prise with a beau­ti­fully curated selec­tion of mod­ern fur­ni­ture, decor, toys, and art.

Kid­sroom­ZOOM! is all about intro­duc­ing and show­cas­ing new, excit­ing tal­ent. I always dis­cover some­thing inspir­ing there, and this year is no excep­tion. Here are a few favorites…

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The Art of Balance

Apr 05

Las Sillas Chair Game by Ludus Ludi

Phew! Yet another dead­line that I only just man­aged to meet… As adults, par­ents, and pro­fes­sion­als, we all know how life can some­times feel like one big bal­anc­ing act. Every day we per­form mul­ti­ple roles, jug­gling count­less respon­si­bil­i­ties and mul­ti­task­ing to per­fec­tion. The to-do list only gets longer, and time is never on our side. (Insert Machi­avelic laugh here!)

So, all work and no play? I hope not. Learn­ing to unwind, for­get the rules, and think out­side the box is essen­tial to main­tain­ing that all-important equi­lib­rium we all strive for. Play can be ther­a­peu­tic, edu­ca­tional, and fun–at any age. Here are a few picks from the beau­ti­ful & mod­ern Ludus Ludi col­lec­tion of toys, designed for both lit­tle and big kids alike.

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Modern Playthings Inspired by Children’s Art

Mar 08

Turn your child's drawing into a toy! Pictured - "Woody" by Gregory, age 5

What can I say? One look at “Woody” and I’m con­vinced kids are the world’s best design­ers! Imag­ined and drawn by Gre­gory, age 5, and then mag­i­cally brought to life by Zut Créa­tion Tex­tile in France, Woody is quirky, fun, and quite wonderful.

Children’s art­work is a con­tin­u­ous source of inspi­ra­tion for cre­atives across the globe. How can we best encour­age our kids to draw, paint, or color? How can we give them the free­dom and con­fi­dence to exper­i­ment and express them­selves? A group of promis­ing young design­ers set out to tackle this issue, and here are a few of the clever ideas they came up with…

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Where Did You Get That Hat?

Mar 05

Eco-Felt Robin Hood Hat, available for $10 from Tiny Disguises on Etsy

Let’s rewind thirty years, shall we? I’m audi­tion­ing for drama school in Lon­don, and one of my future teach­ers presents me with a big box of mar­velous hats. “Pick one, then you have five min­utes to pre­pare a sketch,” I’m told…

As my teacher knew, hats are mag­i­cal things. You can become any­one you want to be when you put on a new hat. Rein­vent your­self and feel trans­formed, just for that brief moment when you’re wear­ing some­thing dif­fer­ent on your head.

I’m sure you all have or had a dress-up box for your kids at home. We’ve been col­lect­ing stuff for years, despite attempts to spring clean, and while princess dresses and super­hero capes come and go, our hat box is sacred. I mean, you never know, Mom, really…

Party hats, car­ni­val cos­tumes, acces­sories to cre­ate bril­liant disguises–welcome to the Land of Make Believe. I do hope you’ll play along with me.

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A Small Learning Curve

Mar 04

Big Tilt, a seesaw that seats 4 from PlyPlay Designs

Rock, roll, slip, slide, tilt, twist… that could almost be the title of one of Tana Hoban’s children’s books, couldn’t it? It sounds like a lot of fun any­way, unless those are fur­ni­ture design specs and you have to add a sev­enth and slightly more bor­ing “sit” to the equation.

What makes a great kid’s rocker? I’m no expert, but I love the nat­ural beauty of wood and I’m always on the look­out for well-designed toys and fur­ni­ture that blend seam­lessly with the mod­ern home. Min­i­mal, smart, and pleas­ing to the eye, here are a few of my favorite vin­tage and con­tem­po­rary rock­ers. Enjoy the ride!

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And They Call It Puppet Love…

Feb 27

Hand Puppet by Renate Müller

I’m in the mood for a few nice pup­pets (I have Dad­dy­types to thank for that). Last week I noticed Greg Allen’s post about a small col­lec­tion of Renate Müller’s toys in the Son­neberg Toy Museum, Ger­many (her home town), and I was pleased to see a cou­ple of sim­ple hand pup­pets and pup­pet the­aters among them.

Renate Muller Skittles Toy

Like Rachel, I have a soft spot for Renate Müller’s hand­made jute and leather ther­a­peu­tic toys, and find col­lec­tor gems like these hard to resist. Until I look at the price tag, that is – sigh!

Keep read­ing…