The Creative Toy Shop

One of the things I love most about social media is its ability to create real communities and bring people together. I'll probably never be a "famous" blogger because I don't subscribe to social media strategies such as follow threads, follow/unfollow on Instagram or automating my social accounts in order to grow my numbers, I much prefer to keep things real and develop proper connections with real people, even if that means I don't have as many followers as others. I've made some wonderful friendships with other ladies from all over the world thanks to my Facebook page and Instagram account which was one of the main reasons why I started blogging in the first place. Being a stay at home mum can be lonely a lot of the time and having these connections can make it feel a lot less lonely.

One of the lovely people I've met on Instagram is Brianna from Notes From a Home Educator. Brianna is an in home educator who works with a family of four young boys. She shares the activities they do each day on Instagram to inspire other educators and parents. I share a lot of the activities I do with bub each day on Instagram as well so I've been drawn to similar accounts and Brianna is one person I've developed a friendship with over the last year. She's so generous with sharing her ideas and is constantly inspiring me with her activities. As of this past weekend she's also now opened her own online store selling beautiful educational toys, activity guides, printables and resources. I'd secretly love to do the same, but I'd want to keep all the toys for myself bub, so instead I'll feed my toy addiction by buying from her.

The The Creative Toy Shop stocks gorgeous educational toy brands such as Magna-Tiles, Tegu, Hape and Grimm's {amongst others}. You all know by now I'm a sucker for wooden toys, right? Hape and Grimm's are two of my favourite high quality wooden toy brands so needless to say I now have a huge wish list from her store {don't tell T}. Bub's been lucky enough to add the Grimm's portable doll house to our ever growing wooden toy collection and I dare say we'll probably add more Grimm's toys in the future.

Grimm's are a family run wooden toy brand from Germany, made most famous by their iconic rainbow stackers. They also make a number of other stackers, puzzles and dolls. A common theme across all Grimm's toys is that they're very open ended to provide numerous different learning opportunities, depending on how children choose to explore them. I have to admit back when bub was little I was a big fan of literal toys that had an obvious {and most of the time singular} purpose, most likely because my ocd makes me want to do things the right way and not deviate much from that. Over the past few years I've changed my views and now fully embrace open ended, multi-purpose toys because I've seen just how much they inspire bub's imagination, which brings about many play experiences my literal adult brain may never have thought of. This is one of the reasons why I'm currently replacing all bub's plastic toys with wooden ones.

The Grimm's portable doll house makes the magic of pretend play portable so children can enjoy it anywhere without having to move a heavy doll house from room to room. Bub's had fun playing with hers on her activity table, in the lounge room and even outside. I'm almost certain it'll make a trip to grandma's house soon as well. I just need to get better at making sure it gets packed away after she's finished playing because I'm constantly finding pieces all over the house.

The doll house is made from lime wood coloured with non-toxic water-based dyes. It comes with 14 different pieces that all stack together within the carry case. Pieces include a bookshelf, sink, oven, chairs and table, as well as arched pieces that can be used as beds, walls, sofas {or bridges as bub sometimes does}. Each time bub plays with the doll house it's been in a different layout with different pieces being used as different furniture. As it's so open ended and transient kids wont lose interest as quickly as they would with traditional dolls houses or more literal toys because they're limited only by their imagination. There's also a blue/green and neutral version available because dolls aren't just for girls, just like cars aren't just for boys...

I'm so happy for Brianna as she embarks on this exciting new venture and I hope its a huge success for her, no doubt we'll be helping her with that by shopping up a storm. Make sure you check out the printables section for heaps of downloadable worksheets and puzzles to use at home.

Are you addicted to toys like me?

Toni x

Disclosure - I was provided the Grimm's portable doll house for the purpose of review, however I've already purchased more items myself. All opinions expressed are based on our experience with the product. I did not receive payment for this review. This post contains affiliate links.