Good For
Little Garden Designer by Tender Leaf Toys
Part of our open-ended play range is this fabulous garden design toy, which has 64 solid wood pieces that can all be arranged in an infinite number of garden designs.
Set includes;
7 trees, 2 bushes, 2 terracotta flower pots with removable bushes, 3 flower beds, 6 vegetable patch tiles, 4 sunflowers, 8 grass tiles, 6 patio and 6 path tiles, 4 paving slabs, 4 rabbits, a two-part shed, 4 hedge slabs and a pond. All contained in a beautiful plywood box with a sliding lid.
Spark you child's curiosity with invitations to play. Read this blog post to reveal ways in which our toys can pique your children's interest.
Click on the link below to download this cute garden windmill craft activity!
Print out this page and make yourself a beautiful paper windmill to accompany your garden!
What is open-ended play?
What makes sticks and stones such brilliant play materials? What’s so special about string and play dough?
It’s not what they are made of - it’s what you can do with them.
Sit down in front of a block of clay and the direction you take is only limited by your creativity.
Wooden figures
Take a wooden figure in your hand and you immediately have a story. What will he do? Who will he meet? The story can go anywhere. It’s the most open-ended kind of play there is.
To learn more about this kind of play, see our article on small world play.
Learn through play
Open-ended play is supposed to go wrong.
That’s where the learning happens.
Let your child make mistakes and don’t offer corrections. Working out the answer yourself is a powerful mechanism for extending thought.
Open-ended play is about teaching children to think for themselves - and it does so brilliantly.