While in Burlington, Vermont, we stopped by one of my favourite stores: Creative Habitat. I happened to spot these bags of wooden objects on a shelf. We were elated to find they were odds & end unfinished wooden items for just $4.99.



These objects are everything but he kitchen sink: little wooden eggs, flat shapes that I can only assume are for toll painting (including little ginger bread man shapes), drawer knobs, flat discs that look like they were for wheels on wooden cars, tiny cylinders & stick like objects – even a finished wooden yo-yo whose only problem is that the screen printing is imperfect. All unfinished wood and loads of imaginative fun! We broke these open in the hotel room and the kids had a ball. Ava likes to put the items one by one in a bowl. At first, Sophie did not know what to do with them. She expected them to fit together like a puzzle – it made me realize that most of the wooden toys we have at home are supposed to do something – so I was happy to sit silently and just let her explore the potential of these items on her own. Some of the wood became food, and she fed Ava and me. Other items she grouped together in small piles, etc…all in all I was happy to let her play creatively with no expectation that the toy has an “end”. Really wonderful purchase for a few dollars.

AS for me, I am thinking of the painting projects. I will probably get some milk paints and use some of the knobs downstairs on the many drawers and cupboards missing their original knobs. I think some of the cylindrical objects could be drilled further and then made into small vases for our nature table. The possibilities are endless & I am just as inspired as my little girls.