Do you enjoy shopping for toys and gifts from home? I do! Do you appreciate simple, natural toys that will stimulate and delight your child without expensive batteries, noisemakers and cheap plastic? I do!
I happened upon A Toy Garden just a few months ago and was charmed by the extensive selection of beautiful toys, many of which are made here in the USA. Everything in the store is meant to inspire hours of creative play, and A Toy Garden is family owned and operated.
Sonya, the creative and generous lady behind A Toy Garden, sent our family the very popular herbal bean bags to review: one set is made of brightly colored cotton fabrics, the others are fruit and veggie fabrics. These lovely sets are handmade by Sonya herself; each includes 8 bean bags and retails for $20.
The bags are filled with dried beans and fragrant herbs like lavender, mint and chamomile. They measure 3.5 inches square. The bright patterns and fruit/vegetable prints are colorful and very appealing. My children love to “divide them up” before playing by picking their favorites.
Sonya had a few suggestions for how to enjoy the bean bags: tossing, stacking, counting, juggling and hauling around in toy trucks. As children are wont to do, mine came up with a few of their own.
Inevitably, there was a bean bag war in the living room. They have a blast with these!
One of the bean bags was damaged during shipping and a small side seam opened up. And after several days of enthusiastic play from my children, a second bean bag seam opened up in one place. I put both of these bags aside and temporarily closed the holes with tiny safety pins; when I have a spare moment they should be easily repaired with a needle and thread. After asking Sonya about it, she assured me that “if one ever rips or develops a hole, I replace it for free.” Sure enough, Sophia sent me an email to say she will mail two replacements. UPDATE: It’s November 11th and our two replacement bean bags just arrived. Great customer service!
We keep our Toy Garden herbal bean bags in a big basket in the living room, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that my toddlers have played with them every single day.
Delightful wooden toys, natural paints, instruments, dolls, gnomes, trucks, dress-up and more….you can spend a really long time at A Toy Garden and still not see it all! I love that they sell wooden blocks of all shapes, sizes and colors; this is one of the most durable and timeless toys you can buy; ten years ago when my oldest was a baby, my mother bought them a set of wooden blocks. To this day, they still play with them and even incorporate other toys (like Legos, Hot Wheels and Little People) in with the blocks. A good set of wooden blocks is an investment I would encourage any parent to make.
And look at the toys I discovered in the Christmas section! An articulated dragon pull toy, a child’s bead and felt cardinal wreath, a cozy bunny rabbit Advent calendar and a handmade acorn Advent ladder:
If you are looking for high-quality, long-lasting, made in the USA toys to tuck under the tree this Christmas, please go check out this wonderful family-owned business!
And while you’re here, enter the giveaway: Sonya is going to send one of my readers (U.S. only) a set of 8 herbal bean bags, just like I reviewed. And next week, a Toy Garden is sponsoring ANOTHER giveaway on my blog for a $25 “Black Friday” gift card! Make sure you subscribe to my blog by email so you won’t miss the second giveaway.
*GIVEAWAY CLOSED*
I LOVE the wooden blocks.
I love that they are made in the USA! The dragon pull toy is very cool. My son loves nesting and stackable toys, and they have a ton of options. The recycled plastic arches are perfect!
I would love to get my son a curvy board, but there are a ton of other things he would love too!
I like the children’s camp light and the sailing raft.
I’d like to have the rainbow people mover!
I love the herbal beanbags! How fun and versatile!
such fun! everything is so darling! My 3 kiddos would love pretty much any of these toys!
my son would love the rainbow arches!!
I’ve been meaning to make beanbags for my boys but never have time!
Great Giveaway. I’m so glad I found your blog. Can’t wait to catch up. And what cuties you have. 🙂
Love the Snuggle Bug Dolls!
My children would have so much fun with a Curvy Board!
I love the paints!
They would so love the Wood Play Stand
I love the doll changing table with swing. My girls would have so much fun with that!
I would love a waldorf doll!
i love the step rocking boat
Thanks for the great review. I never realized how much fun kids would have with beanbags. I also love their playsilks!
The sweet pea doll is adorable.
A Learning Tower is on my wish list, but I doubt I’ll ever have the extra money to get one. I also really love the Bolga Baskets.
I’d love the learning tower.
I would love to get the rainbow ark for my kiddos.
I’d so love the Table and Chairs Set for our playroom!
I love the SweetPea Dress Up Dolls
I would love to have a “SweetiePie doll” for my children.
I’d love a SweetPea Doll for my girls!
I also like their Susan’s Kitchen!
I like their Rainbow Bear Rattle.
loving the river barge with string
I like everything!! Especially the child’s wood refrigerator
My daughter would love the wooden refrigerator!
i would love to give my nieces each a Flower Fairy Large German Tea Set in Cloth Case set.
tammy ramey
trvlagnt1t@yahoo.com
Play silks!
What a delightful and colorful entry….makes me want to join in the fun!!
Awesome giveaway! Thank you!!
I like the wood wagon and blocks.
Love the Ladybug Porcelain Teaset
I like the Wooden Tree House
I like the Pansy Gnome Pair from the Nature Table section. My kids gather stuff when we go for walks like leaves and pinecones and rocks. I hate keeping the stuff, except for the rocks where I have them classified as sedementary, igneous etc. but apparently it is a big thing for my kids. They would be cute to add to our collection box.
I like the fish and boat stacker toy.