Learning with Felt

As a family with 3 children, you can bet we get asked to a lot of kids birthday parties. This is fun, because of course we loved to celebrate the kids that we know and love, but it can also get pretty overwhelming shopping for kids all the time. It also gets very expensive. VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE.  We average 1-2 birthday party invites per month and that can add up! We have recently put a spending limit on these types of gifts of $10-$15. Y'all, we are a family on a budget! Before we were spending $30+ each time a birthday party rolled around and that was really putting a strain on our budget. Think about it, if we did 2 parties per month and spent $30 each time, that was adding up to over $700 per year being spent on gifts for our kids’ friends. For a middle class, working family, that $700 could go far elsewhere. In addition, it’s hard to know what kind of gifts all of these different kids will love. So, to fix these stresses, we not only put a spending limit on, we also always buy a fun, learning type toy. Most kids enjoy these and as a parent, I know that I like it when my kids get these types of gifts.

In addition to buying learning style toys, I also love love love toys that have a retro feel to them. My kids seem to love them too. In the last year we have played with my old mr. potato head, my husband’s old action figures and we even broke out our gaming consoles that we had as teenagers (which was a long, long time ago…). We have become somewhat of a retro toy family lately. They are all fun to play with and honestly, this day in age, everything is so automated and technology filled, it is actually refreshing to play with stuff that doesn’t make noise and doesn’t need to do an update before you can play.

That’s why I love these super fun felt toy kits. I know how much I loved playing with felt as a kid, and since I am always encouraging my kids to play with creative toys, I am excited to see how much they love them. Do you remember playing with felt storyboards when you were younger? I personally loved the storytelling aspect of felt play, how you can take some objects and designs on a felt board and create an entire story around it. How amazing was that?

Here are several kits that you can find here at Sassafrass:

School Felt Fun - pre-schoolers will have a great time playing “school” — and even create recess fun with hopscotch and basketball! children will enjoy hours of creative fun as they move the cling-on pieces to create endless stories and imaginative play. these storyboards are also great for improving language and speech therapy. since felt naturally clings, there is no need for any adhesive!building project fun felt - kids can learn about different types of construction vehicles and play act building a skyscraper! children will enjoy hours of creative fun as they move the cling-on pieces to create endless stories and imaginative play. these storyboards are also great for improving language and speech therapy. since felt naturally clings, there is no need for any adhesive!

Here are a couple of my favorite things about these felt kits:

• They are quiet. Seriously, these types of toys, along with arts and crafts project are the most perfect for quiet time activities. No screens blaring through the room, no loud toys or bright lights. Just kids having fun quietly while concentrating.
• More than one kid can play together. This is not a 1 person only kind of toy. All of the kids can get involved creating their felt designs.
• They are reusable. These are not one-use toys and craft kits. You can play with them over and over again.
• You can create a new story with every design. Even though these felt kits each have a theme, you can create a different scene each time, which leads to a new “story” each time. I like to view it as almost a new toy each time you get it out.

These are just some of the reasons why these make such great, not only toys in general, but great toys to give as birthday gifts for kids. Kids love them for the fun and creativity involved, parents love them for the creativity, and fun for the kids and for the quiet!! Oh, and if I hadn’t mentioned it yet, they are currently priced at just under $10 each! That is a great price for this kind of fun!