Thinking beyond plastic; educating my self about quality.....

 
​Okay,I may ruffle a few feathers with this, but what the hay! It's my space to talk, and if you would like to comment, please feel free...
I used to buy "quality" items for my daycares at garage sales all the time..... quality, meaning brand name Discovery Toys, Little Tykes, Preschool, Little People etc. My daycare had everything you could buy with a Discovery Toys or  Little Tykes name on it.... I'm not joking! I was that person who was first to arrive for that AMAZING-DEAL  "brand name" $5.00 stroller, kitchen set, vacuum cleaner, shopping cart, puzzle, truck, you name it! I knew the value of these items to purchase brand new from Toys R Us or Walmart, and I did my homework.... these were gold to me!
 My husband, Derek said something to me (about 10 years ago now ) that really made me stop and think.... "You know, when this stuff breaks, I can't fix it.".... huh?
Break? I thought.... this stuff never breaks! It lasts forever!.... but....no, nothing lasts forever, especially toys, I thought; it does break, and when it does... it takes up a monstrous amount of space in the land fill. What have I done? What can I do?
That day,I made a concious choice to stop buying plastics... for my daycares and for my own children. At least, I can sell, give away, and re-purpose the stuff that I already had.... most of the big toys I donated to my sons teacher at school. (I had no idea that they receive virtually zero dollars to buy things for their classrooms!).. these were "quality" Discovery Toys items which I paid quite a bit of money for..... it made me feel better to give them away.... but I still wasn't (Helping) the plastic-toy problem..... they still would inevitably end up in the land fill.... I realized.
But what I could do, is look at my own purchasing habits and change them drastically. This is what I started to practise:
1. Stop buying Dollar store toys.
2. Stop buying Goody bags for Birthday parties
3.Stop buying Christmas stocking stuffers that were not quality items
4.Stop buying ALL plastic toys from Garage sales, UsedVictoria etc.
5. Any gifts I bought for family and friends were plastic free
6. I asked family and friends NOT to buy my family anything plastic
7. I am careful at the grocery store with food packages; can I find the same items in bulk?
8. I re-use my grocery bags, or ask for paper.

That's it. pretty basic stuff, and easy to practise........
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The next step was making the things I wanted to buy for my daycares and children out of natural materials like wood, felt and wool.
Having a daughter who was very interested in the movie Frozen got my mind in motion. I wanted to restrain from buying any of that cheap plastic Disney merchandise that they were shovelling at us  constantly through commercials and flyers! With some newly fallen trees and some wood working skills ready to put to use, I put the sander on high and began to build my own rendition of Elsa's ice castle.... and even Elsa and Anna dolls too! (Photos above and below)
They did the trick... and I was pretty pleased with my efforts! (I will confess, that the snow flakes are plastic, I couldn't find any made of wood for this project, but I did consciously buy them for this piece, knowing full well that they would be used and LOVED  wisely for this castle).... I'm okay with it... there's got to be a little give here and there...
It's a start....

I realize that there are going to be things that come up for me in the future when it comes to my children wanting specific toys... like Barbies, and ponies etc... I get it... I have already started to feel the panic from my daughter when I say, "No, It's made of plastic, it won't last." to something she really wants. But at least I'm making the choice to buy an item with her, and educating her at the same time... I hope.
I've done my best..... ther is probably only a hand full of plastic toys in any of my centres at this time.... that's amazing to me, considering what I used to have. (and they were NOT thrown away; but donated and sold...yes) Some of them are awesome, and they have years of life left in them... they can stay..... I've let it go.....
My husband made a comment just the other day about how he rarely makes trips to the dump any more.... at least, it's a small step in the right direction....
sorry Disney........ we love your movies!!!... But as for your "STUFF".....
We are done......

This is the back of the Ice castle... it was carved off a stump, then sanded and waxed using a natural beeswax/mineral oil solution.....