Creative explosion!

When Kathrynn was born, I favored natural fibers and materials.... I was not obsessed and I was not exclusive, but I did favor those wooden toys, which for me were very aesthetically pleasing as well as more sustainable then their plastic co-horts.

What was most sustainable was utilizing the various toys that came to us via relatives, friends and circumstance. When I was able, I traded various items we were done with to obtain the wooden pretty toys. But i kept the plastic toys.... sometimes the batteries were missing, and sometimes they weren't.....

As I read more and more about the "dangers" of plastic toys, and became aware of the Waldorf ideology, I continued our journey of trying to obtain more wooden toys..... But it just didn't feel right to remove all those various other toys, or "not allow" the relatives to give us the miscellaneous plastic items.... I was all for trying to limit the general number of toys (kathrynn was the sole grandchild for MANY years) and yet whenever I thought about trying to do away with the "plastic crap", I felt like i would be throwing away *possibility*........

I hear the arguments about parents saying that all these toys will impede on their creativity.... just trash their minds and make creative thought useless! I sometimes feel the judgments of other parents over all the "stuff" my child has.... And then i look at a picture like the one i took today.....


And I see how the availability to it all has brought about an *amazing* creativity that is above and beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. Kathrynn and her friend Zoe played their game for about 4 hours, adding different characters, changing story lines, role playing..... It was truly fascinating to be near to see the unfolding of their creative passions and Beings.



And I am SO grateful that for Kathrynn there was no "right" way to play, and no "right" toys that she had to have..... that i opted out of the "waldorf club" and instead followed my child's interests. I am grateful that I choose to work through those voices in my head telling me I "should" do x, y and z, and that I instead choose choose to follow and accept the authentic joys of Kathrynn and my husband (who also loves toys :P ).