Review of Seven Acre Toys, handmade in Providence, Rhode Island. Seven Acre Toys is making great quality wooden toys, including: Rattles, Blocks, Pull Toys, Mobiles, Teethers, Developmental Products, and MORE!! From their website: “By using all natural materials we ensure that our toys are free from hazardous chemicals. All of our toys are made by us, start to finish, and are quality checked at every step. We want to make better wooden toys. That means better design, better materials, and more attention to detail. Our toys are made to promote creativity and imagination in an unconstrained and open way.”
They sent me a Star Stacker, one of their best sellers, which uses a gorgeous combination of Maple & Walnut. They don’t know this, but star items have special meaning to use as my son’s name is Orion, so we love connecting him with anything celestial 🙂 I tried to take a picture of the largest star to show you how beautiful the grains of black walnut are, but my camera takes horrible close-ups & the photo doesn’t do it justice at all, but this is an absolutely gorgeous toy. It has been sanded so incredibly smooth, you definitely don’t have to worry about a splinter. My son is 2 ½, and he has enjoyed using it to stack & un-stack. He’s still working on grasping largest to smallest, but this kind of toy will definitely help him work on that concept. I’m very excited to have this as part of our toy collection, and know baby girl will get lots of use out of it when her big brother outgrows it. That’s one great thing about wooden toys, they are so durable & can be passed from child to child, and to another family even, when we’re done with them. About the material used: “We use only certified sustainable harvested hardwoods, which are sanded super smooth. We use our own food safe/ baby safe blend of beeswax and mineral oil to finish our products, so they are safe to put in the mouth (because we all know that’s where it’s headed anyway).” I really love this gorgeous, simple, safe, handmade toy, and can see why it’s a best seller for them! http://sevenacretoys.com/product/star-stacker/star-stacker-maplewalnut/#!prettyPhoto
I really, really like their teethers, and my baby girl is enjoying the one they sent very much! Althea will be 4 months old tomorrow, and all of the sudden wants to put everything in her mouth. She seems to really enjoy soft things, and will put any cloth she can get into her mouth. I like the combination of both hard & soft that this teether offers, and often catch her putting the wood part in her mouth too. The cloth portion can be frozen for those that like cold things to chew on (something my son never cared for, but maybe Althea will).It’s contoured so she can grip it easily with her adorable little baby hands. You can choose from a variety of woods, and shapes, and all cotton is organic, unbleached & un-dyed. I asked why some cotton is brown, and some white, and learned this: “different species of organic cottons grow in different colors; it has to do with the natural wax resins in the plant.” They selected different colors to add variety & compliment the wood used. http://sevenacretoys.com/product/2-in-1-teething-ring/2-in-1-teething-ring-cherry/
Rattles are what they started their business with, so they are near & dear to the owners. I really appreciate the beautiful simplicity of their rattles and they offer many to choose from. They sent me a Ginkgo leaf rattle in Maple. It’s easy to grip, super smooth, and you have to look very hard to even find the crease where they cut it to put the beads in. It makes a very delicate, peaceful sound when rattled, and of course doubles as a teether also. Althea is still a bit young for larger chunks of wood. She’s been OK with the smaller wood like what the teether has, but I’ve let her play with the rattle a few times, and she gets really excited and has bonked herself in the mouth a couple times. That’s the only safety concern with wood, so I’m waiting until she’s a little bigger to give her this adorable rattle to keep her entertained. withhttp://sevenacretoys.com/product/ginkgo-leaf-rattle/ginkgo-leaf-rattle-maple/
Info about their mineral oil finish: “We researched many different plant based oils, but were never happy with any of them. Our biggest problem with the plant oils is that all of them have the potential to go rancid- especially when heated, which we have to do to incorporate it into the wax. And since we cannot guarantee how long a tin of it might sit on a customer’s shelf in between uses, it was a risk we didn’t want to take. The mineral oil that we use is food grade light mineral oil, a higher quality than many baby oils on the market. The purpose of the oil in our polish is basically just to thin the bee’s wax to a consistency that can be applied to the wood more easily, the 2 waxes (bee’s wax and carnuba wax) are what do the heavy lifting. Our recipe is based on a traditional salad bowl/cutting board polish that has been a staple of woodturners for decades. For those who are vegan or would like to paint or apply their own finish, all of our products are available without our wax finish upon request.” NOTE: Mineral oil contains petroleum (which yes, is a natural substance, but many like to avoid it), so if that makes you uncomfortable, order it unfinished & use whatever you’d like!
They have very generously created the coupon code “ecobaby” that will give you 10% off your total purchase. This code is good the remainder of this year. I hope you’ll take advantage of this code and include Seven Acre Toys as part of your Holiday shopping this year. Please feel free to share the code with friends/family who are looking for great quality wooden toys as well!
Website: http://sevenacretoys.com/contact-us.aspx FB page: https://www.facebook.com/sevenacretoys?fref=ts
Eco-friendly baby/family products MADE in USA 