Yesterday, my 4 year old granddaughter came for a visit and as usual, she brought some toys. Later I noticed that she was playing with a wooden car that looked like something Elmer Fudd would drive while shooting his gun at Buggs Bunny. Of course I had to see it closer and then recognized it as one I had made her a couple of years ago. Of course with my CRS, I had forgotten. At the time I made it, I didn't even think it was worth taking a picture of and that she would soon forget all about it. NO SO, she still plays with it, along with her plastic ones, except it stays while the plastic ones are replaced with others.
 So if you think your small gifts made of wood are played with and discarded, It ain't necessarily so. She even remembered that I made it for her birthday. (I didn't remember)

That's a wonderful thing Ron, wood will outlast plastic any day of the week, and the ol reliable toy that just keeps chuggin along, is the one the kids go back to day after day. My son has star wars plastic toys, this and that, space ships, etc, they get broken over time and dinged up, and just stop working, and it still amazes me today when my 6 year old son will ask us to drag down the box of wood blocks sitting on the top shelf of the closet. He'll play with those all day long, he makes cities for his Hotwheels with the blocks. He doesn't have many toys, Christmas and Birthday are the only times he gets new stuff, nothing in between, so even with his scant supply of toys, you'll have the cool Millineum Falcon Star Wars Ship nearby, yet he'll go for that box of blocks he's had since he was a year old.

Moral of the story, as you well pointed out Ron, kids know what "Ol Reliable's" are. And they remember them like old friends.

By the way, I love those bugs bunny shaped cars!

My daughter gets nearly all of the kids toys off of Craig's list. Out here it is really big. She gets just about every toy they want at a fraction of the original cost. The best part is that when her kids tire of them, she resells them and nearly always makes a small profit. She also does the garage sale thing, I have gone along and picked up some nice wood from damaged old furniture. Many people toss a nice older piece made of solid walnut, maple, etc, just because it is slightly damaged. I have picked up several items of solid wood that were free and then reused the wood for other projects.

The American Woodworker said:

That's a wonderful thing Ron, wood will outlast plastic any day of the week, and the ol reliable toy that just keeps chuggin along, is the one the kids go back to day after day. My son has star wars plastic toys, this and that, space ships, etc, they get broken over time and dinged up, and just stop working, and it still amazes me today when my 6 year old son will ask us to drag down the box of wood blocks sitting on the top shelf of the closet. He'll play with those all day long, he makes cities for his Hotwheels with the blocks. He doesn't have many toys, Christmas and Birthday are the only times he gets new stuff, nothing in between, so even with his scant supply of toys, you'll have the cool Millineum Falcon Star Wars Ship nearby, yet he'll go for that box of blocks he's had since he was a year old.

Moral of the story, as you well pointed out Ron, kids know what "Ol Reliable's" are. And they remember them like old friends.

By the way, I love those bugs bunny shaped cars!

Awesome story Ron, and thanks for sharing that. It is special when our grandkids or even our kids still use the things that were built and given to them.

My dad built my boys a wooden rocking horse and all of the grandkids have loved riding on it. It is down in the garage right now waiting on our newest grandson to get big enough to ride it.

Nothing like those good ole wooden toys.

Hi Fellows,

I have a great nephew in CA that I am going to make a rocking horse for this year as well as a great niece across the street from me for her I am going to make a pendulum doll cradle. It is fun when we can do these things for them especially when we have the scrap wood to make them with.

Ralph

I take most of my wood unusable scraps to my daughters, so they can use them as fire starters in their fire pit. One time I went over and the scraps were spread over the back patio. When I asked what happened, I was told that my granddaughter got into them, spread them out and had been playing with them ALL day. She especially like the curved band saw scraps.

One became a a hill, another was an airplane and so on. Now when I cut on the band saw, I make a special effort to cut the scraps into things like stars, letters and fun things. Works like a charm.