This month we would like to introduce Daria Gosset of Nobby Organics, who shares our commitment to natural, mindful parenting.
Nobby Organics offers some of the healthiest and most natural childrens products that stimulate the creative imagination of children. Everything you find at Nobby Organics is 100% Natural, handmade and toxin free.
Importance of Natural Play
Born into an artistic family, I have, from an early age, learned to love and cherish the creative process with its ups and downs and often surprising results. Having only a limited number of ready-made toys, my family would use different materials found all around our house to make our own toys. My grandmother would collect scraps of cloth and sew dolls for me and my brother, while old shoeboxes and drawers would serve as doll house furniture. As I grew up, I began to make toys myself, transforming old woolen sweaters into blankets and capes for my dolls and digging up clay from our backyard to make figurines and beads. Looking back, I am very grateful to my grandmother for teaching us to view even the tiniest and seemingly useless piece of cloth as a possible prompt for exploration and inspiring us to follow our own fantastic imaginations in our play.
Today everything aims at providing the most realistic experience, with mass-produced toys overflowing with life-like details, thus, totally dismissing the need for imagination. Toys with specific pre-determined functions utilize electronic features such as light, sound, and motors to engage the child, usually making him or her the passive spectator. But, as research has shown, it is very important for the child to actively participate in his own play, to complete a toy using his own imagination, which, in turn, plays a key factor in his social, moral, and physical development. Thus, for example, tying a silk scarf around the shoulders as a cape or placing it on the floor and playing among its folds as if it were a river allow the child to explore the world around him and communicate his feelings in a stress-free environment. Such open-ended toys also allow the child to adapt the toy to whatever game or situation he most relates to at that moment, again aiding in the development of not only his imagination but also his relationship with the adult world.
Natural materials such as silk, wool, and wood also provide a very different tactile experience from the plastic usually used for manufactured toys. Besides the comfort and warmth afforded by the natural materials, there is a great variety of textures available for the child to explore, further aiding his development, as opposed to the relatively uniform texture and unnatural coolness of plastic. Moreover, natural toys minimize the child’s exposure to harmful toxins which are abundant in mass-produced plastic toys. Especially dangerous are the dioxins contained in #3 PVC plastics, the Bisphenol-A (BPA) added to #7 plastics to make them rigid, and the synthetic dyes, containing heavy metals, used to produce bright, saturated colors. All of these are considered to be some of the most toxic poisons known to man, and now imagine the harm such chemicals can inflict on the developing body and brain of a child at this especially critical stage of his life.
We as parents should try to resist this new technological impulse, not giving into the temptation of using television and computers to keep our children busy but encouraging natural play. Encourage them to spend more time outside, maybe even helping you with yard-work such as raking and gardening, which provides them with inspiration for their own future games and symbolic play. Chose simple toys and teach them various crafts, all of which develop their imagination as well as offer loads of fun.
With Easter and springtime approaching, a wonderful activity could be dyeing eggs. I still cherish those fond childhood memories of my mother collecting dried onion skins in a basket on the kitchen table and then using them, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, to dye our Easter eggs. Not only does this creative process result in beautiful Easter decorations and presents, but it also teaches the children about the power and beauty of simple nature. Natural ingredients like spices, herbs and vegetables offer an endless variety of hues for dyeing eggs.
To get a beautiful mahogany color, place 10-12 eggs in a single layer in a pan. Add water until the eggs are covered and add the skins of 12-15 yellow onions. Bring to a gentle boil, then lower heat, and allow the eggs to simmer for 20-30 minutes. The longer you leave the eggs to boil, the deeper the color will be. Remove eggs, rinse in lukewarm water and cool them. If you’d like to add a soft sheen to your eggs, coat them lightly with vegetable oil and polish with a cloth.
If you’d like a more delicate decoration, try tying fresh small leaves to the egg with string. Then follow the previous directions. This process takes a little bit more patience, but the results are stunning!
Happy Spring!
About Daria,
Mother to five children and the owner of NobbyOrganics. Born in Russia, I moved to the U.S. with my husband, and have been living in Westchester County, NY in a setting surrounded by trees, flowers and lakes for almost half of my life. There’s a lot of creativity and play in our family, and we’re passionate about the environment, brestfeeding, mindful parenting, traveling, crafting and exploring the world. Having started my business venture less than a year ago, I am very excited about it and carefully choose the products made with only eco-friendly and organic materials such as wood, cotton, wool, and non-toxic dyes from around the globe. I believe that nature provides everything for keeping us comfortable and healthy.
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