Conscious Toys in Early Childhood

By Wendy Heathfield, MMWS Nursery School Teacher

Step into our Waldorf Play Group or Nursery School, and you will notice something different. There are no plastic toys, no cartoon characters, no bright, flashy colours. Instead, you will find wooden blocks, woollen gnomes, handmade cloth dolls and puppets, and an array of other objects crafted from natural fibres. At face value, it might seem understated, but this humble simplicity is profoundly important for the child.

In the early years, children learn and grow through the senses. Touch, smell, sight, and even weight and temperature all help shape their developing bodies, brains, and inner worlds. A toy like a simple wooden castle, covered in rough bark, its grain, its knots, its weight – all quietly engage the senses. The children may consciously notice the textures, or it may occur unconsciously too, as the toy invites the children into a story, a mood, a moment of imaginative freedom.

In Waldorf early childhood settings, toys are deliberately open-ended. A piece of wood may become a boat, a house, or a bridge. A doll with a neutral face can be happy, sad, sleepy, or surprised – whatever the child needs in their inner world. When a toy is open-ended, this is fertile ground for the child’s creativity and imagination to flourish. The simplicity of the toy requires something from the child. They need to invest something in it, they need to spend time and put effort into their play. For instance, when a child receives a fire engine for their birthday, they may push all the buttons and unpack the ‘offerings’ of the toy, but 20 minutes later, there sits the fire engine – nothing left for them to do with it because it is a fixed toy. In contrast, a toy like the marble run found in a Waldorf classroom allows children to make something different every time, and it is therefore played with every day.

Rudolf Steiner suggested that the best playthings are largely unformed, because they allow the child’s inner picture life to flourish. A paediatrician recently described two stages of interaction with a toy: exploration mode (“What does this toy do?”) and play mode (“What can I do with this toy?”). In our Waldorf classrooms, the toys require the latter of the children – we believe a good toy is 90% child and only 10% toy.

There’s also the question of beauty. Waldorf toys are often handmade, crafted with care and intention. A doll sewn by hand carries the human touch, a quiet presence that children intuitively sense. Their faces are simple, sometimes just two dots and a hint of a mouth, so that children can project their own rich emotional life onto them. If the doll always has a big smiley face, the child sees that the doll is always happy. Children experience many different emotions and big feelings, and a simple-faced doll provides the children an avenue for them to express these feelings healthily and safely.

Even the types of puzzles found in our classrooms are consciously designed. If you look closely, you will notice that human forms are never broken into pieces. The child is guided to experience the human being as a whole, reinforcing an unconscious sense of wholeness in themselves and others.

Our toys can also imitate daily life. Small brushes, pans, and cloths invite children to imitate the adults around them – another cornerstone of early childhood development. Through play, children learn how to live, how to care of their surroundings, and how to contribute to a community. They are practising life itself.

So when we speak about the importance of Waldorf toys, it is not an aesthetic or traditional preference. Rather, it is rooted in the deep understanding that childhood is sacred, and that the toys we offer our children are designed to consciously shape not only how they play, but how they think, develop, and grow.