If you are a regular reader of the blog you will know what an advocate I am of good quality wooden toys. I love them. I have loved buying them for my own children and giving them as gifts to others. There is something so nice about quality wooden toys, when you compare them with all the mass produced plastic stuff out there these days.

When I was first a parent, I remember a friend who was a bit further along the parenting journey talking to me about this amazing wooden train set she had bought her son. I ended up buying something very similar for my own children and years and years later, all four of them have played with it and it is still going strong. It will absolutely be one of those tings I carefully wrap and store away for the grandchildren. The longevity of wooden toys is just one of the reasons they are a great buy.

I’ve bought some stunning wooden toys over the years, many of which have been hand painted. We’ve had everything from wooden train sets, to wooden Noah’s Arks, to pull along toys and stacking blocks.

I’ve bought wooden toys from a range of retailers over the years, ranging from larger companies, to smaller independent stores. One of the companies I’ve come across more recently is Jaques London. If you’ve not heard of Jaques before, they are the oldest games company and sports manufacturer in the world. Passed down from father to son for eight generations!!! What an incredible story – eight generations of games makers!

Jaques have been responsible for inventing many well known games we love today and many you may have played as a child, such as Croquet, Ping Pong, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Tiddledy Winks. I absolutely LOVED Tiddledy Winks as a child and my children have been playing Snakes and Ladders lots recently. These kinds of games never date – it’s so nice that my children can enjoy some of the games I did as a child.

If you are looking for a quality gift, Jaques is a really good option. It’s easy to search for gifts for a particular age group, so, for example you could search toys for 3 year olds and you will be presented with a selection of appropriate wooden toys such as a their wonderful Teaching Clock, London Wooden Bus, Lacing Set or Shape Stacker. All the toys are brightly coloured and packaged so beautifully, they make the perfect gift.

All the toys are really appealing to children and adults and, parents of spirited children will appreciate how robust they are too.

There are no annoying plastic tags or clips in sight, no fiddley unscrewing to add batteries that last half a day – parental bliss basically!

Having shopped for years and years now for toys for my own children and gifts for others I’ve become more and more fussy about where I buy toys from. I don’t think I ever particularly used to give it a great deal of thought but these days places like Jaques are my first port of call. For quality wooden toys, they really are such a great option. Toys are fairly priced and they often have promotions on – you really won’t be disappointed.

This is a collaborative article.