PlanToys Green Dollhouse {Holiday Gift Guide 2012}

PlanToys Green Dollhouse

PlanToys

the review

When I think of wooden dollhouses, I think of a classic childhood toy – one that is well-built and will last throughout a generation or two.

In our real lives, when you find a home you truly love, you don’t just pick up and move every couple years. You stay. You make yourself at home. You find yourself picking up this accessory here or sprucing up the window treatments there.

You show pride of ownership (for your home and for the earth) by installing rain barrels and collecting recycling week after week. And when you’re in your forever home, you may even make long-term investments, like installing solar panels.

It’s no different in the world of play dollhouses, either. When you find “the one”, you get to watch your kids make themselves at home with it, playing out our everyday in miniature. And when it’s particularly well-made, like this PlanToys version, perhaps you’ll even get to watch their kids do the same someday.

PlanToys and their Green Dollhouse with furniture makes it incredibly easy for boys and girls of all ages to make themselves at home in an earth-friendly way.

I love all the attention to detail that you find in this house. One of my favorites is the recycling bin, that actually opens and shuts.

Plan Toys recycle bin

Plan Toys recycling bin

For my kids, this is their everyday life. They look forward to helping us with recycling and they get excited to learn about new ways to live a bit earth-friendlier. They’re familiar with solar panels, as we have a few buildings in our community that have started installing them and are learning exactly how they help. They see rain barrels every week when we visit the library and the park.

I love that now they can extend this green lifestyle through their play with the PlanToys green dollhouse, too.

I also need to mention how much I appreciate that this house from PlanToys is completely gender neutral. My son and daughter play well together (most days) and don’t distinguish between “girl” and “boy” toys quite yet. I love that my son will have just as much fun playing with this as his sister will… and the age difference between them means that he’ll be able to help explain some of these earth-friendly features (the solar panels and rain barrels, for instance) to his younger sister, as he’s learning about the real versions in our community.

I can’t say I’m surprised that this thoughtful attention to detail and quality come from a company like PlanToys. According to the PlanToys website, they were the first company in the world to manufacture wooden toys from preservative-free rubberwood. They continue to be committed to minimizing their impact on the environment. They use non-toxic paints and eco-friendly materials in their products.

Even the little informational booklet that PlanToys includes in the box is filled with educational information. Normally we end up tossing (ahem, recycling) these, but in this case, we’re actually going to use this to help teach the kids what each miniature replica does. The booklet shows the impact of using a wind turbine, a shade canopy and passive solar design and green energy in the form of an adjustable solar cell panel.

The Green Dollhouse from Plan Toys is, without a doubt, a classic wooden dollhouse that can be enjoyed and passed down through generations.

What we love about PlanToys Green Dollhouse:

• Gender neutral, so both boys and girls can happily play together.
• Open-ended play.
• Well-built from sustainable rubberwood.
• Teaches earth-friendly actions as part of everyday play (recycling bins, water collection bins, wind turbines and more).