Heirloom Wooden Toys has eco-friendly toys that won’t break five days after you buy them

Heirloom Wooden Toys is a family-owned business priding itself on offering toys that are Earth-friendly and will stand the test of time: they hold up and can be passed down from child to child. Founded by Kitty and Alan Morse (the latter is also known as the lead guitarist for Spock’s Beard), the site lets you shop by age, interest, or price — and you can even design your own toys and activities.

Here are a few awesome things I found after looking around:

For babies and toddlers

At $150 The Kitchen Helper isn’t the most budget-friendly item, but it IS the perfect way to keep your favorite cooking buddies safe — kids can lean over and interact with the cooking process WITHOUT you having to worry that they might topple into a pan full of oil. It folds up in a jiffy, making storage easy as pie.

Build Your Own Wooden Birdhouse: this set is $12.99. It’s super simple: it comes with wooden panels, four pots of paint, screws, and a paint brush and you’re done. You and your kidlets can decorate the house and then hang it and wait for new feathered friends to move in!

Ecowooden Rattle Block Set ($15): each of the blocks has a funny face on one side and makes a unique sound when shaken. They range in size from 2-3/4″ to 3-1/2″ high, and are perfect for small hands to hold and explore.

Preschoolers

Wooden Stringing Beads ($16.99) are such an awesome sensory toy for preschoolers. They’ll be fascinated by how beads can be strung. BONUS: older kids won’t immediately try to eat the beads!

The Geo-Lastic Art ($30) is an AWESOME way to teach preschoolers about geometry, letters, and numbers. It’s super interactive, which makes the learning experience way better than sitting and looking at a workbook or flash cards, and the soft elastic bands and smooth plastic pegs make it extra small-child-friendly.

Elementary and Middle Schoolers

This lap loom ($45) is such an awesome gift idea for the young weaving enthusiast in your life — or just a kid who might be into it. It includes a hardwood 12×16″ loom with nylon pegs, cotton warp string, 100% pure wool yarns in bright jewel tones, plastic tapestry needle, 2 wooden shed sticks, an 8″ wooden stick shuttle, and complete illustrated instructions.

It’s a FLYING PIG ($16.95) that you can build all on your own! Automatas are mechanical toys that move using levers and linkages, so they’re perfect for the budding engineer in the homestead.

While I’m very seriously contemplating purchasing this wooden catapult ($21.95) for MYSELF, there’s no reason not to share it with all of you! This historically accurate model uses only wood, rope, and leather, and everything’s joined together with wooden dowels. Keeping it REAL.

Just about everything at Heirloom Wooden Toys would make a kickass gift — what are you into?