Toy of the month – June 2017

Hello lovely peeps, can we really already be in June, half through 2017?! I know I always say it but gosh time certainly flies with kids and even more so once they go to school. I wrongly assumed school would provide heaps more time for me to blog and work (and maybe do those household things called chores) but I miss the cruisey preschool days where we could just play, play and play!

We are having cooler days here in Sydney, still sunny most days but it is definitely feeling like Winter here. As the boys were both born in England and lived a large amount of their time in the Northern Hemisphere, we are quite used to the colder days  and secretly quite like to hibernate at home as this is when we play with our toys the most.

The winters here are more like a English summer’s day in terms of warmer temperatures but the mornings and evenings are cold. And don’t get me started on the seriously freezing cold houses. I do miss central heating as reverse cycle air conditioning doesn’t quite cut it.

This month’s toy is a super flexible kids toy that works brilliantly both indoors and outdoors, truly perfect then for Australia. We have featured it a lot on our Instagram account and I thought I should introduce it to the blog too! So what is it you ask?

Our beloved waytoplay road track of course!

We were introduced to this awesome rubber road track by our lovely friend Clare at Alfie Wild who had a stall at the December Bazaar last year. The track is by the very clever Dutch company waytoplay and it is manufactured in Germany.  It comes in 4 different sets, Ringroad, Expressway, Highway, and King of the Road as well as some new extension sets they have released this year.

We started with the smaller Ringroad set at $79.00 for 12 pieces and we have slowly added to our track at birthdays with the extension sets, Straight Track and Limited Edition Parking sets.

We have found the track works perfectly with our Candylab Toys wooden cars, as well as Kiko + Kuruma cars and of course Hot Wheels cars too!

I love the background story to waytoplay, which was created by Dutch designer Sybren Jelles for his son to be able to use both indoors and outdoors. He wanted something versatile, strong and weatherproof his son could use to allow for open ended play in all conditions.

In 2012, Sybren invested in his first industrial batch which are manufactured in Germany using melted rubber granules sprayed at high pressure into moulds and he then prints the road stripes and car parking “kiss and drop” zones in the Netherlands.  They sold hundreds in the first few months and had an over subscribed crowd funding campaign in 2014, which proved to them that it wasn’t just their kids that loved waytoplay but a whole generation of kids.

What started as an idea in 2005 is now a global company 12 years later.

We love this road track, like LOVE this track!  It is seriously versatile, super fun, easy to connect and we use it as a stand alone toy as well as with our wooden train track and also our cardboard garages.

We also use it with our Playmobil City toys as it makes the perfect streetscape for our Fire station and all our emergency vehicles.

The waytoplay road track is probably one of our most used kids toys and we cannot wait to try it outside soon. The kids love to construct mini cities for their cars and this track makes it super easy to do that as well as fun too! We will continue to add to the track as we go as it opens up so many possibilities for more adventures and creative play!

I firmly believe this kids toy is up with the classics now; definitely as versatile as a wooden train track as it helps to build constructive and creative thinking in kids, it helps to build self confidence and communication skills as they build and construct the track with siblings, parents or friends. And importantly it allows for so many other toys to be part of the fun which means it will be a treasured toy and one they will continue to come to and play with again and again.

The track sets aren’t exactly cheap especially if you live in Australia, however, do what we did and buy what you can, when you can. Build up your collection over time, it helps teaching kids about delayed gratification and patience too!

The cost is also countered with its versatility, the timeless design and flexible open ended nature of the toy.  It wins on all levels!

Toy of the Monthwaytoplay road track

Helps to teach kids: to use their imaginations whilst exercising their gross and fine motor skills as they build the track and race their cars on it.

Great for: an open ended toy which can be used both indoors and outdoors.

RRP: starting from AUS $19.00 at Alfie Wild

Ages: 3 years +

The Ring Road set that we started with has 12 pieces, and measures 11cm wide and measures 1.7m of road.

The set contains eight curves, two straights, a crossings and a roundabout.

waytoplay toys are designed in the Netherlands and manufactured in Germany using non toxic rubber. They are then painted in the Netherlands with non toxic paint.

We bought our waytoplay track in Australia from Alfie Wild. You can follow Clare over on her Instagram or Facebook accounts.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post and all track shown has been purchased. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.