Toy library joy
The other day we chanced upon a toy library when we had to go and pick up some business cards for my husband. It was tucked away on a little tiny business park but had bright coloured signage.
Today we went with proof of address back to join Borrowers Toy Library and all three of us were so impressed with the place and their system.
Family membership is £25 per year or £14 for 6 months membership. Once you are a member the family can borrow up to four toys from their massive selection for a fortnight.
The great thing is that they have a huge selection of outdoor toys the kinds that would very quickly clutter up a back garden if you bought any of them but with this scheme we can borrow large toys, enjoy them for a fortnight (or renew for a further 2 weeks) and then take them back. They have trampolines, climbing frmaes, mini diggers, go-carts, see-saws and so on.
Today we borrowed a lovely wooden fruit market complete with mini crates of minature wooden fruits and vegetables (I’ve seen something similar in wooden toy catalogues for sale and am aware that they cost a small fortune), a Winnie the POoh video, a wonderful wizard gown and hat for dressing up & Halloween parties, and an incredibly loud irritating keyboard with loads of buttons and pre-programmed rhythms & tunes.
They have every kind of toy imaginable organised into categories so the children can browse the musical instruments section, the ‘home and living’ section, games & puzzles, story tapes, cd-roms to use on the computer, baby and toddler toys etc.
They have a big notice up advertising the fact that they are able to loan single, double and triple buggies, high-chairs, baby bouncers, stair gates and so on.
Next to the til they have a lovely selection of arts and crafts materials to buy at very cheap prices (eg. £1.20 for a 10 x pack of 2007 blank calendars for the children to decorate, tissue paper, pva glue, paints, coloured card and so on).
I’m not sure if this kind of scheme is available elsewhere but would encourage families of young children to investigate as they are a brilliant way of keeping kids entertained with little expenditure and doesn’t add to the huge piles of plastic clobber kids these days seem to accumulate so quickly.
NB: On the back of the leaflet I picked up from the toy library it says to contact the UK Children’s Information Service (www.earlyyearsandchildcare.org.uk) to find out where your local one is located.