Why wooden rainbow toys is so popular?
If you join any Facebook groups for Montessori, moms or toys, you’ll quickly find out about Large Wooden Rainbows. It’s a simple wooden structure that at the first sight might get you think: What the heck do you do with it?! It looks like a nice decor.
Google “Wooden rainbow toys” and you’ll see why it’s so much fun! It fosters play, imagination and creativity. The possibilities are endless with this open-ended toy. It can be used it as tunnels for cars, houses for people, stables for animals, and cradles for dolls, just to name a few.
The feature of wooden rainbow toys
Wooden rainbow toys are however more aligned with Steiner/Waldorf philosophy than Montessori. The Grimm’s company clearly bases its design on the Waldorf ideas and Steiner himself was inspired by the blocks designed by Froebel.
Is Wooden rainbow toys a Must-Have?
Many parents are under the impression that they need “the rainbow toy” for their Montessori shelf. Then they see a price tag on that and get sad that you cannot afford it. It’s a pretty pricy toy!
In some instances having Grimms toys became a bit of an obsession – not for the children, but for parents. When I was lurking at Facebook groups for moms many were proudly presenting their shelves stacked with toys worth a good couple of thousands of dollars.
This is absolutely not Montessori aligned behavior at all. These are toys and are meant to play with and might get damaged with time or destroyed. After all, it is a semi-fragile toy!
There are many blog posts out there explaining how to make your own rainbow. While there are some good ones, such as this one or this cute one, I stumbled upon some recommending you spray paint your rainbow. DO NOT spray paint your rainbow – spray paint is the most toxic thing you could use.
