2009 News

12th November 2009

Children's Comfort Habits....
A comfort habit is something that literally helps to soothe and relax your child. It can be anything from a pacifier to a beloved toy, your child's own thumb or a blanket.
Some people believe that comfort habits have noteworthy benefits. Not only can they help children fall asleep; they can also help them through a traumatic experience and provide reassurance and - as the name suggests - comfort.
Comfort habits include a favourite toy or blanket. And teddies aren't necessarily reserved for children… hands up all those proud owners of well-loved teddies which are falling apart at the seams and still live in bed with them?
Young children are often inseparable from their teddies or favourite toys and insist on taking them everywhere. A teddy bear can act as a constant in a child's life - a faithful friend that is cuddly and familiar and doesn't answer back! Unlike dummies or thumb sucking, cuddly toys and blankets are pretty harmless as they won't affect the development of your child's teeth in any way. Having comfort habits such as these - far from being an indicator that your child is lacking in anything - might actually help to promote your child's confidence and happiness, providing your child with a certain stability. Obviously, you don't want your child to be taking his favourite cuddly bunny off to university with him, but in those early, formative years, comfort habits - particularly of the teddy or blanket variety - aren't likely to do your child any lasting damage. If your child is happy, then you should be too.

11th November 2009

Some children’s manual dexterity develops faster and stronger than others do. A child with weak final motor skills may struggle some when learning to form letters and beginning to write. Because there are many reasons why fine motor skills and manual dexterity may be affected and weaknesses in these areas may cause problems for children in school, pediatric occupational therapists often work with a variety of children to improve manual dexterity and fine motor skills.

There are several ways to help a child improve their manual dexterity through simple hands-on activities. For a child, exercising the fingers and hands can dramatically improve their manual dexterity. Try some of the following activities:

    * Threading O-shaped cereal pieces onto a length of yarn. This activity requires fine motor skills and is repetitively exercising the same muscles, all while practicing hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity.
    * Give children wooden peg games or similar toys that require placing pegs into small holes.
    * Sewing with yarn and cardboard cutouts is another activity that can improve manual dexterity and builds on fine motor skills. Children simply feed the yarn back and forth through holes, which is again repeating the same skill over and over.
    * For particularly young children who cannot play with small objects, a classic shape sorter toy is a great place to start. For older children, small, interlocking building blocks are great ways to play while building fine motor skills and strengthening manual dexterity.

9th November 2009

Our amazing classic Educational Wooden Toys will help teach your child about shapes ....

Whenever you're out and about with your child, talk to them about the shapes they can see.  Some good ideas for talking about shapes are:
2D (flat) shapes:

    * How many sides does the shape have?
    * How many corners does it have?
    * Are the sides curved or straight?

3D (solid) shapes:

    * How many faces are there?
    * Are the faces curved or flat?
    * What shape is each face?
    * How many vertices (corners) does it have?
    * How many edges (where two faces meet) does it have?
    * Eg: A Cube has 6 square-shaped flat faces, 8 vertices and 12 edges.

01st October 2009

Most recently we have revised our amazing 100% pure baby products from Cottons Beauty and have added some new style gift boxes which look great in the bright pink Hat boxes. Perfect pick me ups for new mums who are in need of some love and pampering.

 
24th September 2009

Our range is now focussed on Childrens Toys (wooden where possible), Some products for new borns and their mums, Some products for Women to spoil themselves. Our latest and most exciting addition is pedal cars for kids.
22nd June 2009

We have decided to focus more strongly on childrens toys and clothing going forward, I hope you enjoy the new range of fabulous wooden toys and organic cotton clothing which we are now adding to the site. Here's a little information on the types of wood used in Goki toys, which I hope you will find useful.

Types of wood used in toy production.....

Wood is one of the most resilient natural materials. The types of wood available on the market number in the thousands. There are approximately 44000 types of tree that are known. Even in today’s world of mass production, wood still has its’ special place due to its’ unique optical appearance, its’ smell and its’ structure. Generally speaking, what wood to use for what purpose is decided by two criteria; whether the wood is to be used for its’ decorative effect, or for its’ strength. Some woods are especially popular in the production of toys. Each of these types of wood has its’ own characteristics which appear to make it particularly suitable for certain toys.

Beech
Stable, strong toys, wooden trains, cars, tops and yo-yos.
Beech is one of the popular and important woods in Germany. Due to its’ high burning temperature it has often been stolen from beech forests. In German the word for “book” (Buch) comes from the beech tree as does the word for letter (Buchstabe). In its’ original sense a book was made out of a number of beech tablets with letters carved in them. Beech is a universal wood, very strong and popular in furniture and stair manufacture. It is easy to bend when steamed and is therefore easy to form. Through steaming, its’ red colour is intensified. Beech has a clean, elegant and unimposing appearance.

Maple
Baby products.
Maple is very bright, almost white, very strong and hard and can grow for up to 500 years. It is particularly popular for products that come into contact with foodstuffs (bread boards etc.). Heavily used areas in furniture are made of maple as well as some music instruments. It is an expensive wood. It has anti-bacterial properties which make it popular for the production of toys for babies and small children. Through the even grain of the wood it has a simple and easy form. The seeds of the maple have wide wings that act as propellers and are spread by the wind.

Birch
Puzzles, picture books.
It has a yellow to reddish colour and looks good in furniture. Through its’ darker grain it appears more colourful than maple. Also popular for use as plywood e.g. in wooden puzzles. Plywood is made by gluing the layers in cross form which stops the wood from bowing.. It has a comforting and relaxing effect on people.

Fir
Dolls houses and rocking horses.
Has similar properties to pine.
A green tree with a narrow flexible trunk that can grow to over 30 metres. The wood can be used for building works such as doors, windows, furniture, floors etc. It has a yellow to red colour which darkens with age and according to its’ exposure to light. It shows clear annual rings and can grow for up to 300 years. Its’ high resin content makes it heavier and harder than pine but it counts due to its’ needles as a soft wood. It tends to be used for larger wooden toys such as rocking horses and decoration articles. It is an easy wood to work with but has to have the resin removed first.

Lime
Classic carving wood.
Very white to yellow-brown wood. It is soft and easily splinters. Used for pencil making. Good for carving (such as high quality nativities) and wood turning. Popularly used for instruments and models. In earlier times was used for wooden spoons and other food utensils.

Ash
Sledges
A hard, strong wood with a long grain. Used in solid pieces where stability and elasticity is required, such as in sports equipment etc.

Poplar
Measuring sticks, carving.
A soft and very bright wood used popularly for plywood. The soft grain prevents splinters. A good natural resource as it is a very fast growing tree.