Waldorf Toys and Play at Home: What to Choose and How to Set Up

Waldorf toys are simple, open-ended playthings with little detail. Most are made from wood, wool, silk or cotton. Some plain wooden blocks, a few coloured cloths and a basket of pinecones can be a boat, a shop and a castle in one morning. The idea is that your child's imagination finishes the toy. To set up Waldorf play at home, you need fewer toys than you'd think and a low shelf or a couple of baskets. Then you put some things away for a while, so the rest get played with.

Below: why a toy counts as "Waldorf", what suits each age up to 6, how to set up a small play space, and how to do it cheaply.

What makes a toy "Waldorf"?

Picture a Waldorf kindergarten. Camellia Waldorf School describes its own: wooden blocks, woollen dolls, silk playcloths, pinecones, seashells and river stones. Kimberton Waldorf School lists much the same, with logs, branches, sheep's wool and cloth dolls. There's nothing that talks, flashes or needs batteries.

Three qualities sit behind that list.

Simple. Rudolf Steiner, who founded Waldorf education, wrote about a doll made from an old napkin. Two corners become legs and two become arms, with a knot for the head and blots of ink for eyes and a mouth. He suggested that a child filling in the rest from imagination was doing real inner work. A finished, "pretty" doll, he wrote, left the child nothing to do. Many Waldorf dolls still have plain or barely drawn faces for this reason, so a child can picture the doll happy one minute and sad the next.

Open-ended. The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) encourages parents to offer play objects that aren't too "finished". A block has no one right use. It can be a loaf of bread, a telephone or a bridge. A toy with one job, like a button that plays a song, tends to get pressed a few times and then put down.

Natural materials. Waldorf teachers often choose wood, wool, silk and cotton because they're warm, varied to touch and last for years. Well-known makers include Ostheimer (wooden figures and animals) and Grimm's (wooden blocks and rainbows), and Stockmar makes the beeswax crayons and modelling wax many families already use.

This lines up with mainstream advice too. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests simple toys like blocks, dolls and art supplies for young children. It also says the most useful part of any toy is the time a parent spends playing and talking alongside the child.

Waldorf toys by age

Children don't need a new set of toys for each birthday. Many of the same things carry through the years and just get used differently.

Babies (0 to 12 months)

A baby's play is mostly touching, mouthing, dropping and looking. Waldorf suppliers suggest a wooden rattle or grasping ring, a soft cloth or knotted doll, and later a felt or wool ball to crawl after. Around the end of the first year, many babies love a low basket to take things out of.

A basket of kitchen things works well: a wooden spoon, a small wooden bowl, a clean cloth, a metal cup. Keep everything too big to fit inside a toilet paper roll. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission tests toys for under-3s with a small parts cylinder. It notes that some parents use a toilet paper roll instead, which is a little bigger than the official tester.

Toddlers (1 to 3)

Toddlers copy everything you do. Give them a small broom, a cloth for wiping the table, a few pots and a wooden spoon, and they'll work beside you. Other good things at this age:

• Big wooden blocks for stacking and knocking down
• A wooden animal or cart to push along
• Baskets and bowls to fill, carry and tip out
• A simple cloth doll with a blanket
• One or two play cloths to hide under

Keep only a few things out. In one study, 36 toddlers aged 18 to 30 months played in a room with either 4 toys or 16. With 4, they played longer with each toy and in more varied ways (Dauch and colleagues, 2018). For a toddler, four or five things on the shelf will do.

Children aged 3 to 6

This is the age of long pretend games. A child might spend a whole morning running a bakery, then turn it into a ship by lunch. Useful things to have:

• A set of plain wooden blocks, including some odd shapes and slices of branch
• Play cloths in a few colours, big enough to drape over a chair
• A simple doll with clothes that come off, and a cradle or basket bed
• Wooden animals and people, a few of each
• Loose parts: shells, pinecones, conkers or acorns, smooth stones, wooden rings
• Child-sized tools: a broom, an apron, a small rolling pin, a watering can
• Crafts: beeswax crayons, modelling beeswax and wool for finger knitting

For more on how play fits into a whole morning of circle, story and baking, see Waldorf kindergarten at home. After the 7-year change, when grade 1 begins, the same blocks and cloths can stay in use for years.

Setting up a simple play space

You don't need a playroom. A corner of the living room or the kitchen, where your child can play near you while you work, is often better, because young children like to be close by.

A low shelf. Put the toys on one low, open shelf, each in its own basket or spot, so your child can see everything and put it back. Toys at eye level, rather than piled in a toy box, are easier to choose and easier to tidy.

Fewer toys out. Choose one basket of blocks, one of cloths, one or two dolls, a few animals and a basket of loose parts. Pack the rest away.

A rotation. Every few weeks, or when a basket stops being used, swap it for one from the cupboard. Bella Luna Toys, a Waldorf toy shop, suggests storing toys by type or by season, out of sight. A toy that's been away for a month often comes back new. Some families rotate with the seasons: shells and summer colours in July, conkers and red cloths in autumn.

A play stand or cloths. A Waldorf play stand is a simple wooden frame, like a small open shelf. Children drape cloths over it to make a house, a shop, a puppet theatre or a den. It's lovely but not essential. Two chairs, a clothes horse or the underside of a table with a big cloth over it does the same job.

A nature table. A small shelf or tray with a cloth in the season's colour and a few things your child found outside. It changes with the year and the festivals. Our festival calendar shows what's coming up.

A time for play. Space helps, and so does time. Long, unhurried free play is the heart of the early years, so leave room for it every morning and afternoon. The Waldorf homeschool daily rhythm shows where play sits in a whole day.

Waldorf play on a budget

The well-known Waldorf brands are beautiful and many last for generations. But you can build most of a play space for little money.

Found things. Kimberton's list of kindergarten toys is mostly free: shells, stones, logs, branches and fabric. Go on a walk with a basket and let your child choose. Wash the stones, sand any rough branch ends, and keep small things away from under-3s.

Old fabric. Cut old sheets, scarves or cotton shirts into squares and hem them, or leave the edges raw. Cotton works as well as silk for most games.

Homemade dolls. Start with Steiner's napkin doll. Take a handkerchief, tie a knot near one corner for a head, and your child can do the rest. If you sew, a simple knot doll or a wool-stuffed doll with a plain face is an easy first project and makes a lovely birthday gift.

Blocks from branches. If someone in your family has a saw, slices of a fallen branch make a set of tree blocks. Sand them smooth so there are no splinters.

The kitchen. Wooden spoons, a colander, a few bowls, and a sieve make a whole bakery.

Secondhand. Wooden toys last, so they often turn up at charity shops, school fairs and in local Waldorf parent groups. The Waldorf Map lists Waldorf schools and kindergartens, so you can find the parent community near you.

If you're planning ahead, how much Waldorf homeschooling costs breaks down supplies and curriculum for the grades.

What to do this week

1. Gather every toy in one place and choose about ten things for the shelf. Put the rest in a cupboard.
2. Add one basket of found things from a walk.
3. Cut two or three old cloths for play cloths.
4. Watch what gets played with. In two or three weeks, swap one basket.

When your child is ready for grade 1, Starpath has Waldorf-inspired lessons for grades 1 to 3, with grade 4 being added. Sophie, a Waldorf class teacher with over ten years in the classroom, writes them.

Related reading

• Waldorf kindergarten at home
• Waldorf homeschool daily rhythm
• Waldorf vs Montessori
• The 7-year change
• How much does Waldorf homeschooling cost?