The Educated Mom

It’s been a while since I updated this site. With all the hubub of the holidays, life got hectic!

I made a couple of decisions about buying toys this year.

• I promised myself that I wouldn’t go overboard on quantity
• I promised myself that I wouldn’t purchase toys made in China.
• I promised myself that I would recycle by purchasing used toys.

I don’t think I went overboard on quantity. I tried to buy things that were fun to open.

I only outright purchased ONE toy made in China from a store. I didn’t even think about it as I bought it. After I got in the car, I realized what happened. KBToys does not allow you to return sale items so I was stuck with it.

I bought my daughter hats off Ebay for a dollar each (she loves them!). I bought handmade toys.

All in all, I’m proud of how I did this year. I’ll admit it was hard to walk through the store and see all these neat toys I knew my kids would love and then pass them by because they were made in China. But it really opened my eyes to our purchasing practices — and I deprived the manufacturers of my hard earned money.

Added to the blogroll:

• Healthy Toys – http://www.healthytoys.org/
• Toy Industry Association – http://www.toyassociation.org

Created new page:

• Close But Not 100% – this is a listing of manufacturers or companies who sell toys made in China but also manufacturered elsewhere. Buyer beware – check labels!