Just dreaming. Even those kids may hate school. But one of the reasons why we adults love retro toys so much is that we can let our kids play safely even without parent control - unlike the video games or the RC toys that can cause some damages. Adults like old fashioned toys even more when they also have
educational purpose
and help them with children mental and physical development.
In fact almost all educational toys can have good old fashioned look
especially when they are made of wood.
Educational wooden toys have the advantage to be eco-friendly and doable yourself - a very important property for parents who love to pretend being carpenters. That's why we focus on wood. But let me give you some specific ideas:
Outdoor Educational Wooden Toys
At any time weather is good you should try to get the kids outdoor (yes, even when you want to watch TV inside). Outdoor activities are the best for their health and for yours, too. Matching fun and education during outside play isn't that hard - children love playing with garden tool toys, toys that let them play with sand and water and especially wooden kits for outdoor building - small birdhouses, dog houses, castles and wooden animals.
See for example this one:
Looks cool, doesn't it? (You can click on the pic for more info) And if you don't want to buy a kit, you can surely build a birdhouse from scratch, together with your kids, and have a lot of outdoor (and yes, educational) fun.
Animal Educational Toys
They are between the most common toys but why do most parents buy their kids low quality plastic rubbish? If you want your kids happy and
really learning something
buying wooden animal toys is a better idea. They usually have more realistic details and can be painted better - and you'll rare see such misconception like a green lion there for example.
Of course you can make those wooden animal toys yourself - you need only a piece of soft wood and a chisel. And patience of course.
Motor Skills Wooden Toys
The toddlers and small kids need first to learn basic motor skills. It's not a good idea to buy a telescope to 1 year old but
stacking toys, shape sorters and mosaics
are just fine. Many of those can be made of wood and for rmany easons (some stated here) that's much better material for toys than plastic.
If you plan to make motor skills wooden toys yourself don't forget to choose safe paints and to polish the toys carefully as small kids love to gobble them when this is possible.
Wooden Puzzles
Wooden puzzles are cool and cheap. Usually they are simpler than the big photographic puzzles that are made of hundreds of parts. Wooden ones are more appropriate for smaller kids and rarely have more than 20-30 parts. They can portray animals, numbers, letters, houses etc., other educational things suitable for pre-school kids.
However some cool 3D puzzles, brain teasers and math puzzles can also be retro and made of wood - even by your own hands.
Wooden Scientific Toys
This is my favorite category of educational toys - science is unbounded area and introducing it to kids from their earliest age is
the best first investment
you can make for them. There is a good reason to go retro (and wooden) here: too much electronics and complexity will scary the kids and push them away from science. On the other hand simpler educational wooden toys can make them love learning forever.
Such toys can be related to Physics, Geology & Earth Sciences, Biology, Astronomy, Mechanics and more.
OK, I agree this guy is a bit scary...
Characters
Finally, the category of character toys is loved by both parents and kids. Playing with movie and book characters, fairies, historical characters can attract children's interest into reading and knowing more about the subject. If you avoid giving them dumb pop-star characters playing with those toys is going to be of good use.
Of course the characters don't always need to portray popular persons. Simple ones can be made from wood using only your imagination or some basic do it yourself shape kits. This one for example is a zoo character and is very cool:
You can click on the image for more information.
Have you got some specific ideas for educational wooden toys yet?