At MudPuddles Toys, play is work
Jaime Valdez / The Sherwood Gazette
I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN – Four-year-old Elijah Potter plays with a Thomas & Friends wooden railway at MudPuddles Toys in Sherwood. The local toy shop sells several games and toys that are made in the United States and Europe.
Some people are clueless when it comes to picking out the best toy for a child.
Which toy is safe? Which one is mentally stimulating? What is the most age-appropriate?
The answers to all of these questions and more lie just inside the door of MudPuddles Toys and Books in Sherwood.
“Parents come in wanting the very best for their children,” said Eddi Miglavs, who owns and actively runs the store. “What they don’t know is what is best, and they're bombarded by the advertisement for this cheapy, fabulous, ridiculous whatever it is on television, and we don’t have most of that stuff here. They’ll come in and they’ll ask for things, and I don’t even know what it is, and then I say, ‘How old is your child? What are they interested in?’ We have hundreds of things that are probably (appropriate).”
Among the seemingly endless selection of products in the store are wooden blocks, baby dolls, science kits, model horses, puzzles, toy cars and a special section of dress-up clothes. An area in the back part of the store is dedicated to board games, with a box of each of the games open for families to demo and see if a particular item is worth buying. Many of the other toys on the shelves are also readily available for children to test-drive.
“They find the right thing that way,” said MudPuddles Manager Rebecca Olsen.
The store also carries a large selection of toys manufactured in the United States, which is an ever-growing concern of parents following the recall of Chinese-made toys.
“The toy recall has not impacted our business much; people still like thinking they can trust things that they can buy here. It has heightened my awareness - Rebecca’s done a great job of researching in our store where things are made, and we’re now trying to buy . . . things that are made in Israel, things that are made in Europe, things that are made elsewhere,” Miglavs said. “I’m just using some caution about that, but I feel pretty confident in the companies that I buy from.”
Olson agreed.
“Most of the customers come in knowing they can trust the items we sell in the store,” she said. “We have a wonderful tradition of excellence here in Sherwood; however, we do have customers who have come in specifically saying, ‘I want something made in the U.S.,’ or ‘I want something not made in China,’ so we have a list.”
The perfect toy
Before Miglavs opened MudPuddles eight years ago, she was a child and family therapist who specialized in young children who had experienced trauma such as divorce and death. She said she enjoyed 11 of the 12 years she spent working with the children, only getting burnt out from constantly going to court for custody battles.
“I did play therapy and learned the value of play,” she said. “I had never worked retail, I didn’t even know how to run a cash register, but I decide to open a toy store, so I studied all I could and visited lots of toy stores. And so I come to this not with a business background, more with a childhood development background.”
Miglavs takes a very integral role in the operation of her store, personally selecting each and every item that makes it onto the shelves. She constantly observes the children who come in to see what items they like and don’t like, as well as sending toys home for grandchildren and her employees’ children; this gives her an idea of what products are worth restocking.
“Because I was a teacher first and then I was a childhood family therapist and I did a lot of talks and work with young children and development and play, I know the kinds of things that are helpful. I believe, and it’s becoming our store tagline, ‘Play is a child’s job, and toys are the tools,’” she said. “So a child is supposed to play because that’s the way they learn about their world. They’re little scientists. From infants, they put things in their mouth they touch them, they throw them, they drop them, they see what happens. They’re just little scientists, and all the way up to our big scientists who are trying out putting circuits together and seeing how they work out and this and that . . . as parents we need to provide children with the things - the tools - that can help them explore. That doesn’t necessarily mean the latest GameBoy game - that might more mean a pogo stick to go outside and test their physical ability and how they can manipulate their own body.
“It’s important that a parent choose toys that are developmentally appropriate. Sometimes we’ll get a parent that says, ‘My child is really advanced’ . . . but if this child is 5 and they get a toy for an 8-year-old it’s probably going to be frustrating instead of mind opening. It needs to fit with their developmental level, and it needs to be safe and it needs to be durable.”
Olsen said each member of the staff has been trained extensively through weekly staff meetings and other exercises to help them pick the perfect toy, and it is not unusual for people to come in with absolutely no idea what they should buy.
“We have a lot of parents that come in who say, ‘My child is this age and I want to introduce them to science: I don’t know where to go, what do we do?’ That’s why we have our training every week, because all of our staff members are able to pick the appropriate item, a variety of items, they can offer the parent that will be developmentally appropriate and it can be stimulating to that child,” Olsen said.
Shop locally
Debbie Nelson and her 5-year-old son, Abram, are regular customers at MudPuddles. Nelson said when the two of them go to the laundromat Abram usually insists they stop in to check out the toys, his favorites being the knights that are sitting open on a table in the back.
“We’ll be driving around and he’ll be like, ‘We have to go to MudPuddles!’ He loves all the little toys because you can actually play with the toys,” she said.
As a Sherwood resident, Nelson said it is easy for her to get some of the same items at Target; instead, she and her family would rather support the local businesses in the community.
“We try to cater to this one,” she said, adding, “the staff is really attentive and knowledgeable, so you know you’re getting the right things. They’re really right on top of things, especially with the book selection.”
MudPuddles Toys & Books is at 16420 S.W. Langer Drive in Sherwood. For more information, visit www.mudpuddlestoys.com or call 503-625-7699.