Order before 16:00 on working days and we ship the same day!
A wooden lion that fits in a child’s hand. Small enough to disappear into a pocket, big enough to star in a whole afternoon of play. Tender Leaf makes finely painted wooden animals sold one at a time: not a box of twenty, but exactly the animals your child picks out.
We stock 34 of them: savannah and farmyard, the sea and the dinosaurs. Order before 16:00 on a working day and your parcel leaves the same day.
Tender Leaf Toys is a British toy brand that makes its wooden toys in its own factory in Indonesia. It works with reclaimed rubberwood: hevea trees that stop yielding latex after about twenty-five years and used to be burned. That timber becomes toys instead, and the brand states it plants a new tree for every one it uses.
The animals are finished with non-toxic, water-based paints and stains and meet EN71, ASTM F963 and ISO standards, carrying the CE mark. The wood is SVLK-certified, the Indonesian system that documents timber origin and legality, and the factory holds the ICTI seal for working conditions. Packaging is plastic-free.
Pick the theme your child is in right now and add to it through the year. All 34 animals are sold separately:
Looking for larger, sturdier figures for younger children? See Holztiger. Everything together sits in wooden animals and wooden toys.
The animals are marked 3+, and that matters: they are small figures, and a child who still puts everything in their mouth cannot play with them. From about three the real work begins: the horse becomes the dog and the sheep becomes "the cow's baby", and a child needs less and less resemblance to let one thing stand for another. Around four, direction joins in: children step out of the game for a moment to agree how the story continues. The exact guidance is on every product page.
Loose animals get language going, and story language in particular. You hear a child speaking in two voices at once: a narrator ("and then the elephant left") and the characters themselves ("I'm tired, you know"). That is talking about something that isn't there (yesterday, later, made up) and it is exactly that which links to how children later understand and tell stories.
Something else you see: lining up first, playing second. Rows, circles, two groups: mine and yours, big and small, the ones with horns. For many children the sorting is the game. And animals get carried, collected and claimed, with all the negotiating that brings. The fuss over who gets which animal isn't a disruption of the play; it is the social part of it.
Practical note: small animals go missing. Give them a fixed tub or basket, material with a place of its own gets picked up more often and tidied away faster. Not sure what suits your child's age? Ask us, we're happy to think along.
From 3 years. They are small figures with small parts, so they are not suitable for children who still put things in their mouths. The guidance is on every product page.
Reclaimed rubberwood (hevea), a by-product of the latex industry. Rubber trees yield latex for around twenty-five years; after that they used to be burned. Tender Leaf turns them into toys and states it plants a new tree for every one it uses.
Non-toxic, water-based paints and stains. The animals meet EN71, ASTM F963 and ISO standards and carry the CE mark.
Wipe with a slightly damp cloth and dry immediately. Never submerge them and never put them in the dishwasher: wood that stays wet warps and the paintwork lifts.
Briefly yes, at length no. Wipe them afterwards and let them dry thoroughly before putting them away.
Yes. Tender Leaf animals are smaller and more finely painted than Holztiger, which is larger and sturdier. Mixing them is no problem at all, children usually find the difference in scale interesting in itself.
Three or four animals from the same theme. Two dinosaurs or a small set of safari animals makes a complete gift for under twenty euros, and there is always room for one more.
Because a collection you build yourself plays differently from a box you are given. You choose the animals that match what your child is into now, and add to them as interests shift: dinosaurs this month, the sea next year.
