BDAY-BUNDLE Forest Tales

Forest Tales

OSTHEIMER Fox (Running) + Squirrel + SARAH'S SILKS Earth Playsilk (Forest)

Ages 3+

One animal gives a child a character. Two animals give them a plot.

The fox is running. Ostheimer carved him mid-stride, body low and stretched, and a child reads that instantly: this fox is going somewhere, and he's going fast. A running animal always raises a question: after what?

The squirrel answers it. Small, alert, and very much aware of the fox.

Except that's only one story.

Because your child might decide the fox isn't hunting at all. That he's running from something. That the squirrel is his friend and is warning him. That they've both fled a fire and are looking for a safe hollow. Ostheimer animals are carved with enough character to be real and enough restraint to stay open, and this pair sits in exactly the right tension for a child to take in any direction they choose.

The playsilk in Forest (deep, mottled greens shading into shadow) is the world it all happens in.

Bunched high, it becomes a canopy. Draped over a chair, a dense thicket. Laid low, moss and undergrowth. It's the place where a fox can be hidden and a squirrel can be safe, and where a child decides which of those is true today.

Why together?

Because storytelling doesn't begin with a character. It begins with a relationship.

Give a child one figure and they'll describe it. Give them two, and something changes: they start asking what happens between them. Who is chasing whom. Who is afraid. Who is kind. Children work out an enormous amount about the real world in this kind of play: about safety and danger, predator and prey, fear and courage, and what it means to be small in a big place. And they do it entirely on their own terms, in a story they control completely.

That's not something you can teach. It's something you give a child the materials for, and then step back.

This is the bundle for the child who plays with characters, who makes their animals talk, and who has strong opinions about who is friends with whom.

In the box:

• OSTHEIMER Fox, Running — hand-carved and hand-painted in Germany
• OSTHEIMER Squirrel — hand-carved and hand-painted in Germany
• SARAH'S SILKS Earth Playsilk in Forest — hand-dyed 100% silk

One of seven limited bundles created for our 7th birthday. Available now till 30 July, while stocks last.