BRIO Family Home Review

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We love to support companies that care about the environment and the planet which is why we are so happy to have BRIO toys as part of our 2016 Holiday Gift Guide. They make beautiful wooden toys that stimulate a child's mind and learning while engaging them in critical thinking and creative play. They also source 100% of the the wood for their toys from FSC® certified wood (Forest Stewardship Council) making sure the wood is from responsibly managed forests and legal logging. We are showing off their adorable BRIO Family Home Playset that you can build and customize and we are GIVING ONE AWAY!!!

The BRIO company was started in the late 1800s is in Malmö Sweden where it operates today. The designers have very high-quality standards and focus on a child's growth through play. The BRIO Family Home is very well-made, it allows the child to think and be creative, and it can combined with their BRIO World train sets and other toys in the same line for unlimited play and imagination.

It was little hectic in my house for the last couple weeks. We headed home to California after a few months in Japan, had Nana fly in from Florida to spend some time with us and had a bunch if our favorite things from some of the best companies to review, photograph, and write posts for our Holiday Gift Guide among a ton of errands and meetups with friends. 

My kids were so happy to be home and playing with their forgotten toys, and we received this BRIO Family Home. I opened it up. I could tell it was modular from the box, but hadn't realized that it was completely in pieces. 

As someone who likes to build things, I quickly put together a house and asked my son if he would like to play so I could take a few photos. 

I snapped a couple shots. Then something happened.

I turned around for a few minutes to tend to the baby or whatever crisis had popped up and when I came back the entire set was in pieces like it had been 20 minutes ago. I didn't know whether to yell, cry, or give up. Yelling is so old-school, mean, and a sign of bad parenting so that is out. I may be a hot mess mom but not a bad parent. Crying is for injuries and tragedies so we skip that too. Our family motto (if we had one) would be "NEVER give-up" (I'm making that our family motto m'kay?!) I had a better idea...

Begging. I would beg. Begging is definitely not beneath me, frowned upon, won't swell your face like crying, plus it doesn't make you feel like a total jerk like yelling.

My son is 5 and has a good heart, so I appealed to his humanity telling him that it had taken a while for me to put together and how I really needed it put back together again for pictures. 

I quickly showed him how the pieces worked, said "please, please fix this, please make a nice house again," to him, and went back to my crisis cleanup baby mess, dog disaster, food on fire... whatever it was.

I was so pleased to come back to him jamming his way through building this house. He made a better house than I did! Mine was not very well thought out, it was just a Mom Blogger sticking it together quickly, trying to move on to the next task with little regard for aesthetics or practicality.

The pieces are easy enough for a little kid to put together all by themselves. It is complicated enough to challenge them without being too difficult. He was able to make decisions about where to put the pieces on his own because there is nearly an infinite number of ways this house can be assembled. There is no right or wrong way to do it and once it is finished, children can have as much imaginative play as they like with the 4 people and furniture that is included.

My son's design was symmetrical with a second story right in the middle and it was perfect. There are those moments in life where everything is in pieces and it doesn't feel like things can possibly ever be put back together again and then someone shows up and helps. THAT's how it felt to me and it was a glorious as his happiness and sense of accomplishment.

He was very pleased and very proud of his creation and so was I!

Until you know who pops up...

Not them... HER!

Funny how that works. You build something in this house and there is always someone sneaking up and ready to tear it down...

He clearly explains that this toy is for ages 3-7 and she doesn't make the cut. She uses her signature phrase," Hey, c'mon, NOT cool," and plays anyway. 

Another great thing about BRIO toys is that there are no small parts or pieces so it is safe for the little sis!

We LOVE the BRIO toys and LOVED this little BRIO Family Home. 

I highly recommend this as a perfect holiday gift and taking a look at all of the other BRIO World toys like trains, train tracks, the Firehouse to start a little city with endless possibilities.