Agricolino, this little-farm-on-a-string toy, was bought 2 years ago and has lived in our restaurant bag ever since. When my first son was a bit over a year old he was learning animal names so the game was to set up a farm and name all the elements. Then inserting the string and creating the farm necklace became the new interesting feature.
I really think this wooden toy is super cute – the animals even have felt ears and the string helps keep everything together. It also helps children develop fine motor skills. This comes from Selecta, but many other companies have ’string toy’ sets!

-Michela