Unique resources to help children play, grow and develop
Children develop quickly in the early years of their life and their experiences between birth and five years old play a crucial part in their development. What’s more, the World Health Organisation states that “the early years are critical, because this is the period in life when the brain develops most rapidly and has a high capacity for change.”
Babies and young children are keen to learn. Take the toddler who copies a parent as they do the household chores. Or a three year old who has developed their hand eye coordination enough to master a toothbrush or scissors.
We’re focussed on creating unique resources that are specially designed to help meet the developmental needs of these children. What’s more, our resources are inspired, tested and loved by practitioners, ensuring they are fit for purpose and have a clear goal in mind.
Shiny metallics that are brilliant for babies
In their very first year, children start to become aware of themselves and their physical environment. They develop an understanding of shape and space, they copy facial movements and start to reach out, grasping objects around them.
Our Metallics range has been developed to aide this process. Manchester Metropolitan University researchers found that “the magic of mirrors lets very young learners create and think, observe patterns in their experiences and explore cause and effect.”
The range is perfect for encouraging sensory exploration and an understanding of the world. They are also great for helping children to recognise themselves, a process called self-identification.
Allowing young children to see their reflections help them understand where their own body stops, and their surroundings begin. This is crucial to developing early hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. One nursery practitioner we spoke to simply said “the children love when the light catches the bricks and are interested in seeing their own reflection.”
What’s more, the wide variety of shapes, colours and sizes ensures constant stimulation and development takes place. Click here to find out more about our range.
Natural wooden toys to last a lifetime
Wooden toys have a unique appeal. And their natural appearance and smooth texture make them stand out from those made of plastic.
With wooden toys, children provide the life and sounds of the toy themselves. This crucial imaginative play is perfect for enhancing social, emotional and physical growth. It also fulfils a child’s inborn need to learn.
Your customers will love the high quality materials. When looked after, wooden toys can last a lifetime as their solid nature makes them hard to break. They are not only durable, but versatile enough to be adapted for a broad range of ages and abilities.
Younger children will engage in simple, imaginative play, whilst older children can begin to use wooden toys in more complex imaginative scenarios and problem solving.
Wooden resources are great for developing fine motor skills as they come in different shapes and sizes. For example, big, chunky blocks allow babies to understand grasping skills, whilst older children can use smaller wooden shapes such as beads and sticks to develop more difficult motor skills like threading and twisting.
Over the past year, we’ve added more wooden toys to our range. To view the latest additions to our range, click here.
100% Fairtrade felt toys to promote sensory exploration
There is an increased focus on reducing single-use plastic across the world, with increasing numbers of schools and nurseries reducing their reliance on plastic resources. That doesn’t mean that imaginative play needs to end though.
We have recently expanded our range of tactile, natural resources including our 100% Fairtrade, natural felt toys. Felt is perfect for young hands, with its soft and tactile nature a huge benefit over plastic. Felt toys also promote sensory exploration and complement any natural environments that your customers may have.
Sophie David, a mother, teacher and early years enthusiast recently reviewed some of our felt toys range including the Felt Bowls and Balls and Natural Felt Quoits set. “It’s refreshing to find a toy that my son can play with easily that I know cannot hurt him at all. They’re great for object permanence and are versatile. To say we love these new items is a huge understatement.”
Our felt toys are perfect for including alongside an existing natural and heuristic range, giving your customers an even greater choice, and ensuring their children are able to explore, learn and develop in a completely natural way. To view our felt toys range, click here.
So, whether your looking to increase your existing early years range of resources or just want to find out more information, speak to our team today.