ProjectPlay is a kiwi owned and operated family business in sunny Hawke's Bay. I, alongside my husband (Chief Graphic Design), and our son (Chief Product tester), aim to bring you quality, open ended loose parts and resources for children ages 0-6. We do all the hard work and scour our neighborhood and the globe, for resources that inspire and ignite the imagination. We value real, authentic play
experiences for children. We are inspired by Montessori, Rudolph Steiner and Pikler philosophies while also supporting the theory of loose parts. We hope you share our passion and journey, in ensuring our future tamariki grow up having real “toys” to play, potter and tinker with. The term heuristic play was coined by Elinor Goldschmied (1910-2009). Heuristic play is about supporting curiosity, wonder, imagination and free exploration. The open ended, everyday objects, allow children to select, explore, manipulate and compare items with each other. During this type of exploration play, the child is engaged in their own learning journey and building their own opinions about what the object can or can't do. Loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials. You'll find our loose parts collection offers many different objects, of all shapes, sizes and textures to excite and spark children's imagination and sensory learning. All objects are eco friendly and you won't find any plastic here! We pride ourselves on maintaining our stance on being plastic free. Our heuristic sets come in a cotton linen blend bag and wrapped in Geami WrapPak, which is naturally biodegradable, compostable, recyclable and made from sustainable forests. We then wrap in another layer of FSC certified & acid free tissue paper from and pop into an compostable courier bag derived from biopolymers and co-polymer; PBAT (polybutylene adipate terephthalate), Corn-starch and PLA (polylactic acid). All our items are checked thoroughly for safety before being sent out. We understand the importance of providing safe, play items for you little one. We ensure our products meets the safety requirements under the Product Safety Standards (Children's Toys) Regulations 2005 AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2002. We clearly state on our website our safety policy and include information around safety and supervision with every order. Here's what our happy customers have to say about ProjectPlay
"Heuristic play is phenomenal for our tamariki, their development and learning. Thanks ProjectPlay for what you do!" - Tracey Taylor
"Such a wonderful little company that show such attention to great customer service ! We love our picnic set and will be purchasing many more treasures from here again ! Thankyou" - Courtney Munn
"Thanks again ProjectPlay, our tamariki love to explore with loose parts, they make a beautiful addition to our under two room" - Sarah
"Thanks ProjectPlay, the children were very excited when the box arrived today. “Is it for you or us?”, super excitement by Mr16mths and Mr3 years, over the newspaper in the box. Miss3 was very excited by the “ sparkly bangles“. After leaving them to see what they would do, Mr3 gathered more loose parts and started playing. I’m sure I’ll be ordering again" - Megan
"Thank you ProjectPlay for our amazing new resources - These are perfect for home-based childcare and I look forward to seeing what you have available in the future" - Kerry
"The quality of the product as well as the variety" - Shamim Gorender
"This is a great place to source resources for young children" - Pieta Higgins
"The absolute best object for play!!" - Alexandria Frances Robb
"Fabulous ideas and tools for small mind’s creativity. Highly recommend" - Deidre
"This is the second lot of toys I've got off you and the kids are so excited.... Got them for our now 8 month old bub but miss 3.5 and Mr 6 are just as excited!" - Brylee Budd
"Thanks so much Toby is currently running around with the Pom Pom" - Ellen White
"As an educator I love the variety of loose parts that my care children use in their play activities everyday. The children use their imagination when playing with them, a peg becomes a person or drum stick. A shaker used with music or as play food,.. So much fun being creative. and expressive" - Lesley
