Sally's Blog

Hi,

Plenty of positive feedback at the Early Years Conference in Roehampton last week, and hoping for more at The Education Show at Olympia at the end of next week.

Our knitted glove puppets were particularly popular. They are made by a fair trade co-operative in Kenya, where the ladies knit in order to afford to send their own children to nursery/school. Although there are pictures on our web-site and our catalogue, they are a resource that need to be seen to appreciate how lovely, warm, friendly and inviting they are. They generated a lot of excitement amongst exhibitors as well as delegates.

The other resource that was much appreciated was the Beadler - our threading toy for younger children. Beautifully tactile, made from Lacware, coloured with vegetable dyes, and made by a Fair trade organisation in Bangalore. It has a little face to engage children and a wooden 'needle' (no points obviously!!) on the end to cut down on frustration with the threading process.

We even met some delegates that were already customers of ours! That was a good feeling! One of them was able to give some particularly positive feedback on the cardboard rocket, and what fantastic play value it had been for the children in their setting. So all in all a positive experience.

This week has seen the launch of our Elemental Toys website www.elementaltoys.co.uk , and the Toys catalogue has come back from the printers. Everyone that has seen them so far has been very complementary - which is pleasing as it has been such a lot of work to pull it together. We have high hopes that parents who are concerned for their childrens development and also concerned for the future of the planet will find it a natural place to shop for their childrens toys.

Sally.