We are parents who are passionate about shaping the early years of our children purposefully. No matter how busy lives get, we always remember to PLAY as we understand the importance of purposeful play in the holistic development of our children! We advocate for a playful childhood and we strongly believe that in PLAY, they learn and they learn how to learn.
The toys and resources we curate are those well-loved and played by our children. We observe and research on their developmental needs, so as to provide them with the appropriate toys and resources. Little Big Dreamers is borne to share our humble knowledge and curations with you, so that you can create the same purposeful play environment in your homes for your little big dreamers.
In order to create a purposeful play environment, we have to be intentional with the toys and resources that we provide for our children. We do not define our toy curations by the material they are made of, wood or plastic or metal etc; yes we do need to be mindful about being environmentally-friendly but the materials of the toys do not determine the playability of them. In our curations of toys and resources, we focus greatly on:
1) Functionality
We determine the functionality of each toy via the skill sets and educational values it can develop in children. A holistic development of children would involve cognitive (including language and communication), motor (physical-gross and fine motor), social and emotional development, so these are the skill sets we want to cultivate through our toys and resources. We also value the importance of some 21st century skill sets of critical thinking, imagination & creativity, communication and collaboration (teamwork). In addition, our range of toys and resources aim to spark curiosity and promote intrinsic learning.
We see a need to have a mix of structured and open ended toys as they serve different functions.
Structured toys (which we have categorised under EduPlay) usually have a more defined functions; e.g. alphabet boards are used to learn the alphabet, number boards are used to learn numbers etc. These are resources which encourage playful learning to complement what the children will be learning in their preschools.
Open ended toys on the other hand, encourages open ended play and have no fixed functions. They can be played with in any ways the children enjoy (safely) and most times, children can even come up with different ways to play with these toys. E.g. blocks can be used to build different structures or children can use them as pretend play food. This encourages imagination and creativity development.
A good range of toys that develop different skill sets and educational values help to create a purposeful and engaging play environment. This supports the growth of a 21st century child, ready for constant global shifts.
2) Good quality and safety
We believe in good quality and safety of toys that our children play with. As we curate our range of products from all over the world, we run through quality checks of toy samples from different manufacturers to determine the most suitable option for our little big dreamers.
Non-toxic materials (including paint) and durability rank high on our quality and safety checks. We also watch our own children play with the toys to envision any safety issues that may arise, e.g. "are the connecting attachments within the toy secured enough?", "are there any choking hazards?" etc.
Afterall, at Little Big Dreamers, we are all about "From parents, to parents"! With our own children in mind, you can be rest assured of the quality and safety of our toy curations.
3) Affordability
We believe that toys of good functionality and quality can be made as accessible to more families as possible, based on an affordable price point. As long as a toy/resource fulfills our above 2 criteria, we are happy to let our children engage with it!
