Magical Educational Fun
PlayFair is not like any other toy store - anywhere (well, maybe outside the galaxy - we admit we haven't looked there!). We're not the frou frou prestige store, and we're certainly not "just" a great locally-owned toy store. And we're certainly not the mall or big box toy store that tries to be everything to everyone - as long as that everyone isn't looking for anything particularly new or interesting. PlayFair is the Magicalest, Educationalest, Funnest toy store in the galaxy, and our toys are based on a system designed to bring out children's natural love of learning and new ways of thinking. This approach to toys is so different we created a system - the Magical Educational Fun™ system of play and playthings. (Yes, yes, we know that "educationalest", "magicalest", and "funnest" are not in the dictionary - we'll explain that detail later!)
Magical Educational Fun defines
and represents a deeply held set of values and premises upon which
we base our entire business, and which assures that you will only
be offered products that support the system and therefore help
fulfill your child's need for positive development. We came up
with a system of play because we think that children are far too
important to leave to chance. We invented the Magical
Educational Fun system from our original core tagline -
"Because childhood only comes once." We know that you
want to make it as meaningful and memorable as you can. We know
that you believe that children are worth it, and we are your
partners in finding meaningful playthings for them.
Magical Educational Fun is a
system of playthings based on the well-established fact
that children love to learn, that they are natural
learners who are driven to soak up all they can about the
world around them. Unfortunately, and incorrectly, the term
"educational" has come to be equated with
"boring," because education has come to be synonymous
with school (which, OK, let's face it, is often boring).
Even many toy store owners seem to believe this
fallacy. Here's an actual quote from a toy store website:
"You've tried the 'educational' toy stores and
have been baffled by oddly shaped and overpriced wooden things from
Europe that promise to instill a 'love of learning' in
children, if only they would ever play with them." Really?
Overpriced and oddly shaped? There are toy stores trying to sell
stuff like that and claim it's educational? I haven't been
to those stores, I guess, but that's not my point. What's
most important here is that it's fairly clear that this person
equates educational with boring, and suggests that educational toys
are esoteric and beyond the reach of most people. Therefore she is
apparently offering toys that are not educational, I suppose.
If educational = sitting in a classroom, or doing a
set of problems for the fifth time, or heck, even trying to figure
out what to do with an oddly-shaped toy, overpriced or not, then
yeah, it's boring! But natural education, education
that happens because children are engaged in meaningful activities,
is actually magical. When children are truly engaged in
"learning", they are - playing! They are having fun.
Their entire being is centered around learning of all types - and
when they are truly engaged, that learning takes place, in a way
that leads to nothing but pure fun.
Magical Educational Fun is where
great experiences with play magically move children (of
all ages) forward into a new development phase. Many
PlayFair customers struggle to define the reason for the joy and
intrigue they feel when they shop at PlayFair. And we understand
that struggle - that's why we had to invent new words to
describe it! When you've invented something new, it can defy
description. These customers have noticed that almost everything we
sell appeals to adults just as much as it does to children. We have
many adults, of all ages, that shop the store for themselves. We
have families that make the trek to Boulder from across the state
and beyond just to spend an afternoon there. And they all feel the
magic, they all enjoy the fun, and I don't think that anyone
has ever had the feeling that we were about "boring
educational toys", yet many people use the phrase
"educational" to describe our store.
There is no simple, defined set of criterion that
defines Magical Educational Fun toys - it just has
to be the right toy at the right time for the right child. Think of
it as unstructured structure - like a Montessori classroom that
offers an array of options, each carefully selected to support a
particular development or educational goal. Children select the
activities that are right for them at the time.
Magical Educational Fun toys are
all about right-brained learning and stimulation - about
integration and holistic thinking as opposed to a purely linear
approach. They tap into childrens' (and adults')
creativity, linking their more "standard" learning with
their much deeper potential to turn that learning into something
amazing - into the innovative creations that we need to survive and
thrive as a society and a globe now and into the future. These are
the skills most needed today, in a fast-paced, rapidly changing
world that cries out for innovation and disruptive thinking. The
Magical Educational Fun system of play has four
core values that underlie everything we are trying to do, and in
which we support our customers' own quests for discovery. The
four core values of the Magical Educational Fun
system are Creativity, Consciousness, Invention, and
Exploration.
Creativity: Creativity is the very
foundation of Magical Educational Fun products.
Creative expression goes far beyond the arts and includes problem
solving, construction, and imaginary play, among many others. The
arts themselves cover a huge array of expression - dance, music,
textiles, painting, sculpture, and so on - and artistic creation is
natural in children. We all know that a child with crayon in hand
will use it! But when a child practices nurturing behavior by
caring for a doll - that is creativity. When a child discovers that
when you hit the drum with sticks of different size and shape, it
makes different sounds - that is creativity. When the Lego sets get
combined into newer and greater creations - that is creativity.
Toys that make the Magical Educational Fun system
must be open-ended to encourage children's own natural
creativity to be maximally expressed.
Consciousness: Consciousness is
about helping children learn and understand that we live in a world
where the actions of each human being have the potential to affect
the lives of others. Developing compassion and empathy are at the
core of developing consciousness of ourselves as human beings. At
PlayFair Toys, we know that the values of honesty, fairness, equal
opportunity, peaceful problem solving, cooperation, and
environmentalism are essential to tomorrow's leaders and
today's happy children. You are your children's most
important model, and you send them powerful messages with the
things that you decide (or refuse) to purchase for them. The
Magical Educational Fun system of play includes
kid-powered toys, toys made from recycled materials, organic art
supplies, and other "green" products, as well as products
that directly teach principles of consciousness, such as green
science and renewable energy kits, ethics and responsibility
materials, and more.
Invention: Invention and its close
relative, innovation, are what move our society forward, sometimes
in great leaps and bounds! Inventing new things and new ways to do
things takes creativity into the realm of the practical (or
impractical!) world of making entirely new things.
Innovation is about making changes to existing things that
improve how they function or operate. Invention is
"disruptive" - it can completely change how things work.
Children are natural inventors, and when given playthings that
encourage this natural inclination, the results can be very
powerful. Think games with flexible rules. Think construction toys
with no pre-defined outcome. The world needs many more disruptive
thinkers - bold new leaders who are not constrained by how it used
to be but think about how it could be. Babies come into the world
with no preconceived notions - they operate on instinct and need.
Magical Educational Fun toys encourage children to
trust that instinct and try new ways of doing things.
Exploration: Exploration is
children learning about their planet and themselves. When we
encourage children to explore, we encourage them to naturally learn
about people, nature, and science. We include physical activity
within exploration because children's first exploration begins
with themselves - learning how much they are capable of both
internally and externally. Exploration is limitless, because it is
impossible for us to explore everything within one lifetime.
Starting children on journeys of exploration therefore assures they
will never have a reason to be bored. The world is both a very
large and a very small place, and the universe is infinitely
expanding. The Magical Educational Fun toy system
includes toys, books, games, and puzzles that invite and encourage
exploration on many levels and in many ways.
You can start shopping now for Magical Educational Fun toys, sign up for our monthly newsletter that brings you new ideas each month, or read more in our Frequently Asked Questions about the Magical Educational Fun system.