ProjectPlay

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ProjectPlay The toys your baby actually needs. 🤎
The best toys do less, so your baby can do more.
✨ New ProjectPlay sets launching soon. So much fun being creative.

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,.. and expressive" - Lesley

14/10/2026

Here’s something toy companies probably won’t tell you…

Your baby doesn’t need a toy that does everything.

Flashing lights, buttons, music, talking toys… it all gets a bit too much for little developing brains and nervous systems.

When a toy does all the entertaining, there’s often less for your baby to figure out for themselves.

Give them something simple and suddenly they’re banging it, mouthing it, turning it, dropping it (again 🙃) and discovering what it can do.

And THAT is where so much of the learning happens.

It’s why I’ve always loved heuristic play. No batteries, no instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Just curious little people doing what they do best.

And it’s exactly the thinking behind our new ProjectPlay sets, launching SOON! 👀

Send this to a friend who’s shopping for baby toys, and follow .nz for more little insights into how babies learn through play.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough when it comes to your little person’s play… I want you to know this....
26/09/2026

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough when it comes to your little person’s play… I want you to know this.

You probably don’t need to do more. 🤎

I’ve spent 15+ years working with babies and young children, I’m a qualified Early Childhood Teacher, a mum of two, and I’ve been building ProjectPlay since 2017.

And one of the biggest things I’ve learned?

Little people are incredibly good at play when we give them the time, space and right things to explore.

They don’t need us to constantly come up with activities or show them what to do.

The dropping. The banging. The mouthing. The putting-it-in-and-taking-it-back-out 47 times. 😂

That’s not nothing.

That’s how they’re figuring out their world.

And it’s a huge part of what I’m building into the next chapter of ProjectPlay. Thoughtfully chosen play materials for little hands, alongside the knowledge to help us grown-ups understand what’s actually happening when they play.

There’s a LOT more of this coming as I get closer to launching. 👀

Follow ProjectPlay if you want simple, useful ideas about play and little people, without another list of 100 activities you’re supposed to be doing.

And tell me below, which slide did you need to hear?

Turns out having an idea is the easy part 😂Actually turning it into a real product? That’s a whole other story.There hav...
08/09/2026

Turns out having an idea is the easy part 😂

Actually turning it into a real product? That’s a whole other story.

There have been samples I’ve loved, samples I’ve opened and immediately chucked them in the bin, supplier rabbit holes, ridiculous MOQs, tears (yes actual) and one crinkle leaf that nearly made me want to give up.

And this is just the sourcing part!

I thought this time round I’d show you what actually goes on behind the scenes of bringing a ProjectPlay product to life. Not just magically appear with a pretty finished photo.

So here we go… ready for the ride? 👀

Okay… I think it’s time. It’s been pretty quiet around here for the last 11 months.I stepped away from ProjectPlay for a...
07/09/2026

Okay… I think it’s time.

It’s been pretty quiet around here for the last 11 months.

I stepped away from ProjectPlay for a while and, if I’m honest, I wasn’t entirely sure whether I’d come back to it.

But apparently I’m not very good at leaving things alone. 😂

Ideas started creeping back in. I started thinking about products again. About play. About everything I’ve learned over the years as an ECE teacher, a mum, and the person behind ProjectPlay.

And before I knew it, I was sourcing samples, scribbling down ideas, redesigning things, changing my mind approximately 84 times… and getting VERY excited about ProjectPlay again.

So, here we are.

There are some familiar things coming back, some new things taking shape, and a much bigger idea behind where I want to take ProjectPlay next.

At the heart of it though, nothing has really changed.

I still believe little people are incredibly capable.

I still believe the simplest things often make the best playthings.

And I still believe play doesn’t need to be complicated.

So yep… **ProjectPlay is coming back.** 🤎

And this time I thought I might bring you along for the ride.

There’s a LOT happening behind the scenes and I can’t wait to start showing you.

For now though…

Oh hey there. 👋

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