About Us

Hi my name is Angela Christopher and I am excited to introduce you to QuirKEY Educational Toys.

I have been an early childhood educator for the past 27 years and have loved the opportunity to observe children explore and grow through the use of creative, open-ended resources.

I am excited about QuirKey Educational Toys as they incorporate beautiful natural resources with dynamic colour and prints. I am confident they will encourage educators to develop aesthetically beautiful environments that will enrich children’s learning potential.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

In the spirit of reconciliation we would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the country that we live on, the Dharawal People and acknowledge and respect their connection to land, sea and community.

We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples today.

About the product

QuirKEY Educational Toys are handmade from Australian bush wood, collected from the bush as trees have died and fallen down. These logs are then cut to size, sanded, covered in Osmos lacquer. The Osmos lacquer is safe for children. Once all this has been done each log is covered in felt. ​

This natural range of resources for children is designed to promote open-ended thinking and creative exploration. As early childhood educators, it is important to adopt a holistic approach, whereby the individual needs of each child are met.

QuirKEY educational toys can be incorporated into the daily programme in diverse ways to enhance sensory, social, language, creative and fine motor development.

Open-ended materials encourage the natural curiosity of the child and thereby enable children to be creative and express themselves through play. There is no pressure to complete an “end product” or be bound by limitations.

The natural resources that these products are crafted from create a natural variation in their size and shape. Through using natural resources the timber has all the markings that nature does. Markings like Bora holes, lines that insects make to gather food and rings that illustrate the age of the tree.     

Upon closer inspection of the wood, children will be able to notice a variety of markings on the timber that will create the opportunity to open up their learning in the direction of nature, sustainability and how all these things work together to create a healthy environment for us to live in.