Elemental Toys is where parents of pre-school children that care about their children’s development and want to buy ethically look first.

Everything we stock is ethically produced and educationally sound for the under 5's. Elemental Toys was set up by Sally Eccles, a mum and experienced pre-school professional. Sally found herself being asked by other mothers where they could find toys that would be good for their young child’s development but that also fitted with their wish to be ‘ethical consumers’. Having recently completed an Honours degree in Early Years Education, Sally knew that many toys produced for young children were very poor from a child development perspective. So she researched amongst fair-trade, sustainable and ethical suppliers to find the toys that they are producing that do encourage learning and development. Having achieved this, Sally has launched Elemental Toys knowing that everything she sells is ‘Great for kids and great of the planet’.

And to make sure that they are also Great Fun, the children in Sally's local playgroup, and those of friends and family became our ‘toy testers’. We watched them play with the toys we were looking to include in our range and only picked those that the children really enjoyed playing with.

Some parents have told Sally that they would love some help and advice to help set up play sessions for their young children that help them have a really fun time and get the learning benefit. So Sally developed her ‘top ten tips for quality play and learning’ – you can find these on the website and in our catalogue.

At www.elemental-toys.com you’ll find over 300 ethically produced toys that help young children develop both physically and mentally. Prices range from under £5 and upwards. There are fantastic role play and small world sets like wooden farms, puppet gloves and play buildings to encourage children to create stories and re-tell the events they see around them; construction toys such as marble runs, domino rallies and building blocks to help them learn accuracy and make judgements; puzzles, matching games board games to help develop reasoning and estimating abilities; musical instruments and CDs to help begin their appreciation of rhythm and sound; bikes, swings, skipping ropes and skittles to encourage movement, control and co-ordination; and books and storytelling gloves for shared storytelling and to help build vocabulary.

Above all, our toys are designed to help young children discover and explore so that they build the ‘3Cs’:

• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Confidence

At www.elementaltoys.co.uk you can:

• Buy from our great range of ethically produced, educationally sound toys for pre-schoolers
• Request a catalogue
• Get great tips and advice on play for the under 5's
• Read and contribute to our pre-school play blog