It all began with sticks and stones…
At Natural Play for Children, we believe in the magic and wonder of play. Childhood only happens once; this is when play matters the most! We love providing early childhood services and families with a great choice of sensory and educational toys. Our range inspires curiosity, creativity, and growth in young children.
We are an online, family-owned small business located in Lake Macquarie, just south of Newcastle, NSW. We support those who nurture and care for young children. We are committed to quality, sustainable and ethical practices, and open-ended play resources. This makes us a trusted source for early childhood services and families.
We design and create natural play resources to Inspire the hands, hearts and minds of our future generations. Children should play with beautiful things. We provide sensory rich, educational toys and resources for young children to explore through hands on play.
We had our first trade table display at an early childhood conference in Newcastle. Inspired EC hosted the event in 2012 at the Shortland Wetlands. NPFC then attended childcare in-service day presentations and family day care conferences. We also hosted professional development days for educators.
Natural Play for Children 2012
Our first trade table at the Inspired EC Unwrapping Conference was exciting. I was nervous, but it went really well, and our small business had a sensational first event.
I have always had a love of nature and the treasures it provides since my childhood. I spent hours exploring the paddocks on our family farm with my brothers and sister. My parents encouraged hands on discovery, tinkering and making use of the resources around us on the farm. They had a knack for making things last and repurposing items, giving them new life in a different role on the farm.
Our resources journey began with natural timber and stone, forming the basis of our NPFC range of resources. From our sensory Natural Threading Set, timber stackers to natural loose arts. Since a hand injury, I have needed to evolve our business in a new direction.
I have since expanded the range of our stocked resources. This includes fair-trade felt playmats, books by Australian authors, alphabet cards, wooden memory games and other educational toys and resources made in Australia.
Natural Play for Children ECRM2024
Preparing the table display and educational resources, making sure everything is ready and organised for the busy ECRM2024 market day ahead.
Natural Play for Children are the masterminds and proprietors of Early Childhood Resources Market in Newcastle. Our first winter market day began after a professional development morning with Dale from Puzzles Family Day Care in 2015. We had 7 vendors at our first market day.
All the educators present were the first shoppers of the day. It was great to see other educators excited for our market opening up to the public. I was a bit nervous about launching my market concept. We continued to hold professional development days alongside our market day, until ECRM grew in strength and popularity.
Over time, ECRM became a strong market event on its own. NPFC and ECRM take immense pride in this accomplishment. We are immensely grateful to our vendors and customers for their unwavering support of our boutique market event. ECRM wouldn't be what it is today without you. You are truly incredible!
We have exciting new plans for the Early Childhood Resources Market in 2025, launching our own MultiVendor Marketplace on Shopify. We also have a couple more surprises planned for 2025/2026, so stay tuned to discover what more we have organised for you.