our story

It started with a basket of everyday things.

Long before ProjectPlay existed, I was an early childhood teacher and already knew the magic of heuristic play. I'd seen babies and toddlers become completely absorbed in exploring the simplest everyday objects — filling, emptying, banging, carrying, mouthing and discovering what each thing could do.

Then, when a close friend had a baby about six months before my own son was born, I decided to make her a heuristic play basket as a gift. I started looking for one to buy.

And couldn't find one anywhere.

So I made my own.

A basket filled with carefully chosen everyday objects, just like the ones I'd used with babies and toddlers in the early childhood centres I'd worked in.

And I remember thinking:

Why isn't this something more families have access to?

When my own son came along six months later, I wanted the same kind of play for him too. I knew how valuable these simple opportunities to explore could be, but outside of ECE, hardly anyone seemed to know about heuristic play.

There had to be a way to share it with more families.

And that little basket became ProjectPlay.

In 2017, I turned that idea into a business, making heuristic play easier for parents to bring into their own homes.

What began with simple baskets of everyday objects grew into ProjectPlay play sets, loose parts and resources used by families and early childhood services all over New Zealand & Australia. Our playsets also found their way into universities, museums & schools.

Along the way, ProjectPlay was recognised as Best Baby & Children's Toy Business NZ in 2022 and Best Loose Parts & Messy Play Toy Manufacturer NZ in 2024.

Pretty cool for something that started with one little basket.

I never really stopped being a Teacher.

ProjectPlay grew alongside my family, but I continued working in early childhood education too.

I'm a fully registered early childhood teacher with a Bachelor of Teaching in Early Childhood Education, and my career has taken me into many various roles..

I've worked as a Teacher, Visiting Teacher, Childcare Consultant, Marketing Manager and Education Team Leader, supporting children, parents, teachers, home-based educators, nannies and early childhood services. I've mentored teachers, led teams, developed programmes and resources, supported professional practice and spent a lot of time thinking, talking and learning about how little people learn.

And after all those years, I keep coming back to something surprisingly simple:

Children are incredibly capable when we give them the time and space to show us.

Sometimes our job isn't to come up with the next activity or show them the “right” way to play. Sometimes it's to notice. To wonder. To provide interesting possibilities. And then get out of the way a little.

Then ProjectPlay took a pause.

As my own children grew, my career became busier and family life filled up, eventually something had to give. For a while, that something was ProjectPlay. But it never completely went away.

People kept finding us. Parents still asked about the play sets. Early childhood services still got in touch. Wholesale enquiries continued to arrive. And I kept thinking about ProjectPlay and what it could become.

Because while my own little people were getting bigger, I was learning more too, not just about play, but about children, connection, behaviour, environments and just how much pressure there can be on parents to get everything right.

Eventually I realised I didn't want to simply reopen ProjectPlay and sell exactly the same things again.

I wanted ProjectPlay to grow up with me.

ProjectPlay is back. But a little different.

The heart of it hasn't changed.

I still believe in simple play, interesting materials and giving children the freedom to explore without an adult deciding what the outcome should be.

But this time, I want to give the grown-ups something too.

Because there's a whole world of fascinating knowledge sitting inside early childhood education that most parents never get to hear about. Things I've known and used professionally for years can completely change the way you see something your child is doing.

Why do they keep throwing everything?

Why do they do the same thing over and over again?

Why are they more interested in the box than the toy that came inside it?

Why can the simplest object sometimes hold their attention longer than an expensive toy?

Sometimes understanding the why changes everything. And that's what the new ProjectPlay brings together.

PLAY

At the heart of our play collection is Hearts Play our approach to simple, child-led play that gives little people possibilities rather than instructions.

The Hearts Play Basket brings that idea to life through a carefully curated collection of interesting, open-ended objects designed to be explored in all sorts of ways.

No prescribed activities. No single “right” way to play.

Your child brings the idea. The objects give them somewhere to take it.

LEARN

The ProjectPlay Little Library — Big ideas about little people.

Bite-sized learning that takes some of those fascinating ideas about play, development and little people and makes them easy for busy parents to understand and actually use.

No textbook required.

And there's a bigger idea behind all of this.

I want ProjectPlay to be a place that champions childhood.

More curiosity. More connection. More time to explore, create, wonder, get messy, be bored, figure things out and just be little. Our children's world is getting busier, noisier and more digital. ProjectPlay is my little corner of the world pushing in the other direction.

Back towards real things.

Real play.

Real connection.

And giving little people the time and space to discover what they're capable of.