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 watched babies and toddlers become completely absorbed in 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.

I filled a basket with carefully chosen everyday objects, just like the ones I’d used with babies and toddlers in early childhood centres. When my own son came along six months later, I made one for him too.

I remember thinking, why isn’t this something more families have access to? And that little basket became ProjectPlay.

In 2017, ProjectPlay began making heuristic play easier for families to bring into their own homes. What started with baskets of everyday objects grew into play sets, loose parts and resources used by families and early childhood services throughout New Zealand and Australia — even finding their way into universities, museums and 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.

ProjectPlay grew. So did I.

While ProjectPlay grew alongside my family, I never really stopped being a teacher.

I’m a fully registered Early Childhood Teacher with a Bachelor of Teaching in Early Childhood Education, and over the years I’ve worked as as an ECE Teacher, Visiting Teacher, Childcare Consultant, Playcentre Volunteer, and Education Team Leader. I’ve worked alongside children, parents, teachers, home-based educators, nannies and early childhood services, developing programmes and resources, mentoring teachers and supporting professional practice.

And through all of it, I kept 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, provide interesting possibilities and then get out of the way a little.

Then ProjectPlay took a pause.

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

Parents still asked about the play sets. Early childhood services still got in touch. And I kept thinking about what ProjectPlay could become.

When the time finally felt right to bring it back, I knew I didn’t want to simply reopen the doors and do exactly what I’d done before.

I wanted ProjectPlay to grow up with me.

So ProjectPlay is back, still championing simple, open-ended play, but with something more for the grown-ups too.

Through PLAY, you’ll find thoughtfully chosen things that give little people possibilities rather than instructions. Through LEARN, I’m taking some of the fascinating ideas I’ve spent years learning and using in early childhood education and making them useful for everyday family life.

And underneath it all is Hearts Play, our way of coming back to the little person at the heart of it.

 

Hi, I’m Ange.

Mum of two, early childhood teacher, ideas person and the person behind ProjectPlay.

I still get ridiculously excited watching a baby discover that a metal cup can be filled, emptied, rolled, banged, carried and, inevitably, tasted. And I love taking something that sounds complicated in a textbook and turning it into the kind of thing that makes a parent go:

“OH! That’s why they do that.”

ProjectPlay has changed a little since that first basket in 2017.

But the heart of it really hasn’t.

Simple play. Big possibilities.