One of the most important thing you can do for your child’s early development is preparing it for literacy. Reading and writing your own language and understanding others are important skills for all future learning.

The beautiful thing about children, and all humans, is that we are all different. We think, learn and communicate differently. Some children learn how to read very easily while others struggle for years to master this important skill.

Being dyslexic does NOT mean that you are unable to learn how to read, it only means that your brain will need a different set of tools to master the skill. It also means that you might have other more developed skills that become useful in visualized problem solving, organizing and communicating. Those are all very important skills even though they’re not graded on your report card.

So! Here are some ideas for language based games that you can enjoy with your child in the car, at the dinner table, while getting ready for bed or any other time. Stay creative and start as soon as possible. All language based stimuli will help your child form important connection for reading later on, especially children that show early signs of dyslexia.

1. Play “I spot” and describe what you see and ask the child what that kind of object would be called. Try to find words that have more than one synonym so that you can add them to the conversation and widen your child’s vocabulary. Try also to think of something that changes in more quantities. You can for example say “I spot something green and brown that grows tall” if the child recognizes it as “tree” you can add “that is correct. But if I spot hundreds of trees then it would be called…?” and the child will respond “a forest!” and then you can respond with something like “that is also correct. You are so clever! Sometimes we also have a different name for a forest and then we might talk about going to the woods”. You can also make this game more magical by adding things that your child is interested in or spicing it up with fairytale creatures and say “what do you think the elves would say? Do they live in a forest or in the woods?”.

2. Buy a dictionary. Children love to provoke response with words (why do you think they pick swearing words up so easily?). Browse through it with your child and see if you can find something unusual that spikes interest. When you have found something interesting and unusual you should read out the definition and then try building sentences with your child. Then your child can have fun with it and ask family and friends what they think it means. Some children might prefer and benefit better from drawing a picture of what the word means. The drawing can also be used in the guessing game and the child can ask people what word they think she was thinking about when she drew it. To add spelling to the mix it might be helpful to write the word on the back of the drawing so that the child can give clues like what the first letter is, how many letters the word has and etc. The child will learn through guiding others and spelling that word will be easier.

Have fun and enjoy language!

We just visited Adalthing (www.adalthing.is) yesterday – a really outstanding school that recognizes open ended play as a vital part of cognitive development. Children attending the school are between 2 and 6 years old.

Adalthing inspires learning according to the Reggio Emilia philosophy and seems to follow it conscientiously. I have been there a few times and it doesn’t really matter if you know a lot about Reggio Emilia or not, you will immediately feel the easy going flow of play and respect for the individual child. What impresses me the most about Adalthing is that the environment seems to be designed and organized from children’s perspective and not the adult world. They choose their activities during morning meetings and organize their day with the help of their teachers. The day is organized using visual aids (similar to PECS) so that information is always available to every child at her eye level. They can access information on what teacher is available to them and see the other children that have chosen the same activity. They can also see if the group is going outside after lunch or not or doing something else. The thing about this system that impresses me the most is the value of respect that a small mind is shown. Children are often subject to adult planning and thinking, a situation that can hinder cognitive development. And if you think about it some more – would you like to do what others tell you all day every day and not even know how the day will evolve?

We had the opportunity to visit their black light room yesterday – a place that inspires children of all ages. Who wouldn’t like to have one of those at home?

In previous blogs, we have described how our products can inspire to creative play.In this one however, we have decided it would be a nice little change to discuss something slightly different – namely our use of colours.

Colorful objects have always proven liable to catch a child’s eye and natural curiosity to explore. It is also acknowledged that colours can evoke intellectual associations and different emotional stimulations and generally are important for our comfort and wellbeing throughout the day. Beside from this, we also believe that colours are a vital aspect in the surrounding settings of creative play.

For these reasons, we choose each colour we use with care and consideration.

The colour palette we bring into play consist of both light and slightly toned down earthly colours. The colours are meant to give our products a calm and relieved appearance, yet strong enough to catch children’s curiosity and light up their lust to play. Because the colours we use are not over hectic and busy, children are more likely to stay focused on the play itself and use their creativity to develop it.  This gives a longer, more continuous and narrative play in a fully natural way.

We believe that considerations such as these  are essential, so that the colour we use can go hand in hand with our FAFU philosophy and thus help to strengthen our designs.

Hola! For the past few weeks we have been working hard on developing new products to add to the FIKRA line. We think that these new products will add even more to FIKRA’s possibilities and multi-functionality, especially when THEO and POPPY meet for the first time.

THEO from the FIKRA product line

This is THEO. He will arrive in the fall of 2011. His favorite activites are going to the theater and role playing. This is his prototype, but he will be available with several accessories, such as grass, fire, and ocean.

THEO will be made from organic fair trade cotton. The spots that look like stars are snap fasteners so you can use your POPPY capes for added effect. The sun you see on the picture is actually a bag made out of a POPPY blanket.

KEEPY from the FIKRA line.

This is KEEPY. He can keep your FIKRA costumes while you are not using them. He can also be used as a ship, crib, wagon, or whatever you can think of.  Some say that if you crawl inside it you become invisible. You need to try it to find out if it’s true.

KEEPY is made from felted wool by some very talented Nepalese women. We make him by order, so you can choose your favorite colours for him, but will have to wait for a couple of weeks before you can get to know his magical powers.

We are working on more products and will update you on their progress as soon as we have their prototypes ready. So stay tuned folks!

Thorunn & Hulda

It should be no secret that we are pretty keen on designing hats. Our newest creation, EARY, is just one amongst many in our collection. We like hats because they have the very unique feature of articulating exactly what we want to achieve with our products: they activate or encourage children to free imaginary play.

We believe that a hat is not just some thing that we put on our heads for the purpose of keeping us warm and dry. We believe that a hat is something far more than that. Because we wear it on our head, a hat is far better than any other piece of clothing to create both an attitude and an image at the same. A hat spreads out a certain atmosphere or aura over the wearer’s persona so that the two almost seems to melt together as one. All its particular qualities and characteristics function as a way to show what the wearer thinks of him/herself and how he or he wants to be perceived by others. Just think of a cowboy – it is pretty darn hard to do so without seeing him wearing his trademark hat. Because of the hats symbolic values, it becomes easy to slip into the role of the character we want to be. As someone once said: „Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of what a person would like to be. Hats are a passport to another world.“

Just like all our other hats, EARY draws sincerely on all these mentioned aspects. With its outstanding ears children will link the hat to an animal immediately, and see the hat as an item to enrich their play – which is exactly what EARY first and foremost is made for. EARY is designed so that children can instantly  jump into the world of imaginary role-playing by using the hat as the access pass to become the animal they like to pretend to be.

Furthermore, EARY can also be played with as a puppet – just stick a hand inside it and your hat will transform into a dog, dinosaur, parrot or whatever you come up with. This feature makes EARY great for parents or adults in kindergartens when reading adventurous stories aloud. With its “handles” on the sides, EARY can also be used as a fine purse or bag. It comes in three different vibrant colors and is made of very soft felted wool.  For more images of EARY click here.

We all know, children love role-plays. They love to pretend they are an animal and run around on all fours barking, meowing or making other distinct sounds from the animal kingdom.  What Handy does, is add a little bit extra to this play. It is intended to bear a resemblance to most animal feet so when children put on a set of Handy’s, the role-play just gets more fun and “realistic”. Handy gives children a possibility to  journey further into the role and character of whatever animal they play: a quacking duck or a screaming eagle; a cute kitten or a fearsome lion, a playful dog or a snarling wolf – Handy’s design can embrace them all.

These aspects make Handy ideal for any family home or kindergartens. Handy is also suitable as a fun element in gymnastics in either schools or organizations. The teacher or trainer names an animal and the children interpret its movements. This way of exercising is fun for the children because in all its essence, it is based on the children’s own premises. Because of this, we also believe that with Handy, it is easier to keep children’s focus and attention, simply because they are having fun.

Handy is  part of FAFUs newest line of products. It is a fair trade product made of 100% organic, soft wool. You can choose between a broad variety of colors and two different sizes for hands and feet.

Please visit us on Facebook to see more images of Handy. Remember to stay updated, as there are many other  exiting items on the  way.

Poppy is simply a two-folded square of soft, organic cotton added with snap buttons which gives a fascinating artistic look  when snapped together.  It rests on the childs creativity and ways to imagine things and allows them to experiment with a vast variation of ways to wear Poppy. But when you first look at it, it is noticeable that buttoning is a key factor for children that play with Poppy.

We all know that buttoning can be challengingfor children and that it takes practice and usually a helping hand from adults. Maybe this is because they tend to not have the slightest concerned about how they look or how things are done.  They just want all such practical stuff to be over in a flash and run outside and play. So naturally, they are not paying much attention to what we are trying to show them which leaves us with the impression that it is a super-boring matter for them. Which it probably is… :-)

With Poppy however, children can now learn buttoning on their own premises: through play and in a fun way and without the helping if not overshadowing hands of an adult. Like all of our products, Poppy’s design is intended for creative and imaginative play and we anticipate this potential to gradually unfold.  By experimenting with different ways to use Poppy children are also experimenting with how buttoning works. They might start off making simple capes or skirts but as they experiment they will add more and more complex structures to these – hoods, pockets or arms and leg holes. Whatever they can come up with, can be tried out! It is even possible to snap one Poppy together with another and make even more fanciful design.

Poppy comes in many different colors which you can see in our online store.

Fafu’s woolen Furry Fun balls come in boxed sets with 30, 60 or 90 balls. There are no instructions, no pre-set themes to influence the direction of the childs play and creativity. This kind of free form is what makes these Furry Fun balls so special. The offer of a less structured playing element is suggesting to the kids to use their imagination and creative “muscles” by starting from scratch. The psychical form is given but the “psychological form” of Furry Fun rests on what the child visualizes. So, with Furry Fun it is solely up to the children to come up with an idea of what the balls can be used as and from there on morph this idea endlessly.

Conversely, adults can also use Furry Fun. They work great in storytelling in kindergartens, schools or at home. Recently, a teacher told us that she had used the Furry Fun balls as small figures to visualize the story of Little Red Riding Hood to make it more alive. Inspired by this, we also made a short short story – a furry fun fable if you like  – which you can see by visiting our Facebook profile. As you will notice, we stitched some balls together to create small figures. This was very easy to do and is definitely something even small kids can participate in: just let them choose the colors and sizes of the balls. Your job is then to stitch the balls together, following their descriptions of how they imagine the figures should look. Apart from the obvious use as toys, these  fluffy figures also stand as colorful decorations in the window if not your child wishes to give them as presents to his or her grandparents. The balls can also be put on a string and worn as a necklace or bracelet.

Furry Fun is a playing element for children to experiment with free forms by using their creativity. When you see your kid tossing them out all over the coffee table try to  notice how their imagination goes on a journey as the world of creativity spins around at their fingertips.

As an exciting fusion between a sweater, skirt, and Mexican poncho, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to wear Andy. This is simply up to the children to figure out for themselves. With Andy’s bright colors and quite unusual features, the garment presents a versatility of alternative ways to be worn for both everyday uses and as a costume in play scenarios. As such, Andy is more than a normal piece of clothing. Andy is a creation that can take on many shapes and is made so it is fun to wear. More than anything, Andy meets children on their own premises.

The flexible design is intended to embrace the impulsive movements and sudden changes of children’s plays. This makes Andy suitable for any kind of role-play. Children can use Andy as a princess cape or pretend they are a fearsome monster that can grow arms and legs from everywhere. Most importantly, even if the play should move spontaneously onwards, Andy can still be adapted and follow along. It is all about using the imagination and with Andy, children can live it out – with a stroke of magic, the princess cape could suddenly turn into bird wings … and who dares think of, what the fearsome monster becomes?

Furthermore, Andy can come in handy and eventually speed up the process a bit when children are about to learn to dress by themselves. On one side, with all its arm- and leg holes, Andy challenges children’s understanding of how a garment is worn and how it looks. On the other side, Andy arouses a curiosity to explore and experiment with these different schemes.

Andy lives up to what we at FAFU expect from all of our products.  They must be suitable for creative play by calling the child’s imagination to the lead but without interfering remarkably or directly with how the play develops.