“Play is the highest form of research”.- Albert Einstein
“Playtime is precious. Play builds brain pathways for thinking, creativity, flexibility, empathy and many other lifelong skills.”- Heather Shumaker
The Educational Toy Industry
It is said that playing is an essential part of a child’s early development and toys are the most popular medium.
Educational toys are informative toys used for the social, cognitive, physical, and emotional development of toddlers, infants, elementary, preschoolers, and middle school kids.
Harnessing the burgeoning demand for educational toys amongst parents right from the infant phase, the brand that emerged and has been evolving since its inception is Curious Cub. Curious Cub was launched in May 2021.
The Foundation Year & The inspiration Behind the Journey
Curious Cub was launched by Shreya Mittal & co-founded by Pulkit Bhansar at the age of 30 and 25 respectively.
When Shreya Mittal’s daughter was born during the lockdown, like all parents she researched a lot about toys that can be suitable not only from a safety viewpoint but also ignite curiosity and foster learning right from early childhood.
“When my daughter was born, I knew I could not wait till preschool as I had read in various books that 80 percent of brain development happens in the first three years. I wanted to stay on top of things, much like other parents,” she says.
She discovered that most of the toys available in the market were light & music toys that only helped in gaining a child’s attraction but did not spark a child’s critical thinking ability. Also, the play-school environment was becoming increasingly competitive necessitating the child to be prepared in advance.
Shreya addressed this gap in early education by launching Curious Cub, where she manufactures age-appropriate ‘passive learning’ toys sold as play kits. Advocating playtime with a purpose, these toys are based on the Montessori philosophy with its two-pronged approach of ‘Learning by Doing’ and ‘Learning to Learn.
An Outline Of Curious Cub’s Unique Product Offerings
Curious cub is a school before preschool, wherein learning starts right at home.
A Curious Cub play kit is more than a box of toys. Each box has 8-10 Montessori-inspired toys designed as per the child’s current age that aims to provide fun, bonding, and brain stimulation for a purposeful playtime. The uniqueness of their product also lies in the fact that it has toys for micro stages of each developmental milestone broken down into a window of 2 months each. Toys available in the market cater to 6 months or 1 year or 2 years and the gap is so large that babies/toddlers develop different skills growing with each month that goes untapped if not given with the right set of toys.
Parents need not hunt for suitable toys in the market or on websites as Curious Cub’s accumulated toy box provides all the toys suitable for a particular month a baby or toddler is into. Also, they have a play guide to simplify parenting by providing why each product is given in the box. Other than toys, they also list down activities that can be done with babies/toddlers of different months with simple, reusable items at home.
The Customer Base and Reach of the Brand
Curious Cub has so far already delivered approximately 10,000 orders across Pan India. They have provided their toy boxes to leading celebrities – actresses Esha Deol, Shirya Sharan, and a very known singer Neeti Mohan. Their products are available online on leading websites- Amazon & Nestery India.
Company’s Vision & Mission
Curious Cub’s mission is to be known as an early learning platform and simplify the struggle of parents by providing the best meaningful toys. The brand aims to share all the activities and important concepts that they have gathered through their research for engaging the child and harnessing their potential skills with age-appropriate toys.
A few years down the line, the Company envisions being a leading wooden toy manufacturer in India especially when the government is taking many measures to ban toy imports from China.
website link – https://www.curiouscub.in/shop
Instagram link – https://www.instagram.com/curiouscub.in/
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