Location:
“SUTRADHAR”
59/1, 3rd Cross, 10th A main,
Indira Nagar 2nd Stage,
Bangalore-560038
On the 6th of July 2010, we visited SUTRADHAR as a part of subject study on methods and materials for working with children. The main objective of this visit was to understand the various toys in the market designed to aid the developmental appropriateness of the child, the materials, methods used in making them, the values promoted by the toys and most importantly the need for toys as a medium of nourishing the learning process in a joyous way.
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| Puppets |
ABOUT SUTRADHAR:
SUTRADHAR is a registered charitable trust which deals with sourcing various learning materials and developmental aids, science kits, books and toys from 150 groups across the country and reaches out to various organizations, learning centers and institutions. It believes in promoting education through toys, games, teaching aids and other medium to stimulate a natural urge for learning and holistic development in a child. It was opened on children’s day in the year 1955 by Mandira Kumar, who held a degree in educational media from Harvard and worked as a coordinator for CRY. SUTRADHAR is primarily funded by Dorabji Tata Trust and supported by various other organizations like PLAN India
SUTRADHAR grew from an urgent need to respond to the scarcity of new, innovative ways and materials to be used as educational aids for children. The main focus is on the first 8 years of a child’s life as that is the most crucial stage in development. They achieve their goal by reaching out to educators, caregivers, and parents through their educational games, toys, workshops, story telling sessions, and other vibrant resources as they believe a motivated teacher or a caregiver has a potential influence on children.
OBJECTIVES:
1) To promote good quality, diverse educational media, particularly with creative materials relevant to the Indian culture and context.
2) To disseminate materials produced by educational non-profit groups.
3) To design curriculum and materials sensitive to the needs of the marginalized children.
4) To allow for the continuing growth of educators by providing opportunities for interactions, reflection and debate.
5) To invite greater public participation and to bring together the various community resources in meeting children’s educational needs.
At their store the aids were arranged as per the age group or usage of the aid. The different category in which they were segregated are as follows:
BIRTH – 2 YEARS: Mobiles, balls, music, cloth toys, rattles, activity quilts, stacking, nesting, manipulative, push and pull toys.
2YEARS – 4YEARS: Bead threading, blocks, puzzles, manipulative, construction blocks, jenga, stamps, stencils matching and pairing toys.
4YEARS – 6YEARS: Alphabets, word concepts, concentration cards, numbers and operation.
6 YEARS – 10 YEARS: Science, math resources, tool language cards, games, puzzles, do- it- yourself toys.
Teacher’s kit: It consists of a range of materials and aids for children to foster learning Math’s, language, crèche, Montessori early learning, special needs, value education, gender and sexuality, science and environment.
The other teaching materials displayed on the shelves of sutradhar were:
Construction kits – these promotes eye hand co ordination, arrangement, balance techniques.
Cloth toys like mobiles, puppets, quilts, books, etc
Kitchen sets and other sets that promote dramatized play.
Conversational flash cards which are used for language and cognitive skills.
Puzzles, matching box, teachers and parent’s manual, etc,
A plenty of colorful educative calendars made of cloth teaching about time, weather, alphabets, numbers etc.
Traditional toys like wooden toys, dolls, play sets which are mainly made of natural materials which give a child an insight into traditional clothes, occupations, etc.
This visit introduced me into working with the available materials in different ways which could help manipulate an object in different ways and use it for teaching through play without having to invest a lot of money in the making of these aids. Also while designing a toy an important aspect is on making the toy acceptable for the child to willfully include in his play and the child will use it in ways beyond it was meant to be used. Another important aspect of designing a toy is to keep it open ended as it allows the child to explore on his own which indirectly fosters creativity and learning.
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