Funda Toys

Our trainer knife is far easier to cut with, motor skills wise, than the handled knives that often come standard in these fruit cutting kits. Your toddler will gain more control and master a new skill in an age appropriate way while feeling success. Once they have mastered this skill they are able to move on to the handled knives with ease.

Our knives are R220 a set and we ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽.

Blocks are one of the best tools to encourage holistic development at every stage of early childhood.

Blocks are open-ended and encourage imaginative play and problem solving. Children explore fundamental concepts of mathematics and physics. The different shapes encourage shape recognition. Children are able to sort the blocks, classify, construct and participate in visual play, all of which aid cognitive development. Block play also encourages social and language development through cooperative play and collaboration.

Funda Toys sensory blocks add another dimension to play with primary coloured perspex in the centre. Through incidental play, children learn about colour, and as the light shines through the blocks, the colours mix and form secondary colours. This lays the foundation for learning about the colour wheel and colour mixing.

Cast light shadows on the wall at night, using our Sensory Blocks and a torch/light.

Make moving pictures or constructed towers, what ever you choose you're sure in for some fun!

We have our last set of Sensory Blocks available before we discontinue production, so now's your time.

DM to order, we ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽.

The developmental aspects of cooking with young children.

Social-Affective Development:
Hands on cooking activities help children develop confidence and new skills. Following recipes encourages children to be self directed and independent, it also teaches children to follow directions and develop problem-solving skills.

Physical Development:
Fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills are developed through chopping and slicing. It trains dexterity in children’s hands at a young age.

Cognitive Development:
Cooking encourages children’s thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. It also allows children the opportunity to use the knowledge they have and apply it by counting, measuring, following a sequence, following directions, and cause and effect.

Language Development:
Cooking offers the opportunity to develop language by linking it to all other areas, including Mathematics, Science, Arts, and Literacy. This is done by encouraging children to talk about what they are doing, counting, and watching materials change color, texture, and medium.

Our Beech wood Child Safe-knives cost R220 and we deliver Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽. DM to enquire.

Why high contrast cards?

Babies are compelled to look at high contrast images, especially from birth to +-14 weeks old and up to 6 months.

Babies not only love to look at high-contrast black and white patterns, but it is also incredibly conducive to their visual development. The high contrast distinctively stands out in their blurry worlds. They find the high contrast patterns attractive and it grabs their attention, helping them focus. They find the contrasted images with simple lines and bold patterns easier to interpret and it supports different areas of development, for instance:

Cognitive development - It develops and lengthens their attention span, improves memory and stimulates the development of the optic nerves, without over-stimulating them.

Newborns’ brains contain very little myelin. This is the reason babies process information at a slower rate than adults. Most areas of the brain begin adding myelin in the first 2 years of life in the areas that receive the first input from the senses (visual input).

High Contrast images assist the physical development of the baby in the following manner:
-Visual Development:
Bold black-and-white images stimulate the development of the optic nerves. Focusing on such visual stimuli trains newborns’ vision, teaching the eye muscles and brain to coordinate and function optimally. If you continuously provide opportunities for visual input the retina strengthens, the optic nerve grows, and the visual part of a baby’s brain thrives and develops significantly.

-Enhancing tracking abilities:
Tracking is when a baby moves their eyes to follow an object. Tracking helps your baby to learn where an object is in space and how it differs from its background so that they can reach for it.

-Muscle development:
Through tummy time your babies’ neck, back, and chest muscles develop, preparing them to hold their neck up and eventually for rolling.

We will discuss the benefits of high contrast cards on the affective development of your baby in our next post.

From birth, babies use their eyes to discover the wonders of their surroundings. Even before they learn to reach and grab for objects with their hands, their eyes are the tools being used to take in information about, and stimulation from, their environment. This is incredibly important for their development, holistically.

At birth, babies are unable to focus very far, they can only see objects clearly that are about 20-30 cm away from their face (the first three high contrast cards are perfect for this period, these are the butterfly, the tiger stripes and the bull's-eye).

Bold black-and-white images stimulate the development of the optic nerves. Focusing on such visual stimuli trains newborns’ vision, teaching the eye muscles and brain to coordinate and function together. Consequently, research has proven that black and white contrasts register powerfully on a baby's retina and send the strongest visual signals to a baby’s brain.

We offer a set of 6 High Contrast Cards that have been specially and specifically designed to meet your babies visual development needs for the first 4 months of their life. Get in touch to order for R180 a set.

Enjoy our Baby Domes, designed to give your baby a year of play!

From birth The Baby Dome can be a safe and secure space for your baby to exercise their visual development using our high contrast cards that are positioned on adjustable arms to keep the cards about 20cm from your babies head (and further away as they develop). Your baby can enjoy tummy time, learn to grab objects and learn cause and effect using danglies.

Get in touch to order, you can get a Baby Dome for R1000, including delivery to anywhere in South Africa.

Happy Twenty-plenty-three!

We hope you have had a slow, family filled time with the opportunity to nurture your nervous systems, be present with your kids and recharge!

And if not...

We see and feel you, mama! You are doing a frikkin great job and we want to thank you for all the space you hold for your loved ones. You are seen and appreciated!

Funda Toys is going through a change this year! We will be discontinuing certain items and bringing in a bunch of new items. We are open again on the 10th of Jan and we look forward to sharing our new journey with you!

Thank you for walking this journey with us!

We wish you all a happy festive season.

Remember less is more!

Our Child-Safe Knife |
.. Is not just for in the kitchen.

Use it in clay, playdough, slime or any sensory play.

It's on special until tomorrow for R200!

DM to order.

Come and find our Baby Domes and High Contrast Cards at the Made in the Cape artisan market Gift Fair in Noordhoek, Cape Town from the 8th to the 11th December.

We hope to see you there 😉

Friends who chop together stay together 😜

Shop the perfect stocking filler, a child safe cutting knife! Enjoy years of meal preps together.

R220

We hope to see you there!

Curated selection of the best local artisans designers and artists.
See below list of your favourite local creative brands participating in our 2nd Noordhoek Gift Fair 8 to 11 December.
Doors open at 9am.
Coffee and delicious nibbles.

R10 entry per adult in aid of 3 local charities



See you there!






















home.decor


products

Toadstools 🍄

We've got Toadstools of all sizes, super duper big chair large to small 15cm fit in your pocket size. You can select to have them natural or painted.

DM to order.

Come and visit us at the Made in the Cape artisan market, a Noordhoek Gift Fair from the 8th to the 11th December.

In addition to developing a baby's senses and motor skills, our Baby Domes help intellectual development as well. They illustrate cause and effect and boost knowledge of patterns, colors, shapes, sounds, imagination and self-discovery. These are vital to your baby's cognitive development.

Get one for R1000 including shipping Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽.

DM to order.

The perfect stocking filler! Get a Child Safe Knife for R220 and enjoy preparing meals together ✨

DM us to order, we ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽

Enjoy colour casting outside in the sun this summer🌞.

We use primary colours so children learn about colour and colour mixing through incidental learning as they play.

Toadstools 🍄

Get your beautiful Toadstools, painted or natural.

DM to order, we ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽

A reminder that delivery is FREE for this product to anywhere in South Africa.

Our Baby Domes bring a year of play to your babies and meet their holistic needs from visual development to gross motor and language development.

Get in touch to order, we ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽

Also, a very happy First Birthday to this little model, Alana. She is a ray of sunshine here on earth. Congratulations my friend Carina 🧡💫

Look at this amazing tower made using a combination of traditional wooden blocks and our Sensory Blocks.

Thank you to the incredible teacher Leigh from Mother Moon for sharing these photos with me.

Blocks are the original S.T.E.A.M toy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths) which help inspire creativity and critical thinking skills with interactive play!

DM to order! We ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽

The weather is warming up and it's making us think of salads, fruit platters and crudités. Imagine the fun of preparing these as a family 🙌🏽.

Get in touch to order! Our Child-Safe knives are R220. We ship Nationwide 🇿🇦💪🏽.

Our Sensory Blocks are great for teething too 😉.

Our blocks are very durable, safe and non-toxic. They may even last you generations!

The Baby Dome |

A sustainably-made wooden dome shaped (three-legged) baby play gym to place over your play mat. Made only with baby safe materials (non-toxic and natural finishes). The dome has nine holes on the top to dangle high contrast objects. There are three adjustable card clips included to position high contrast cards to best meet your babies visual development. The Dome comes standard with a set of 6 high contrast cards.

Play gyms are suitable from birth to about 12 months of age. The baby dome is designed to meet your child’s developmental needs through their first year of life.

These domes are still on SPECIAL for R1000 which includes delivery to anywhere in South Africa!

DM to order.

The endless possibilities of open-ended play!