- Nurturing the next generation through mindful toys and play
Oleeto Co-Founder Anupama Nawalage[/caption]
Driven by Co-Founders Niroshan Jayawardena and Anupama Nawalage, Oleeto crafts premium quality non-toxic wooden toys that are 100% designed and made with love in Sri Lanka. All Oleeto products are sustainable and have been tried and tested with safety in mind to keep your little one engaged, healthy, and happy.
Brunch chatted with Oleeto Co-Founder Anupama Nawalage for a little more insight into this cool new children’s brand.
The Oleeto origin story
Giving us some insight into how Oleeto came to be, Anupama explained that as sustainably minded and eco-conscious parents, it was important for her and Niroshan that their children understand their values. “As eco-conscious parents, we care about the planet that we will leave to our children (and their children) one day,” she shared, adding: “It was important to us to create toys that engaged our children while also doing our part to save the planet.”
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Oleeto Co-Founders Niroshan Jayawardena[/caption]
But why create toys? “Play is fundamental to any child’s happiness and as young parents navigating the pandemic with our children indefinitely out of school, parenting brought with it new expectations and responsibilities,” Anupama said, adding: “Play is how we can nurture our children’s sense of curiosity, imagination, fantasy, and creativity. Some children have a harder time playing than others, and this is where we as parents need to step in and guide them in the right direction, especially when it comes to off-screen creative activities.”
For Anupama and Niroshan, the pandemic was an opportunity to reignite playtime and bonding experiences, and as home education became the norm, they understood it was more important than ever for playtime to also be an opportunity to learn.
How Oleeto communicates its values through playtime tools
Oleeto toys are 100% designed and made in Sri Lanka from a base of sustainably sourced rubber wood. “Our goal is to design timeless pieces that can last for years,” Anupama explained. “The base of each Oleeto toy is crafted from locally grown rubber wood, breathing new life into rubber trees which are usually cut down and destroyed when they’re no longer useful in latex products. Each Oleeto toy is also hand-painted using non-toxic water-based paints (EN 71) to make sure they are safe for children,” she noted.
To further work towards a healthier and safer planet, all Oleeto packaging is plastic-free, easily recyclable, and safe for children. Oleeto also makes the most sustainable choices possible when transporting their goods from their workshop to their customers.
Anupama explained that wooden toys make a wonderful alternative to the cheap, mainstream plastic toys you see in the marketplace.
Parents are surrounded by cheap, loud, non-durable plastic toys that do more harm to children than good – from the harmful, toxic chemicals these toys use to the heavy impact they have on our environment. These plastic toys almost never decompose and will most likely break before you get the chance to recycle them, and that is if they are recyclable at all. “Wooden toys are a wonderful, eco-friendly alternative to the cheap, harmful toys thrown at us every day,” Anupama explained. “They are much more durable, can handle wear and tear much better, and if made mindfully, are 100% biodegradable.”
Creatively, Oleeto toys encourage children to open up their imagination and find new pathways in pretend play, role play, and more innovative methods to play. Niroshan and Anupama have designed their toys to spark natural curiosity, help develop fine motor skills, explore problem solving, improve hand-eye co-ordination, enhance social skills, and much more. It is also Oleeto’s firm belief that wooden toys make children more aware of the environment they live in. Contact with wood gives them a friendly warmth at playtime and allows them to form a long-lasting bond with nature from a formative age.
Oleeto’s tried and true success
As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding, and in Oleeto’s case, Anupama shared that they’ve been able to test their products on their own children to see how effective the toys are. The results have been extremely inspiring. “Our kids fell in love with the pieces we created and seeing them enjoy these wonderful toys, we decided to share our products with the rest of the world so that other children (and their parents) could enjoy these lovely wooden toys,” Anupama said. “A happier child means a happier parent, and with Oleeto, happiness is guaranteed.”
Appealing to parents on the importance of being mindful with how we engage our children, Anupama said: “As responsible adults and global citizens, we need to make a change, and that begins with our mindset. As millenials, the majority of parents today have grown up to value ethical viewpoints and practices, and these are values we are passing on to our children – protect the environment, help people, leave behind a better world. Wooden toys are undoubtedly environmentally friendly, and through choosing wooden toys we’re not only choosing a sustainable option, but also teaching our children about issues like climate change, pollution, and an increasing carbon footprint, and showing them how their choices can help fix these issues.”
To learn more about Oleeto’s premium quality non-toxic wooden toys, please visit:
Website: www.oleeto.com.