BeginAgain Gives Play a Chance

Who hasn’t wanted a second chance, the opportunity to start over? Wouldn’t it be great to go back and have the chance to change something in the past? Since there are no time machines, the best we can do is to try to make the future a better place for ourselves and the people we care about.

As Dr. Laura Schlessinger once noted, “Children are our second chance to have a great parent-child relationship.” Parents are excited to have the chance to give children all the things they never had — or could have. The brains behind BeginAgain toys have taken those ideas and created products that match children’s desires to be creative with adults’ desires to promote sustainable living and healthy toys.

The founders of BeginAgain are buoyed up by a sea of awards, ranging from the Parents’ Choice Approved Award for its Tea Otter set to its award as Dr.Toy’s 2012 list of Best Green Products for the Treasure Hunt game. The Kickin’ Putt outdoor game made it to the final round for ASTRA’s Best Toys for Kids program. The innovative toys and games, which are constructed from eco-friendly rubber, wheat starch plastic, and bamboo, are in high demand . After all, while parents can’t “do over” their own childhood, they can make their own children’s environment more earth-friendly, while developing the creative process in their progeny.

BeginAgain, a Fort Collins, Colorado company, was started by two industry veterans in search of innovative designs that were not going to add to landfills, but still fill a niche in the market for high quality, creative toys. With this in mind, Chris Clemmer and David Bowen turned to the philosophy of a local early 20th century innovator, Benhamin Barlow, who explained his own insights about the nature of children’s play in a research-based article in Inventor and Science Digest in 1959.

BeginAgain toys are based on Barlow’s concepts: there are multiple types of play that children can engage in (and may cycle through all types in one sitting). The list of types, A WISH, breaks down into Artist, Writer, Inventor, Sportster, and Hero, with a nod towards the pre-dexterous crowd with Beginner’s Toys.

A lot of these toys could easily cross the boundaries of each kind of play. For example, while true artists need the Artist on the Go Kit — an 8x10 cotton case loaded with soy crayons, a recycled paper pad, stencils, a ruler, and pencils — it’s easy to imagine it in the hands of an imaginative Inventor (sketching out a flying machine) or a fast-moving Sportster (mapping out the next plays).

Rubberwood, the tree that provides the world’s latex, is typically grown on plantations and cut down when it reaches 25 to 30 years of age. However, these old trees are not being consigned to the mulcher: the wood easily accepts natural dyes, making it the perfect canvas to create the BeginAgain ImagiPLAY animal puzzles (in families of elephants, cats, and wolves) and yo-yos.

Revive your bottom line with the chance to Begin Again at www.beginagaintoys.com