World in a box

Dominoes, Flash Cards and Interactive flashcards

The pandemic may have robbed children of a whole year of their childhood, but what it cannot snatch is the power of their imagination. Your little one may not be able to trot across the globe this year, but a Horniman Circle-based toy brand promises an experience that comes pretty close. With a range of books, toys and interactive play kits, BrownBox takes children on armchair adventures like never before.

Flash Cards

With cool facts like how the popular Margherita pizza got its name from an Italian queen to the magical floating islands that are home to the indigenous Uros of Peru, every product focuses on culture, customs, people, cuisines and wildlife beyond geographical borders. Founder Sonali Shankardass shares that the focus is to help children soak in lessons beyond the classroom. "Children learn by reading, watching TV shows, travelling and keenly observing their surroundings. Each product is a conversation starter, filled with fun facts that pique their curiosity, make them think out-of-the-box and expose themselves to ideas, cultures, histories, geographies and lifestyles other than their own.

Animal safari in Australia

She shares how BrownBox's animal safari kits are perfect to introduce children to topics like poaching, recycling and forest conservation. Apart from these travel-themed ideas that take older children up till the age of eight on trips to Italy, Peru and Kenya, they also have a special Mumbai-themed domino kit for children in the two-to-five-year-old age bracket. The kit comes with an interactive set of 18 pairs of domino squares that can be lined up on the floor. Each domino introduces them to the big city landmarks, ride its unique transport like the kaali-peelis, auto-rickshaws and BEST buses and even meet its residents from the tapri chaiwala and the dabbawala to the milkman and even the traffic police. What is interesting is the bunch of flashcards with the set that have poems and fun facts on Mumbai, and its people, written on them.

Sightseeing in Mumbai

Shankardass elucidates how the research behind every product is based on the many trips she took with her children. "As we went sightseeing in Scotland, I realised how children noticed things differently when compared to adults. While we discussed the theories of the Loch Ness monsters, what caught their fancy were the cute highland cows. And so our kits attempt to pack in juicy tidbits to blow their mind. Like what if we told you, there's a theory that says flamingos are pink because of the shrimps they eat. Children don't forget that!" she says.

Sonali Shankardass

And so if you think your little one would enjoy whipping up a pizza and laying the table with a chef in France with interactive stickers or learn the unique fishing methods of the Uros, these kits could be a good start.

Cost Rs 599 to Rs 999
Log on to brownboxtoys.com or @brownboxtoys on Instagram

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