ChildTrek Blog

By Miebeth Bustillo-Booth, ChildTrek Founder

ChildTrek’s 2008 Holiday Season
As ChildTrek’s buyer, I bought much of the holiday toys and books in the summer. Then October and the stock market did its best to scare most retailers. As a parent, however, I had faith that Santa was still going to make his stops.

And the jolly old elf came through - in a big way. In fact, his elves worked overtime to make more toys!

As I stare at our empty storage shelves, I can’t help but imagine children who giggled their way through December mornings - rocking their horses, playing their wooden drums, slicing pretend fruits and vegetables, stacking their new wood blocks, building model cars, cradling their dolls and stuffed animals. I can’t help but smile at the thought of babies and toddlers around the country on their parents’ and grandparents’ laps reading books from ChildTrek.

Although, I may never meet most of the families who graced ChildTrek.com this holiday season, it still gives me much happiness and gratitude that we were a part of their joy in some way.

I am also deeply grateful to the Puget Sound community — particularly our hometown, Tacoma, WA – for its loyalty and generosity of spirit. Thank you for supporting ChildTrek and for making the ChildTrek storefront a part of your family’s holiday celebration.

Together, you — our online and storefront customers – far exceeded our expectations. Thank you so much for your business. We appreciate it very much.

The ChildTrek team wishes you good health, much happiness, and enduring prosperity. We look forward to serving you again in 2009!

Holiday Season Pictures

Customers enter the ChildTrek Tacoma storefront.

Anna Davis from the Washington Toxics Coalition discusses children’s safety initiatives during ChildTrek’s Green Play: A Toy Safety Fair.

Jennifer and son, Kristof, are tested for lead levels by a certified nurse from the Pierce County/Tacoma Health Department during ChildTrek’s Green Play: A Toy Safety Fair.

Customer Katie Kuijper and son, Grady, enjoy ChildTrek’s Plan Toys selection.

The Green Play winning entry for a free Educo Professional Workbench!

A grandaughter of Gladys (Winner of the Educo Professional Workbench) enjoys the wooden bench before taking it home. Congratulations!

By Miebeth Bustillo-Booth, ChildTrek Founder

ChildTrek carries a large selection of the multi-award winning Plan Toys at competitive prices. They are green, smart, and safe.

As a former teacher, I am impressed by the educational themes and thoughtfulness with which Plan Toys are designed to promote open-ended play, creative role playing, as well as stimulate intellectual and emotional development. These are truly amazing natural toys.

In upcoming blogs, I will review individual Plan Toys like the Solid Wooden Drum, Xylophone, Activity Clock, Shape & Sort it Out, Geometric Sorting Board, and others to explore benefits of specific toys. For now, let me begin by sharing adapted statements made by Plan Toys.

Plan Toys are Green
All Plan Toys are made with clean, natural rubberwood recycled from rubber trees that would otherwise be cut and burned. This process emits carbon emissions, creating carbon gasses that contribute to global warming. Plan Toys breaks this cycle by making high-quality toys with this beautiful hardwood. If that were not enough, Plan Toys takes the time to stabilize the wood using a chemical-free kiln-drying process instead of chemical preservatives.

Plan Toys is also one of the few toy companies that have gained environmental certifications. Here are examples:

1) Environmental Management (ISO 14001), which reflects the Plan Toys’ company’s commitment to environmental awareness and activities.

2) OHSAS 18001, which certifies Plan Toys as a company that provides a safe and healthy working environment.

3) Social Accountability Management (SA 8000), which recognizes the Plan Toys company’s policy to provide full and equal opportunity to all of its workers.

Plan Toys are Safe
Plan Toys assembles toys using a proprietary non-formaldehyde glue instead of traditional toxic wood glue. The glue emits no formaldehyde fumes and is rated E-Zero.

Plan Toys uses water-based dyes to color its toys. The colors are environmentally-friendly and non-toxic to children.

Plan Toys produces all of its toys in its own factory, which ensures complete control of materials and workmanship.

Plan Toys also has achieved the following safety certifications:

1) Quality Management (ISO 9001) for world-class product quality and service standards.

2) Toy Safety Standards (ASTM & EN71, — otherwise known as North American & European Safety Standards, respectively) for EXCEEDING international toy safety standards.

Plan Toys are Smart
Plan Toys makes toys with strong educational themes. From building blocks, to shape sorters, to games, puzzles and pounding toys, Plan Toys offers age-appropriate challenges for intellectual and physical development. Plan Toys offers open-ended play, creating a setting for hours of role-playing, creative play and emotional development. Plan Toys promotes the importance of play in a child’s development by combining design, age-appropriate challenges, and open-ended play to empower children, encourage social interaction, and reward discovery.

Check out our selection of Plan Toys.