News

In 2014, Dave Russell, the founder of this company, was told that his youngest daughter Niki had a case of noise-induced hearing loss.  He was devastated to realise that this was caused by the pair of headphones that she wore daily.

With the increased usage of electronic devices, hearing loss is a growing epidemic.

Read more .... 

https://www.playhao.com/collections/puro

Watch the creative pattern design toy, the Kaleidograph. Made in the USA, the Kaleidograph produces billions of possible combinations. 



We’re happy to share that we were selected by Singapore Tatler as a Best Toy Store award winner for 2015.

Details of the award are available on our awards page.  This awards spurs us on to continue showcasing toys which are stylish, smart, safe, and which you and your child will enjoy playing together.

We are conducting Rainbow Loom and Monster Tail workshops at Playhao!

Fri 20th June and Sat 21st June 2014  Recommended age 5 and up.

Hurry, places are limited!

Conducted by peers 10 and 11 years old who have experience sharing and conducting Rainbow Loom workshops.

(All materials will be provided.  For participants only, buy 6 packs of bands and get 1 mystery pack FREE!)

Purchase tickets for Rainbow Loom sessions here ... (30mins) $8

Purchase tickets for Monster Tail sessions here ...(45 mins) $12

I grew up in a family of teachers, and adored them all. My aunts and uncle were teachers, their friends were teachers, and they could just about cajole me into doing anything they wanted me to do.

On 2 January this year, my son entered Primary 1. And over the past few days, I have been reminded just how important and influential teachers are.  

As a Parent Volunteer during the first 3 days at school, I saw the School Principal beautifully and professionally attired, constantly mingling with the children radiating warmth and kindness. I was reminded how much I loved my own school principal, and how inspiring she had been.

In the classrooms where my son and I were at (I was chaperoning another Primary 1 class), we saw teachers patiently helping nervous children and putting them at ease. Yes, we had an entire discussion on how wonderful the respective teachers were.

An incident which happened on the 3^rd day of orientation brought home how in the midst of the madding crowd, teachers do think on their feet, and exercise the power to turn an otherwise potentially scarring experience into a happy one. The little ones had put up an Appreciation Concert for the Parent Volunteers, and it was a terrific show! One of the little girls who was dancing however, suffered stage fright midway through her performance. The teacher who was emceeing the event quickly brought everyone’s attention to the next item, whilst another teacher came to calm the little girl down. Performing in front of 400 pairs of eyes can be very daunting for a 6 year old. Nonetheless, at the end of the scheduled programme, the teacher emcee announced that the sporting little girl wanted to try again. Try she did, but once again the little girl was struck by the size of the crowd and fell silent. The teacher acted quickly, and before the little girl could burst into tears, asked everyone else who knew the song to come on up and dance together. The happy Primary 1s complied, and soon, what could have been a flood of tears turned into a huge happy grin as the little girl danced away happily with her friends. Great save, Teacher!

On the 4^th day of school, the children had to be dropped off for the first time. As the cars came up the long driveway, the first person the children saw was the Principal, welcoming them with a warm smile. Standing closely behind was the Vice-Principal, offering yet more reassurance. Teachers lined the driveway, waiting to receive the children as they were dropped off. As the car door was closing, the children were reminded to say bye bye to their parents and wave. The teachers had also arranged for Primary 2 children to come guide the little Primary 1s down to the basketball court. I watched as a Primary 2 boy put his arm around my son’s shoulders and chatted with him as they walked down the stairs. Somehow I knew everything was going to be ok.

Thank you, Teachers. 

When Cuboro launched Tricky Ways in October 2013, we fell in love with it immediately.

We have worked closely with Cuboro since the earliest days of playhao, and from the start, known that their toys are real winners. We just needed to bring it to more people. So we have worked ceaselessly to bring down the pricing for this amazing range of toys to make it more accessible. There is an incredible amount of logistics, financing and planning that goes on behind the scenes! Cuboro on its end has played its part by developing new toys which are harder and harder to resist. First the Mystery Cube (which is deserving of whole blog posts on its own), and now Tricky Ways!

Tricky Ways is a marble track system board game. Each player takes turns to try to lead their marble to an empty finish field, passing as many cuboro cubes as possible in the process. If you think that sounds simple, try considering that there are surface and tunnel tracks to take into account, as well as 12 finish fields and only three changing actions allowed per turn. The tricky thing is, the little kids find it really easy to grasp the game, whilst the adults fumble. You can imagine the squeals of laughter and how thrilled the kids get.

As it turns out, Tricky Ways shares many of the same traits as the other members of the Cuboro family.  It gets little kids to PLAN. Yes, actually plan their next move and consider the consequences. The tactile feel of the cubes make planning concrete for the kids. Then the marble is the proof. Did your plan lead to the desired result? i.e. Does the marble roll to the finish field you intended for it to reach? If not, what do you have to do to debug the process?

The children don’t even realize it, but they are actually learning the basics of computer programming as they play. Each cube constituting code, the marble rolling over the proposed route being running code, and adjustments made constituting debugging.

Enuf' said, let’s get down to playing!

Get yours now at: http://www.playhao.com/products/cuborotrickyways

It always gives me a little thrill when I hear someone pronounce our name play好 (hăo). Whenever I hear that pronounciation of our name, it always feels as though the person is in on our little secret. You know! I feel like exclaiming (as I sometimes do).

There is meaning in everything we do. It was a conscious decision to create a name which is unique (playhao is not an entry in the Oxford Dictionary yet), but also holds great significance. We took as much care naming playhao as we did naming our children.

After all, playhao began life because we wanted only the best for our children. Like so many of you do.

So we carry only good (好) toys, stimulating, which promote intellectual vigour, yet which also bring hours of laughter and fun. Something aesthetically pleasing we are happy to have in our homes, and which smells good too. We are demanding people.

But apart from representing the fact that we carry only the best things in life, we also wanted a name which reflects how we have something good for girls and for boys. So here is where it gets technical - the word 好 stands for “girls and boys” when you break it up into its component parts 女(girl) and 子(boy). There is something good at playhao for every boy and girl. (Our sons and daughters choose to think however, that they are personally represented in playhao’s name.)

Naming this baby play好also acknowledges how important we view bilingualism to be, quite apart from the fact that naming the company ‘playgood’ just would not have been half as fun!

A few months after playhao was christened, someone shared that Lego means “playwell” in Danish. Sheer coincidence? Or a classic case of great minds think alike.