Exhibiting my educational toys

A friend of mine had been a consultant for educational products, but recently moved to another part of the country since her husband was promoted. Before they left, though, she introduced me to her supplier and I then became a consultant, too. Now, I am NOT a salesperson, but I thought I would give it a try anyway, and if it didn't work, I would still be able to buy discounted products for my own children.

Well...on the very fisrt night after joining, I was paging through the product catalogues to familiarize myself with 'my' products and soon as I was too excited to go to sleep. I felt like I had struck gold! See, I had been reading about teaching Montessori in the home for quite a long time by then, and have made several Montessori-like activities for Sweetpea, but the real, bona fide Montessori materials were just too expensive for me to buy. But now I had discovered quality, locally-made products which could very easily be adapted to Motessori activities! Things like a rubber 'moveable alphabet' (one side smooth, the other textured), number builders, sensory shapes and the like had me churning out activities for my toddler in no time!

Just to be clear, though, the products I sell do not assume to be official Montessori tools AT ALL, and many of them are plastic, but with a little creativity and a good knowledge of Montessori priciples, they can be very useful indeed. And then there is a whole stack of other products, too, that are really good, educational toys and games, but not related to any Motessori activities.

Anyway, back to my lack of selling skills. I suppose my enthusiasm has compensated for that, because I just had two successful exhibitions in the past two weeks, and received several orders from primary and pre-schools this month! I am so excited!

As I needed some focussed time with the moms attending the exhibitions, I arranged for my new friend Nicolene to bring over her super-cute tables and benches for a bit of cookie decorating with the children. It was a huge success, as you can see!

a tasty sample

oh so proud!

busy bees!

Nicolene offers classes for children from age three up, every first Saturday of the month, from her house in De La Haye, Bellville. Send me an e-mail if you are interested, and I'll pass on her contact information to you.

If you missed the past two Saturdays' workshops, watch this space for upcoming events. And send me an
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