About Book & Toy
Book & Toy are experts in children’s books. From new babies through to young adults, we consistently seek out the best authors/illustrators and the most brilliant titles. Many of the children’s (English) books seen today in Costa Rica were first seen in Book & Toy. We improve literacy via our collaboration with Letterland, a highly successful methodology that teaches reading and writing in English as a first and as a second language.
As well as books, we bring wooden toys, jigsaw puzzles, board games, Montessori materials and STEM based materials. Everything is chosen for its fun element, but everything has a developmental or educational component. Relax in the knowledge that as they play, your children are learning.
The Book & Toy Story
Someone told me that the UK had the best picture books ever and that families here would love them. The Book and Toy Company was created in 2006 by Julie Godfrey to expose Costa Rica to the best of the best English picture books for children at a time when almost none existed. Since then, the range has been extended to cover books for all of childhood from babies to young adults. We are proud of the fact that we still carry the widest selection of children’s English language books available in Costa Rica and continue to introduce new authors and titles to the local market. All our books are carefully hand-picked to include the best from the United Kingdom and other countries that make learning fun and help every child realize their potential. Although English language books are our specialty, we also offer a range of Spanish titles and are proud to promote local authors (Talento Nacional).
As people got to know us for our books, we started to hear that they wanted toys of the same quality and careful selection that we apply to our books. Preschools were also having problems sourcing their Montessori and other classroom materials and so the toys element of the business was added. All our toys have an educational intention to them. Our products are carefully vetted and we personally meet with all our suppliers. Our Design Lab range is based on STEM education with brands such as SamLabs and MakeDo. We want every person who buys from us to be confident that every single item from Book & Toy makes a positive impact to their child’s development and education.
Due to requests from schools and teachers, we added an advisory service for English teaching materials and resources for project based learning. We also help identify and sourcing the best textbooks and workbooks to work with, specialising in resources for the iGCSE (International General Certificate of Education) and all levels of the International Baccalaureate (IB).
Mission
Enable parents and carers to be the best they can be by making accessible the books, toys and knowledge that allow their children to reach their full potential.
Vision
To be the recognised experts and ‘go to’ place for books and toys for all ages.
The Importance of Reading
Reading is the foundation of academic success as well as helping children to better understand what is going on, to be more articulate and this have increased self confidence. To achieve confidence in reading and develop a love of reading, we work closely with Letterland from the UK. Letterland is a phonetic based system with 50 years of experience that uses characters to bring the letters to life. Used as a reading system in the UK, US and Australia, it is also excellent for helping non native English speakers learn correct pronunciation as well as the basics of reading. It is highly audiovisual and an excellent resource for getting children started with English. Currently it is used to teach English in more than 100 countries including Costa Rica. Although developed for ages 3 years and beyond, the initial stages can be used with children as young as 2 years old. Materials for the system include picture books, games, workbooks, flash cards, basic reading books and very comprehensive teaching guides containing lesson plans, activity ideas and templates. To complement all of this is their Phonics Online web based platform.
See http://www.letterland.com/what-is-letterland and http://www.letterland.com/teachers
for more details. Phone for an appointment if you would like to see samples of the materials. The Letterland methodology is formally recognized by the UK Ministry of Education conforming to its Essential Letters and Sounds curriculum, it correlates to the US Common Core Standards and links into the Costa Rica Phonics based curriculum for English.