bamboo aLPHABETS
A literacy and numeracy toy for children in remote areas, made for Sauramandala Foundation
Sauramandala Foundation works for remote communities, providing energy, education and employment primarily in J&K and the North-Eastern states of India.
During the start of the pandemic, they approached us to design a toy for the children in the remote parts of Meghalaya facing disruptions in their primary schooling. Our main goal was to keep Literacy and Numeracy skills in use. We also wanted to use the medium of Bamboo to ensure that the local communities had continuous work during these tough times. The production of this toy has taken a few setbacks, but the design work is complete.
The design of the toy enables a two-player or a single-player mode, and a free play or a competitive mode.
The possibilities for creating new cards and new challenges are endless. The word and number tiles can be used to play other games like scrabble, jumble and hangman as well.
The child would look at images on cards relating to five topics: Animals, Shapes, Colors, Verbs and Rhyming Words. Each of these topics had three levels of difficulty in spellings. There were also number cards with Additon, Subtraction and Multiplication.
The child would also be able to create their own cards and play with a friend, sibling or family member to challenge them to spell or calculate.
