We are Tracie and Kylie, two life-long best friends that have come together with a common vision and formed Nurture Play Australia. We are mum’s with hectic lives, raising 3 children each including a son with special needs, while running our own Family Day Care businesses on the Sunshine Coast and in Melbourne. We both have close to 30 years experience each working in Early Childhood Education.

Nurture Play Australia came to life out of necessity due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. Changes in both our personal and working lives this year forced us to re evaluate what resources we were providing our day care children and our own families. The need to stimulate children with a range of ever changing toys is critical for development.

Good quality locally made products are nearly non-existent. What was available from overseas is incredibly expensive, with long wait times when bought online, or made from materials that we weren’t convinced are produced naturally or sustainably. Our kids were missing out and we thought this just wasn’t good enough.

The COVID 19 lockdown periods gave us time to do our research, so we decided our kids deserved better and took the opportunity to start Nurture Play Australia. We have spent months designing and creating our handmade resources.

As Family Day Care Educators our priority has always been to provide our children with quality sustainable resources that are educational and open ended, so this was the direction we wanted to take our business in. 

We sell Australian made wooden resources designed and made by ourselves and our wonderful craftsman on the Sunshine Coast and in Melbourne. Nurture Play Gem Blocks and our Double Sided 4x4 Gem Block Sets are our most popular products. We also have a range of Literacy and Numeracy resources, plus Waldorf Inspired Peg Dolls.

We want to provide our customers with the opportunity to purchase quality wooden toys that are made here in Australia using locally sourced materials that are sustainable, while working with a friend who has the production know-how to bring our ideas to life. So far, our customer feedback has been incredibly supportive and positive because they are receiving products that are designed with experience, made by hand and packaged beautifully – all with love.