Maitland Library offers Pop-Up Toy Library to bring joy and education

Maitland Library will launch a new Pop-Up Toy Library program on 20 October, designed to bring joy and educational opportunities to children aged from birth to eight years of age living in the Maitland community of New South Wales. 

To be hosted in the Gillieston Heights hub on Fridays between 3pm and 5.30pm, the toy library will have a collection of toys, puzzles, costumes, blocks, dolls and games available for hire, suitable for children from newborns to early school years available. 

The toys purchased for the library will be durable and safe, eco-friendly, culturally diverse and geared towards developing fine motor, gross motor and cognitive skills.

The initiative is supported by RDO Hunter distributors for John Deere, and responds to 2021 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) findings which showed that one in five children residing in the Maitland LGA were developmentally vulnerable in one or more domains. 

“This initiative strives to support children as they embark on their educational journey, nurturing a lifelong passion for learning through play,” Maitland Libraries coordinator community participation Carol Edmonds shared with the Newcastle Weekly.

“We have specifically chosen toys that align with the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) and we hope to provide opportunities for children to learn, grow and play their way to a brighter future.” 

There will be no cost for families who wish to access the toys, with members of Maitland Libraries automatically joined up to the toy library as well. 

For more information about the toy library and the launch event, please see here. The original coverage of this story is available here.