Welcome to the PodSquad family! If you are reading this blog post, it means you already have some idea of what we’re all about. My name is Abha, and I am the founder of PodSquad. With me, I have the wackiest, craziest, smartest and quirkiest team and together we’ve created PodSquad for your little ones.
I switched from an Indian system of education to an American one at the age of 15, and studied in Boston and worked in New York for 8 years. During my stay there, and upon my return, I got used to hearing the following statements all too often.
‘Oh your so lucky to have studied abroad, our system here is all about memorising and no creativity’
‘Oh, can you buy me so and so product please? I only buy products from the US for my kids, Indian products are just not upto the mark’
‘Oh, I’m sure you love it there, and wish you had left earlier! Isn’t the Indian system so weak in comparison?’
All these stray comments got me thinking. I began to explore the children’s education space to see for myself what these comments signified. And sure enough, I found a lack of products that were creative, educational and accessible. Hunting through toy stores in crowded markets, overpaying for imported products, or giving in to dreary looking packaging seemed to be the only options!
Luckily for me, my family background served me in good stead. The company my parents founded has been operating in the children’s industry for over a decade, developing curriculum based and supplementary content for national and international publishers. I had access to a large team of experts, ranging from teachers, educationists, child psychologists, children’s authors and illustrators. That decided it. I got together the best minds in the business – education, art, design and ideas. And we set to work, to create a children’s educational brand that made them learn by stealth.
Our focus was to be at the junction of fun and learning. We found, that many Indian parents tend to force their children to do things they might not like or are weak at, putting them off a subject entirely. We came up with our first challenge. How could we have something for every child, when every child is so different.
Some love being indoors, some outdoors. Some love animals, some fear them. Some have excellent memories, and some don’t. Some love numbers, some hate them. Each of these characteristics determines the way they absorb and learn about the world around them. Puzzled, we scratched our heads to address this and develop something that would cater to all types of children.
As we dug into our experience, we found much to our amazement that renowned Harvard Professor - Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence addresses this very insight! Using his theory as the foundation of our product, we went straight to work creating and designing. Finally, the PodSquad Learning Programme (for kids ages 4-7) was born, starting with our PodSquad Activity Box. Be it arts and craft, science experiments, unique logic puzzles, speedy card games and more, we laboured for months to develop just the right activities for your little ones, and fill our boxes with a variety of such hands-on learning tools.
So who are the PodSquad? They are little friends for little people! Pods are the delightfully adorable gang of friends who make learning fun for kids. There’s a Pod for every type of personality and mood that a child can be. Happy, Sad, Naughty, Shy, Friendly, Grumpy.. the list goes on.
Today, we live in a digital age. We know, that many parents complain of too much screen time. But the reality is the world is moving digital and our kids are going to be exposed more and more to iPads, computers and smart phones. So we thought, why not complement our PodSquad box with digital content too. So that our little users get access to a range of digital content on our website, be it interactive games, worksheets or videos.
While we hope our packaging is designed beautifully, we’ve also focused on convenience and reusability with our drawer box and drawstring bags. There is nothing worse than filling your house with plastic, cardboard and clutter!
Given that I spend the better part of my day online, I find that ecommerce is the future, and so our venture is entirely online on our website at www.podsquad.in.
But who knows! If all goes well, you may see us peaking of the shelf of your local toy store as well. :)
Look forward to welcoming you to our Pod family soon!
Abha
Founder - PodSquad
Director - Quadrum Solutions
