Shop
Sutradhar’s retail outlet closed in July 2017
While there are many book stores and toy stores across India, learning resources require a special environment and effort to be retailed. The sourcing, review and sale of these materials is best done by educators and child development professionals. A special centre for learning resources serves both users looking for educational resources as well as developers seeking to market and disseminate their materials. The Sutradhar shop brings together a range of play material, teaching aids, folk games, children’s books and teachers’ books. There are over 1500 resources developed by over 150 groups across India and these are sold at the centre and at exhibitions that are periodically held across Bangalore city. The resource pool is dynamic – new and improved materials come into being and old ones are phased out or discarded.
A range of delightful books is available at the centre. Among them are storybooks by Indian publishers for young children, picture books, bilingual books and big books.
The Karuna kit, a versatile collection of 100 storybooks for the primary school library, can be used for life skills or value education.
Craftspersons across India have fashioned ingenious folk toys and games from waste and natural materials like bamboo, wood, coir, shells and stones. Sutradhar stocks these indigenous games as they build children’s skills and sensibilities and offer a unique playing experience for families.
Teachers’ resources
Sutradhar has an invaluable collection of books for teachers. They are categorised under nine headings: early learning; education; mathematics; media in education; science, health and environment; sexuality and gender education; social studies; special education; value education. There are documents of projects, hands-on manuals, reflections on educational philosophy and innovative textbooks. Many of these books have been developed by educational groups and are not available in mainstream bookstores.
Kits for teachers and learners
Sutradhar stocks a range of kits, some of them specially put together to meet specific needs, for children from birth to 10 years.They deal with a variety of subjects: early learning, special needs, math, language, value education, science, and even music and games.The kit materials also reinforce our aim of providing young children an Indian context to their learning experience.
Many of the kits have been developed by experts in the field, and a lot of thought has gone into selecting appropriate material. Eg., for the Early learning kit, meant for 3 to 6 years, we designed 4-piece puzzles, flash cards with pictures of real fruits and vegetables, refined an existing Chennapatna stacking tower and roti plate, sourced a steel kitchen set with rounded edges that would not only be safe for children to use but also easy to clean.
The very unique Karuna kit for language and value education has books painstakingly selected by our expert panel to fit into suitable thought provoking themes for young children between 6 and 10 years of age.