Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Logan Paluch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Logan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
I love this question! Prior to opening Wild Kind, I taught kindergarten for 8 years and then worked in the childhood adversity research world- focusing specifically on how we can prepare young children for a more fulfilling life– so you could say this question is exactly in my wheelhouse! I believe three things should immediately change about our educational system:
1) We need to have more PLAY at school. More specifically, free, child-led play. Play centric learning can still achieve many traditional
2) The skills that are emphasized and praised in schools – across the age spectrum – need to be re-assessed. Yes, learning reading, writing, math and our human and global histories are really important and shouldn’t just be left in the dust. But when I think about adults I know who have fulfilling lives and careers, I don’t think of how many books they’ve read or what kind of math they can do. I think about their ability to be open-minded, their communication skills, the way they approach new situations or problems with curiosity, and their graciousness toward others. These are skills that should be celebrated and taught at schools as proudly as our traditionally academic skills.
3) Early childhood education (birth to 5) should be a more integrated part of our educational system continuum. All children should have access to affordable and quality preschool opportunities. Parents shouldn’t have to pay a leg and an arm to have the peace of mind that their little one is in a safe, supportive, and developmentally appropriate environment while they are at work. Brain development is happening so rapidly in this age group and we need to support them as such.
Logan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Of course! I am the owner of WIld Kind Toys and generally just passionate about doing what we can to create a better future for our next generations. Wild Kind is a small toy shop in Rutland, Vermont that sells open-ended toys for young children. But it’s the story of how we got here, and moreso, why we got here, that inspires and propels our everyday work. More than a decade before opening Wild Kind, when I was in college, I got the idea that one day I wanted to own a toy store that only carried eco-friendly products- products that parents could feel good about buying and I could feel good about selling. But at that time, I was on track to become a teacher and figured the toy store dream would come to fruition in my ‘sunset years’- after future kids of my own would be off at college, or something like that. Fast forward to the beginning of 2021, after 8 years of teaching kindergarten then 3 years of studying childhood adversity interventions, and 9 months of a global pandemic- it finally occurred to me that I shouldn’t wait to invest in something that I was so passionate about and I felt so strongly could help others find sustainably made toys that inspire open-ended play- of which I believed could lead to more creative, innovative, and resilient kids. So the seed of Wild Kind was finally fully planted in January of 2021 and by December 2021, the Wild Kind Toys brick and mortar store and online website came to life.
My 10+ years of experience in education and childhood research has helped guide our store’s four core beliefs: The Superpower of Play, Open-Ended Toys, Thoughtfully Made Products, and Mission Driven Shopping
A little bit about each of those…
The Superpower of Play: We believe that children learn and experience through playing and should be given all the opportunity to do just that. Play for children truly is a superpower- it’s where their brains grow, it’s where they learn how to interact with others, and it’s where they process what happens in the world around them.
Open-Ended Toys: Children should be the captains of their play- not their toys. Toys should be used as a vehicle to the actual play. Children are so good at creating and imagining, but only if they have the tools (toys) that let them do as such. These types of toys are ‘open-ended’ because they allow for lots of opportunities for play, and that open-ended-ness of them is what propels children’s imaginations and creativity- important components for a healthy brain development!
Thoughtfully Made Products: This goes back to my initial college dream of an eco-friendly toy store. Our environment is critically important and by ensuring we’re putting products in our children’s hands that respect our environment and respect the people who make the toys, we’re setting our kids (and our planet) up for a brighter future.
Mission Driven Shopping: Wild Kind is lucky enough to be set in a supportive community that celebrates small businesses and looks after their own people, so another piece of our mission bloomed as we set our roots here in Vermont: giving back. And, while we’re still a relatively new store, we try to give back when we can. We donate to local organization raffles when possible, participate in community events like ‘Green Street’ – where the whole main street gets laid over with sod for a day of playing- and we donate proceeds of certain sales and portions of profits to local organizations who work daily to uplift children and families.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
That you don’t have to have ALL the answers before you begin – it’s okay if it’s a little messy and it’s definitely okay if you need to pivot away from a strategy or idea that ended up not working as well as you thought it would. This is a lesson that I have to remind myself of very often. I tend to always want things just right before diving in- from the smaller things, like an Instagram post or display in the shop, to the bigger things like our branding and website. I’ve always been a little bit of a perfectionist, as I think many of us might be, and it wasn’t until starting Wild Kind that I realized I put a lot of expectation on myself to be really good at something before I even start doing it. And, on the other side of that same coin- I’d be really reluctant to do something if I wasn’t sure I’d be good at it. But, starting a small retail business doesn’t really have room for that kind of hubris or hesitation- so I learned (and am still learning) to just do my best and alter what I’m doing as I learn from the results.
Any advice for managing a team?
We have two part-time employees at Wild Kind and were fortunate to have found both from our customer base. We take a lot of pride in how awesome they both are and how well they represent our brand. It’s a true joy to listen to them work with customers to find the perfect toy or baby gift. That being said, we’re also a fairly new store and still growing our brand- so we can have some pretty slow days. It’s in those times that it’s most important to me that our employees feel confident and content at their job. It’s important to me that they feel they have some autonomy at the shop- that they don’t feel like I’m always checking up on them and that they know their opinions are valuable to me. I love when they suggest new products or brands to carry or give ideas for displays- and I try my best to incorporate as much as I can. It’s also really important to me that they know we respect them as people, not just as our employees. Their families and their own health very much comes first and if that means we need to close the store for a day so they can focus on those things, then that’s what we’ll do. When I was teaching, a principal I worked for told me that he works and lives by the philosophy of ‘never ask someone to do something for you that you wouldn’t do yourself’ and I’ve carried that with me and try to also operate in that way. (A good pay rate is also very important!)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wildkindtoys.com
- Instagram: @wildkindtoys
- Facebook: @wildkindtoys