| HSP Nature Toys was started by the late Richard M. Ray to develop educational-scientific kits for teaching children about nature's underground secrets. Dick Ray had been a founder of the Ortho Garden series and had helped his mentor, the late Walter Doty, move Sunset Magazine into four-color photography. His insatiable curiosity about nature carried him in a natural progression from publishing to hands-on, nature-related products for children. HSP's first educational kit, the Root-Vue Farm, is a fascinating garden laboratory where kids of all ages watch carrots, radishes and onions grow underground. The Root-Vue Farm generated immediate interest and was awarded an Oppenheim Gold Seal as one of the best new toy products. It has also won awards by Parent's Choice and Dr. Toy, who gave it a “socially responsible” toy award. Root-Vue has been featured on Oprah and Good Morning America! Dick's next product was inspired by a tour of the Biosphere2 project northwest of Tucson, Arizona. He developed Powersphere, an experiment station and mini-ecosystem that explores how the earth works through the power of plants, light, water, soil and air. A smaller version of this product is now called Grow Zone, an alien greenhouse where space pods and earth seeds transform! GrowZone provides lots of kid appeal while teaching about seeds and plant growth. In early 1995, Dick's son Richard joined the company and together they became fascinated with one of nature's hidden treasures - earthworms. These precious creatures are nature's recycling wonders, turning “dead” materials into organic fertilizer for plant life. Worm-Vue Wonders was developed as an underground worm viewing unit so that kids could get to know these super soil scientists! In 1996, Marjorie Ray joined the company and recently introduced Dragonflies Everywhere, a paper mache dragonfly kit. Marjorie became fascinated with dragonflies when HSP re-located to Vermont and discovered that dragonflies are really underwater nymphs most of their lives. This kit allows kids to create giant paper mache models that demonstrate the dragonfly life cycle. HSP's newest product, Grow & Gobble, is an edible seed sprout kit where kids and adults can grow their own delicious, nutritious sprouting seeds in 2 – 4 days! Sprouts are easy to grow year round without sunlight or soil. The multi-tiered unit allows two types of sprouts to be grown at once. Kit includes recipes and a reproducible hand-out sheet for scientific study in the classroom. |
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