Guaranteed Safety and Quality
Schleich is a German brand with nearly 90 years of experience in designing and producing animal figurines.
The company follows strict safety standards: non-toxic materials, child-safe paints… and that truly matters when we know that 96% of toys purchased on marketplaces like AliExpress, Temu, and Shein fail European safety standards, and nearly 9 out of 10 present serious health or safety risks for children.
Each figurine is hand-painted. Complex patterns, like the spots on giraffes, are first applied using printing techniques (such as pad printing), then finished by hand. This careful craftsmanship is one of the reasons Schleich figurines feel so realistic and high-quality.
Precise Details that Nurture Your Child’s Curiosity
These figurines display incredibly accurate details: the textures, colours, and proportions closely reflect the real animal. Children love details for many reasons:
A Sense of Wonder
High-quality toys invite children to slow down and truly see. At their own pace, they observe, touch, and explore. In these quiet moments, they discover details that adults often miss. And through this wonder, imagination, creativity, and learning naturally unfold.
Discovering the World
In The Discovery of the Child (1948), Maria Montessori explains that materials should present reality with precision and exactness, especially for children aged 3 to 6, the age of the absorbent mind. For this age group, objects that are faithful, realistic, and accurate matter deeply, because inaccurate representations can create lasting confusion. Schleich figurines support this essential connection to real life.
Realism that Fuels Imagination and Opens the Door to Learning
Here are some ideas for play and activities!
Realism that Supports Meaningful Pretend Play
With realistic figurines, children invent richer stories. Symbolic play is essential for emotional development. Children replay situations they need to process or overcome. With Schleich figurines, they might:
- Create a world: a farm, savannah, jungle, ocean…
- Tell a story by choosing a few animals and imagining an adventure.
- Play veterinarian: caring for the animals, checking them, feeding them.
- Build families: some Schleich animals come as family sets.
- Engage in cooperative play with friends, saving an animal in danger, for example.
And to spark inspiration, you can start a story and let your child continue it with delight. And little by little, you pass the lead to your child.
Wonderful for Sensory and Creative Play
Schleich figurines are open-ended toys: no rules, no goal—your child can combine them with whatever they want.
For example:
- Create obstacle courses with building blocks. My children naturally use Magna-Tiles for this!
- Make footprints in kinetic sand.
- Create pretend food with playdough to feed the animals.
- Build a sensory mini-world with semolina, sand, water, or ice cubes.
This versatility enriches play and naturally encourages autonomy, creativity, and problem-solving.
Supporting Natural Curiosity and the Desire to Learn
The realistic details invite questions and help expand vocabulary. Children learn animal names, characteristics, habitats… with ease.
Here are a few ideas to support their learning:
- Play guessing games: take out three figurines, describe one, and let your child identify it. You can switch roles and gently increase the difficulty by choosing figurines that look more alike.
- Observe footprints, anatomy, and differences between animal families (like felines).
- Introduce scientific concepts: predator/prey, herbivore/carnivore, habitats.
- Sort and classify figurines in many ways.
- open the door to geography: my children love placing animals on a world map.
You can also explore early math:
- Counting: “Give me three farm animals.”
- Sorting by size: from smallest to largest.
- Creating sets: “Make a group of five savannah animals.”
- Quantity concepts: many/few, more/less.
In Conclusion…
Schleich figurines nurture your child’s sense of wonder.
To help your child discover a wide variety of figurines, consider subscribing to the Lil’ Discoveries Rental PlayKits
Each PlayKit, designed by age and theme, invites exploration: Nature, Space, Australia… Every two months, children discover 5 carefully chosen educational toys to awaken curiosity and wonder.
