We are guided by our values. 

Awareness, Community, Compassion, Creativity.

To have awareness is the ability to know, perceive, feel and be conscious of things and people around you. It’s about tuning into feelings, emotions and reactions, and responding in an appropriate way to each situation. 

Community means living as a collective group in harmony, sharing a common purpose and goal. 
Strong communities have members who look out for each other and contribute towards the common good. 

Communities hold each other up. It takes a village to raise a child.  The more people work together as a community, the stronger they will collectively become. 

Connection, Family, Contribution, Fulfillment. 

Courage, Giving, Empathy, Humility.

Moral courage involves doing what is right by others, particularly when the potential risks may involve shame, opposition or their disapproval. 

Courage is not about who we claim to be, but rather who we reveal ourselves to be through our words and actions.  Actions speak louder than words.   

Humility is the quality of being humble and realising that you are no more important than any other person. Those that are humble have little vanity or ego, but realise their own value in society. 

Those that are humble put themselves on an equal footing to others around them, seeing too the value in them, and how much more we can be together. 

Someone who spends their life taking care of or looking out for others shows humility, by working towards a greater good. 

We are greater than ourselves. 

To have empathy is the ability to connect with other peoples emotions, and imagine what someone else might be thinking or how they are feeling. It’s about understanding other people and acting with sensitivity towards them. 

Empathy is to walk in someone else’s shoes, walk their path, and feel their pain. Empathy is to feel more than your own emotions and to be aware of more than your self. 

Fairness, Integrity, Frugality, Kindness.  

To demonstrate fairness is to think about how your actions may affect other people, and act accordingly. To be fair means to listen with an open mind, without discrimination, treating everyone as equal whilst remaining impartial.   At The Vintage Toy Box we promote fairness as we believe every person is equal and should be treated the same.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral and ethical principles that you choose to live and act by. It’s about doing the right thing by others and feeling comfortable that your actions led to something good. Integrity is about choosing to be a decent human being.

Kindness means doing something nice for someone else without expecting anything in return. Kindness is about being respectful and helping others without wanting someone to help you back. The act of being kind is not just being nice but showing empathy and understanding.

Harmony, Loyalty, Honesty, Questioning.

Living in harmony means to live peacefully with others, having an unspoken agreement to have different ideas and feelings and considering this before taking action which may upset the balance.

To show loyalty means you have a strong feeling of support towards someone, and will demonstrate this support to them, and if necessary defend them if required.  True loyalty comes from the heart.

To be honest simply means being true to yourself and true to others. 

It may be very hard to be honest at times as sometimes being honest can lead to consequences if you have done wrong. Being honest though shows integrity in wanting to right the wrong. 

People appreciate honesty, it shows you can be trusted. 

It’s always best to be as transparent as possible. There is strength in admitting our faults. We are after all only human.   

It is important to question things around you. Questioning is the most simple and most effective way to learn. Brilliant thinkers never stop asking questions because they know it is the best way to receive a deeper insight. The more questions we ask, the more knowledge is gained.

Reliability, Sharing, Resilience, Strength.  

Sharing is a vital life skill and our most basic form of human interaction and well-being. Sharing allows us to develop, and most importantly, keep friendships. When you share you get to experience the enjoyment together. 

Sharing is caring. 

To have resilience means you have the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or tough situations. It means that you have the ability to adapt well. To be resilient means you can 'bounce back'. What doesn’t knock you down, makes you stronger.

Gratitude, Respect, Tolerance, Truth.  

Having respect for yourself and others is one of the most important qualities a person can have. Respect is a positive action or feeling towards someone or something that you consider important. You can show respect for others in simple ways like by using polite words, by using positive comments, playing fair and listening to what someone is saying to you, even if you do not agree. 

To be tolerant means you have the ability and willingness to accept others. 

Teaching children about tolerance is important. As they grow they will learn to accept people who are unlike them in a fair, objective way.

Tolerance is about being patient, having understanding, and accepting ideas, beliefs and opinions in a respectful way.

The world would be a very dull place if we were all the same. 

Being truthful allows us to grow and mature and allows others to put their trust in you. When people trust each other they grow together and can conquer anything. Trust is important for society and for forming social bonds.

Teach our kids today to be the adults of tomorrow.