MESH Helps Accredited Toys are Very Cool + Learn about the Chuck E. Cheese x MESH Helps Collaboration!

I recently learned about the amazing collaboration between Chuck E. Cheese and MESH Helps for Mental Health Awareness Month, and I absolutely love what they’re doing to help families better understand the connection between play and children’s emotional wellness.

Supporting children’s mental health has always been incredibly important to me. If you’ve followed along here for a while, you know I’m constantly sharing ideas, activities, toys, routines, and resources that support children’s emotional well-being, confidence, resilience, creativity, and overall development. Helping kids build healthy coping skills and emotional strength in fun, meaningful ways is something I truly care about as a parent.

That’s why I was so excited to learn more about MESH Helps and their incredible mission. MESH Helps is a nonprofit focused on helping children build resilience through play by strengthening mental, emotional, and social health skills. I love their approach because they’re showing families that play isn’t “just play” — it’s one of the most powerful tools kids have for learning communication, confidence, empathy, problem-solving, emotional understanding, and connection.

One of the coolest things about MESH Helps is their MESH Accreditation program. They evaluate toys, games, and products based on how well they support children’s mental, emotional, and social development through play. The MESH Accreditation Seal helps parents, caregivers, educators, and therapists identify products that intentionally encourage resilience-building skills like coping, creativity, teamwork, communication, storytelling, emotional regulation, and confidence. I think that is such a meaningful concept for families trying to choose toys with real purpose behind them.

During Mental Health Awareness Month, MESH Helps launched their nationwide Play for Resilience initiative, bringing resilience-building play experiences to families across the country through libraries and more than 450 participating Chuck E. Cheese locations. Families visiting Chuck E. Cheese locations from May 1–8 were able to learn more about how play supports social-emotional development through special in-store messaging and activations featuring MESH Helps.

I especially love that many Chuck E. Cheese locations already offer sensory-friendly time a couple times each month, creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for kids and families. Partnering with MESH Helps feels like such a natural fit because the toys and resources they feature help kids learn important life and emotional skills while they play, create, build, imagine, and connect with others.

We recently received an amazing box filled with some awesome MESH-Accredited toys and games, and my kids were immediately obsessed. These are such great examples of toys that encourage imagination, creativity, emotional growth, teamwork, and problem-solving in ways that feel genuinely fun for kids:

• Plus-Plus
• MindWare
• Magna-Tiles
• The Calm Caterpillar
• Jelly Blox by Goliath
• Shashibo by Fun in Motion
• Makedo Invent Kit

My son and I genuinely love that these toys are intentionally designed to support learning, emotional growth, and connection through play. That’s the kind of play I’m always looking to incorporate into our home!

If you’re looking for ways to intentionally support your child’s emotional development this month — and all year long — definitely check out MESH Helps resources and learn more about their mission and accreditation program. I’m truly inspired by what they’re doing for kids and families!

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