About

Founding Story

TigerKubz’s mission is to foster the love of learning during the early childhood years by empowering parents with tools to engage their child in educational activities.

Sheryll Yu, founder and CEO of TigerKubz, was a working mom wanting to engage educationally with her toddler. She didn’t have the time to look through, let alone prep, all the interesting activities found online and on Pinterest. She resorted to what was most accessible: workbooks, but it was very limited for toddlers and an ineffective way for them to learn.

After getting burnt out at work, Sheryll joined the 43% club of women who left their careers behind to be a stay-at-home-mom. She was finally able to commit time to teach her toddler and started creating her own resources to support his learning.

As she embarked on her journey to teach her toddler, she learned more about early childhood education, child development, and the actual skills parents should teach their children to develop the cognitive and social-emotional needed to be successful academically and personally. Most importantly, she learned that parents do not have to spend a lot of money or invest a lot of time teaching these skills. This was when she realized that parents, especially working moms, do not have to choose between focusing on their career or their child’s cognitive development.

Sheryll envisions a world where parents can have a thriving career AND play an active role in their children’s early development. By career, that includes stay-at-home parents, homeschooling families, and anywhere parents choose to invest their time to achieve personal fulfillment.

A friend saw Sheryll’s early stages of hands-on learning kits, pushed her to share these kits with other parents…and well, here we are. TigerKubz enables Sheryll to utilize her talents and fulfill her passion while having her family along for the ride.

The Ah-Ha Moment!

Hello there! Sheryll here. I hope you enjoyed the founding story. My favorite part is always learning about a business’s “Ah-Ha!” moment so I’d like to take a moment to share mine with you!

When I made the decision to leave corporate America to focus on my two boys, (then 9 and 2) I found that most of the mommy-and-me programs for toddlers were play-based. I wanted something more academic without having to commit to expensive in-person programs.

We ended up reading lots of books every day but noticed he had a favorite book that had to be included in our reading list. Every. Single. Night.

One night I had a conversation with him that went like this:

Me: Do you know what a crocus is?
J: No.
(Okay, I get that, because even I didn’t know it was a type of flower.)
Me: How about a tight-rope walker? Trapeze? Circus?
J: No.

How could this be…we read this book a million times…why didn’t you ask!? Well, because he’s TWO! That’s when my mind started thinking about all the different ways I could teach him various subjects to help him fully comprehend a story and connect it to his world.

As I experimented with this concept in other books – I discovered that there is a learning opportunity in every book – even the simplest of books!

Take Little Blue Truck’s Christmas. Did you know the book has a strong science emphasis? It’s all about pine trees and you already have a captive audience, so why not teach your little learner about the life cycle of pine trees?

The Runaway Bunny is a simple and sweet story – but it’s jam-packed with new ideas a 2-year-old probably doesn’t fully understand like what gardeners do or what a circus even is. The learning kit contains two “Create-A-Book” activities to extend your reading further by learning more about what they are about. In the story, the little bunny runs and hides throughout the book. Instead of using flashcards to teach numbers, use the theme from the book and play bunny hide-n-seek: stealth number recognition edition.

If you have a toddler at home, you know that their attention span is very short. I found that the trick to get my toddler’s attention is to turn everything into an active (learning) game, so you will find that TigerKubz’s products have a hands-on component to it and is a highly effective way to engage active children.

The problem with hands-on learning materials is that they are extremely time-consuming to create. Sure, you’ll find thousands of ideas online, but for parents who are already overloaded with things on their plate – it can feel defeating to know that your child will thrive with hands-on learning, but do not have the time to create it on your own, and there really aren’t a lot of pre-made solutions in the market out there for you even when you’re willing to pay for it. How do I know this? Because I too was that parent. And that is a problem I’m trying to solve on behalf of all busy parents out there who are trying their best for their children.

Thank you for following along on my journey as I make hands-on early childhood learning materials more accessible to every household. Once you start using the learning kits, my hope is that your child will start asking you “can I play the next activity?”, just like my child did with me. That is the sign of YOU igniting your child’s love of learning.

If you’re ready to start embarking on YOUR journey to bring hands-on learning to your home – sign up for our free mailing list!

Meet the Team

Desiree London
Community Manager & Social Media Analyst

Desiree is a current undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in English & Creative Writing. During her time in school, she has been active in the community by working in local elementary schools to assist teachers in managing large classrooms. She recognizes the need for each child to receive an equal and valuable education, and her beliefs fit right in with TigerKubz’s mission.

In her free time, she loves to read YA and NA fantasy novels, keep in touch with friends, and foster kittens!

Angelina Zhang
Content Marketing Specialist
Angelina is an undergraduate student majoring in International Relations and Business Administration. She is proactive within her campus and hometown community by tutoring young children and volunteering as a faculty representative and mentor for incoming university students. Community and learning by example are values she upholds throughout her daily life and aligns with the empowerment and passion of TigerKubz for parents and little learners alike.

Some of her hobbies include making music with friends, managing her cat’s social media, and watching reality TV!