About Us

Our Mission
At Primary Concepts, we believe the early years to be a unique part of a child’s development. Therefore, we focus on the essentials of the primary curriculum, emphasizing engaging, motivational, hands-on learning for academic success. We translate the most current educational research and best practices—as recommended by NCLB, Reading First, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics—into developmentally appropriate learning materials that offer ease of use for teachers, and effective outcomes for young children.

Our History
Our company was founded at a time when it wasn’t easy to find multisensory materials to engage children with different learning styles. We like to say that we were hands-on when hands-on wasn’t cool.

30 years ago, a couple of like-minded Early Childhood Special Education teachers crossed paths in Vallejo, California. Ilsa Perse and Ruth Ingram’s students were often severely disabled, yet the expectations for these children were so high that teachers from regular education classes began asking how they could get their students to learn the same skills that the special education students were learning. What was the trick?

Teachers who visited the classes all commented on the incredibly fun activities that were available--counting pigs and babies, sorting three sizes of clowns, cars, and bugs, and learning phonics by sorting objects that represented short vowel words.  How to get all the great stuff to teach these skills, and how to organize it all?  When teachers were told that they could make these activities themselves, they responded by asking Ruth and Ilsa to consider making and selling them.  And Concepts to Go was born.

Just like the famous computer companies, it all started in a tiny, leaky, and inconvenient garage in Berkeley, California. But when teachers at schools for the gifted and for the learning delayed ordered the same things, Ilsa and Ruth knew that their dream of creating materials that could be used by all children was coming true. The hunt for all the special objects, and all the hours of sorting, counting, and packing, had been worth the effort.

Today, that philosophy of multisensory, active learning has moved into the mainstream, and we have evolved too. Ilsa and Ruth are retired now, but we miss them and honor their vision. As Primary Concepts, we continue our mission to take the most important, constructive trends in curriculum and produce down-to-earth, creative classroom materials. We take the most current and worthy ideas and turn them into practical teaching tools for the primary classroom teacher, and for parents looking for ways to make learning more fun and useful at home. We welcome you, and hope you enjoy our products.