Tales of the unexpected with The Boy, my pride and joy.
Every time we cross the Second Severn Bridge to England, The Boy is fascinated how a 1km long road can be held up by two posts 'and a few wires'. He's asked a few times if we can make a bridge like it, and I'd seen an idea recently about using aluminium foil to construct with so decided to combine the two together.
LEGO is one of toys that I've been anticipating The Boy playing with for a few years; he likes creative toys and producing something, plus it's a great, traditional toy which is so versatile. However, when other two year olds were busy with large construction blocks and building garages and houses, he would merely turn to another toy disinterested in LEGO's potential. Who knew that it would only take last year's trip to the Mecca of all 'blockheads' everywhere (LEGOLand) to ignite his curiosity in Duplo, and since then LEGO. We last went in October half-term and I ended up smuggling two boxes of the stuff (for his Christmas presents) back to the car, wrapped in my coat so he couldn't see what they were, "No darling, mummy's just hot. That's why I've taken my coat off"!"
Last week I received a parcel which sent The Boy into raptures of delight! To celebrate their new promotion, Shell and their technical partner Ferrari have teamed up with LEGO to produce six exclusive models. In the range there are; Scuderia Ferrari truck, Ferrari F40, Ferrari 150° Italia, Ferrari 458 Italia, Ferrari FXX, and a Ferrari 250 GT Berinetta. Each one is powered by revolutionary micro-propulsion engines, the smallest ever pull back engine built by LEGO. And we were very kindly sent one of each model, along with a storage box and instructions on how to race them.
This is the first piece of proper LEGO that The Boy has played with, and we had great fun making it together; me deciphering and translating the plans into minute steps for The Boy, and him almost putting them in the right place each time. However, we got there in the end (despite daddy coming and taking over completely with one car) and decided to test them out to see which of the cars was the better at the jump-ramp we positioned in his tuff-spot.
I need to warn you that this video was the last one I could handle recording; it was the eleventh 'take' and we'd gone from mad chatter to doing it in silence, via him getting completely confused and doing the cars backwards. By this time, I was delirious with hysteria (the mic on my phone went weird at one point), he'd turned into the biggest over-actor of them all (no Oscar awards ceremony for us in the future) and we were cold.
In order to get your hands on these models for £1.49 each, fill up with £30 of Shell V-Power Nitro+ Unleaded or Diesel at any Shell garage between now and 8th January 2014, the cars are available while stocks last. LEGO and Shell are also encouraging you to get involved by videoing one of four exciting challenges (found here), and uploading and sharing it via twitter, Instagram or Youtube using the hashtag #LegoChallenge. There are a great selection of prizes for the best entries. More information can be found here.
We were sent the above products for the purpose of this promotion.
Since discovering how good our Step2 water table is as a centre for Small World play, I've been keen to come up with different scenarios to stimulate his imaginative play. Using Happyland style toys has always been difficult for him, as it is for many other children. Contrary to popular belief children don't always know how to play, especially with imaginative toys promoting role-play; they do need guidance to show how they can re-enact situations they encounter. And likewise the benefits of Small World play are massive as it allows them to work through stories from books, real-life events or the concepts on a television programme for example.
When I set out a Small World scene, I usually have the characters doing something which prompts The Boy to continue their actions and provides a play opportunity straight away. I allow him to play freely for a short amount of time first of all before stepping in and (teacher talk now) 'facilitating his play', gently guiding the direction and providing him with scenarios to process. We play together for another five-ten minutes and then I step back and let him play freely.
He's still not great at engaging to be honest, and that might just be because he isn't geared towards imaginative play at the moment. However, I'm not going to stop providing him with the opportunities and encouraging him.
I have used the Happyland construction site we've had for some time, along with a few other diggers that we have, and placed the crane on the lower level. I poured sand all around the bottom to hide the plastic base, then put sand on the upper level and a pile of gravel (this is actually spare fishtank gravel) in a corner to be moved by the diggers. I placed the various play figures and vehicles around the table, engaging each on in an action.
He had great fun with this and spent ages scooping up the gravel, pouring it into the back of a vehicle and then transferring this down to the crane.
In total this activity took ten minutes to set up, and provided hours of fun.
Even though The Boy is getting older and therefore more independent in his choice of toys, I still try and steer him towards the quality end of the spectrum; wooden toys that encourage creative play. Haba is a brand that caters just for that.
As an online wooden toy specialist, ToyJeanius was more than happy to send me something that she thought The Boy would really enjoy playing with; something to get his teeth into.
The Haba On Duty tack zap game is a toy which involves laying out brightly coloured, wooden, pre-shaped pieces to create a picture, and then tapping them into place (through the pre-drilled) hole using the tacks and light hammer onto a thick corkboard. The theme of this set is construction/emergency vehicles and provided inside the box are three heads, four wheels, two tracks, eighteen other pieces and enough tacks to nail them in. (There are other Haba tack zap games which could be used alongside it to create different scenes.) There is also a handy pamphlet with nine templates to follow if inspiration is needed.
For The Boy, this is an ideal toy as he can either copy the templates or make a picture up himself, and he pretends to be Grandad hammering as he's playing it. The corkboard is of a good quality that the tacks don't fall out, giving them a little press first when tapping them in is something I'd recommend as it gives a grip to start off with. The tacks obviously have a point to them, but they aren't dangers and the wooden hammer is just the right size for little hands. I would say that it's to either do one piece at a time, or lay them all out and push a tack into place, as otherwise the pieces bounce all over the place when hammering them down.
This toy has given The Boy hours of fun, and as it is for 3-7 year olds I can see it lasting for a few years yet!
The Haba On Duty tack zap game is available from ToyJeanius for £14.95. Readers of this blog can receive a 10% discount by entering TheBoyandMe at the checkout.
We were sent this item for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.
