Create A World

The Boy is becoming incredibly interested in letters and words, he tries to follow our reading with his fingers, although obviously the pointing is quite random as he can't read yet. He's beginning to ask what signs say and finding letters around and about. When we were asked to review the ABC add-on kit for the Create-A-World that we'd previously reviewed, I was more than happy to accept in order to give The Boy some challenge and help him have something concrete to work with.

The kit comes in its own zippy fabric bag with a fuzzy felt style mat to lay the letters down on. This in itself means that you don't have to have the main Create-A-World set to use it. We've shown how it works on this video.

The ABC kit retails at £19.95 from Whitestep directly. I think it's a very good set to help your children develop their understanding of the alphabet, letters and phonics. And fun ways to teach children phonics is always welcome in this house!

I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

When I was a little girl, one of the must-have toys at the time was Fuzzy Felts. I was absolutely desperate to have a set, but never managed it because they were quite pricey at the time.I'm 34 now and have always had a little part of me that wants a Fuzzy Felts set, even though in all honesty I know they were never quite as good as I anticipated.

Before Christmas, Whitestep heard my call and sent me a Fuzzy Felts set to play with and all was right with the world.

Ok, so a few things aren't strictly true about that statement.

It's not a Fuzzy Felts set, it's something even better called Create a World.
They sent it to The Boy, dammit!

Create A World is a fantastic tool which helps to develop creative play. Like the classic 1980s toy, the pieces are made out of felt and are in the shape of people, animals, cars, the natural and manmade world, etc. but with the added and improved twist that they are much bigger and also printed on.

The playmat is designed to either go on the floor or fixed to a wall (velcro adhesive pads would be good for this) and is large measuring 90cm by 130cm. There are ninety printed and cut-out pieces to play with on the mat, creating worlds as varied as the beach, a mountain range, the moon, a swamp, an inner cityand fairy-tale castles. There are a wide selection of animals, people, vehicles and objects to help build up the worlds and develop story-telling. All the pieces are stored in a handy zipped pouch, and this pouch and the (folded) mat have a storage bag with handles.

I've given The Boy imaginative toys to role-play before and depending upon what they are, he either ignores them or enjoys them immensely. His PlayMobil house is one of the most successful toys ever, but his Happyland toys may as well not exist to be honest. Therefore when I presented him with the Create a World set, I had no idea how he would react.

He loves it!

The Create a World set helps to develop:

Imaginative play
Social skills and collaborative play when used by several children
Language skills through discussion, story-telling, nursery rhymes and acting out
Knowledge of their environment and the 'Wider World'

As a trained nursery nurse and teacher who studied the importance of play as a part of a child's development, I cannot rate this highly enough. If you're looking for a special birthday present, I'd seriously suggest investing in this toy which will be used in a variety of situations for years to come!

Create A World is available from Whitestep directly and is priced at £49.95.

I was sent this product for the purpose of the review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.