Car Painting & Small-World Car Wash

by 21 Comments

The Boy loves painting and I try often to vary the equipment I give him so that he is able to experience the way that paint works and how it can be manipulated. We've used the traditional brushes, delved into printing with sponges and making our own tile prints, and about a month ago I decided to see what he thought of using his little Hot Wheels cars to make patterns.

To prepare for some free painting play, I:

  • put out three dishes out for him with green, yellow and blue paint in,
  • gave him a variety of different small world vehicle,
  • taped down an eight foot length of paper onto the kitchen floor.

We had great fun investigating the different tyre tracks on each vehicle, testing to see which was the most effective coloured paint for getting distinct tyre prints onto the paper, and even bordered into some science when we realised that the heavier vehicle were more effective at leaving tyre patterns. The Boy loved looking to see how the wet paints were crossing over and mixing to create new shades of green, etc. In total we spent about an hour zooming the cars back and for; the artwork is still taped to my kitchen wall because I love the colours in it so much.

Painting with toy cars

I'd already thought about the fact that I didn't want to be spending ages scouring his car afterwards, and had enlisted the help of some basic cleaning sponges and his Step2 water table to create a car wash for him. One of the simplest activities that he likes to do is go to the car wash and see the coloured foam squirt all over the car before various brushes, rollers and sponge strips clean the car.

I decided to recreate this using:

  • cheap shaving foam
  • a few drops of food colouring
  • Blu-Tack
  • double-sided tape
  • sponge scourers
  • round plastic scourers
  • a thin sponge wipe (which I cut long strips into to create the drying and buffing curtainat the end of the car wash, we call them the 'kisses')
  • Playmobil figures

The Step2 water table we have has two different levels with a slope connecting them. I filled the top level with shaving foam and a few drops of food colouring to create the foam of a car wash. Near to the entrance of the slope to the lower level I Blu-tacked some round plastic scourers, and at the top of the sponge I placed some sponge scourers; both designed to rub the dirt off. At the bottom of the slope I hung the sponge wipe 'curtain'. The lower level of the table was filled with water to rinse the cars off.

I placed a few of his Playmobil figures at strategic points with small sponges in their hands and invited him to clean his paint-laden cars off.

Small World car wash

The Boy happily played with his car wash for well over another hour, in fact he got his cars covered in paint repeatedly so he could wash them all off again. Water play is always such fun but sometimes he gets bored when it lacks focus. He also won't go anywhere near messy play if I present it to him as a dedicated messy play activity. However, the format of the car wash enabled him to experience both messy play and then wash the shaving foam off in the water if it became too much for him to bear.

Car Painting & Small World Car Wash

How To Make A Play Kitchen

by 67 Comments

I've always wanted a wooden play kitchen for The Boy, but they're incredibly pricey and we just don't have the space for one. It's such a shame because I know he'd love one and would spend hours pretending to cook on it, just as we do in real life. But I can't magic more space or money so unfortunately, I had resigned myself to no cooker for him.

And then I saw a tweet from @Scrapbookerry showing a Pinterest idea she'd seen to use a side table and turn it into a play kitchen. The idea originally came from a site called Ikea Hackers. So I repinned the idea on Pinterest, and in my brain, and we set off for the car boot sale to sell our unwanted treasures. After we'd packed up, we wondered around and with my beady eyes, I managed to spot this little gem, which I bargained the guy down to £3 for!

How to make a play kitchen

As there was no time like the present, we nipped over to the nearest DIY store and bought some white paint, a row of hooks and some knobs.

The next step was to sand it all over to remove the top layer of the black paint and smooth any sharp edges. Then to start on the many coats of white paint (four in total) I needed to cover the black.

how to make a play kitchen

Next I measured out and drew four circles on the top of the cupboard to make four cooker rings. These were painted black with a silver ring around the outside of them.

The door was removed, a plastic plate used to draw around and my husband cut out that shape from the door. I sanded the edges, painted both sides of the door, and then used masking tape to edge a piece of perspex we had lying around, and superglued it onto the inside of the door.

Finally my husband drilled five holes along the front to attach the knobs that I had painted silver, and screwed the hook unit onto the side of the cupboard.

Cost:

  • table – £3
  • paint – £8
  • knobs – £4
  • hooks – £4
    • Total = £19

    DIY play kitchen

I bought the saucepans & utensils for £14.

—

Me and My Shadow

Create-A-World (Review)

by 5 Comments

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.

  1. It's not a Fuzzy Felts set, it's something even better called Create  a World.
  2. 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.

PlayMobil Grande Mansion (A TRU Review)

by 5 Comments

And so to the final Toys R Us review from us as 2011 Toyologists. I might have a little sniff once I've pressed publish!

Please excuse the length, but this is a big and expensive item worthy of a detailed review. We're very lucky to have been sent the PlayMobil Grande Mansion and the seven room sets to furnish it.

The PlayMobil Grande Mansion is designed like a French large townhouse on three levels (additional floors are available to buy). There is an exterior to the house with steps leading up to the front doors, an opening postbox, a working doorbell, balconies on each floor (I haven't attached the hanging flowers as this toy is intended for 4years+ and The Boy is 2), windows and shutters. On the inside of the house is a spiral staircase connecting the three floors together.

Constructing the house took a while: there are many different sections, plugs to join walls and floors together, similar parts and fiddly bits. However, I was making this with The Boy present who was desperate to get to grips with it. It took me two hours (eight episodes of Poppy Cat and three of Peppa Pig) to finish it, so I would recommend making this before giving it to your child!

As a child, I always wanted a playhouse, and my dad once made me a wooden Barbie house for my birthday. This is no Barbie house, this is the next generation of playhouses and being PlayMobil it is most definitely unisex. I even had a discussion on twitter (more of that later) as to whether people thought that a playhouse was exclusively a girls' toy, and the general consensus was a resounding no!

The Boy absolutely adores his house, it is without a shadow of a doubt, the one toy that he plays with every single day for a sustained period of time. For the first week, he literally played with nothing else and I have had to bribe him away at times to play with the other toys in order to review them. The learning opportunities and possibilities to develop his understanding of the world around him are extensive, and his imagination has developed no end in the last month since it arrived.

There are seven room sets which can be bought to furnish the Grande Mansion, and (nearly) all of them are excellent quality and value for money. The accessories included are really detailed and comprehensive. However, if you wanted to build up the collection of rooms slowly and when finances allowed there are one or two that you could leave out initially.

PlayMobil Kitchen (£19.99)

This room is essential and one of the best value room sets. With a fridge-freezer, cooker, dishwasher, sink and extra opening cupboards it's really detailed. There is also a 'breakfast bar', two chairs and a highchair, coffee machine, plant, crockery and  cutlery, tins and packets of food, a dog, a dog's bowl, a nana and a baby. There's even a chicken to roast in the oven! The Boy is forever acting out the grown-ups cooking tea and loading the dishwasher afterwards, although the fact that the adults only ever cook pizza is slightly telling! This is a must room-set, although it has a lot of little pieces which could get easily lost. For safety, I haven't given them to The Boy yet.

Something to note is that the cupboards don't attach to the wall and move easily. I've used double-sided tape to fix them to the walls. I can cope with them now!

PlayMobil Dining Room (£9.99)

The dining room is one of the rooms that you could come to last, if at all. To be perfectly honest I'm not entirely sure what it adds that isn't covered by the kitchen. There is a table and four chairs (the kitchen set has a breakfast bar and two chairs), four ice-cream sundaes and spoons (food is provided in the kitchen set), a plant (?!), a jug and four mugs, and a male adult figure. The space allocated for it in the house isn't huge and is also right at the bottom of the staircase, so it's a little crowded. It's difficult for The Boy to sit the figures on the chairs and tuck them under without him knocking off the other people, and the food bits are too small for him to play with at the moment.

PlayMobil Living Room (£17.99)

This is essential to have in the house, and is good value for money. The set comes with a three-seater sofa, an armchair, a television, a tv stand with opening cupboards, a dvd player, cd player and video (which I've fixed into place with double-sided tape), two plants, a vase of flowers, a coffee table, a fire which glows when the button is pressed (also fixed to the wall), a cat and basket, a grandad (looks just like The Boy's grandad), a caraffe and a glass. At the moment, The Boy is too young to be able to handle the caraffe, glass, vase of flowers and small plant, so I've put them away. A really good set which I'd recommend.

PlayMobil Parents' Bedroom (£15.99)

At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking there's not much in this room set considering the price, but the two bedside lights light up and that makes it completely worth the money! There's also a wardrobe with opening doors and a drawer, a vanity table with a turning mirror and chair, an alarm clock, and a mummy (that look a bit like me, although I'd love her eyelashes!). The Boy is captivated with the working LED lights and puts the mummy and daddy to bed at night. A perfect set, although mildly annoying that the mummy can't lay flat on her back due to her ponytail sticking out.

PlayMobil Children's Room (£19.99)

An essential room to buy but full of tiny pieces that are fiddly and unsuitable for under the recommended four years of age due to chocking hazards. You can't fault this room for value for money though as there is so much in it. The two children's beds can be kept separate as twin beds or stacked on top of each other as bunk beds, which is what I've done. Even better is that there are dips in the mattresses for the two provided children to lie down properly. There is a wall shelf, a high drawer unit, a table and chair, an underbed box, a guinea pig cage with two guinea pigs, a farm set with tiny figures, a boat, a fortress, musical instruments and a teddy. There is so much in this room, you can't not get it. Be warned though, the farm pieces are incredibly small and I see them getting lost very easily.

Playmobil Nursery (£11.99)

This is one of those rooms that you could come to towards the end of building the room sets up. In the set is a cot with canopy (pink, how sexist! I've removed the canopy), a changing table with opening doors, a mobile to fit on the change table (although I've put it above the cot), a dad, a baby, a plant (they're obsessed with flora), various bottles and potions to 'help' with changing the baby's bottom, a few toys and a potty. The potty is the smallest piece which I'm happy to have out (although we've temporarily misplaced it) and The Boy loves it because of his potty training journey in the Summer. Unfortunately, the baby provided is also another girl baby (like the one in the kitchen), so I've had to buy a boy baby in order to have a The Boy in the house.

PlayMobil Bathroom (£17.99)

This one's brilliant! I'd highly recommend this one's bought because of the value for money. Provided in the set is a toilet with moving lid, a bath with overhead shower (which detaches), an opening wall cupboard with mirror, a sink with an opening cupboard underneath, a chair, a plant (another one!), a towel, a female figure with underwear on and a plastic wrap around towel, and various tiny toiletry bits. The Boy is constantly giving the figures a bath and then drying them with the towel, or sitting them on the toilet and pretending to use the toilet paper. A definite must!

Taking into account the price of the house (£99.99) and the cost of the room-sets, all in all this amounts to what seems like an expensive toy. However it is worth it. It's aimed at 4-10year olds and I can see The Boy playing with this for years to come. Already it is his favourite toy and he has played with it every day for the past five weeks. Break that down into cost per day over the years it is used, and all of a sudden it is an investment for the future.

Would I recommend this?

Without a moment's hesitation.

For more Toyologist reviews, click on the banner below

We were provided with these toys for the purpose of the review. Our opinion is honest and unbiased. Now where's the tissues? 

Blogoversary Competition 5: 'Create-a-World' by WhiteStep

by 34 Comments

When I first started blogging I saw one or two bloggers review a product that I thought was amazing. A few weeks ago I was asked if I'd like to review it! That will be happening within the forthcoming weeks but take a look at this:

Create-a-world is a brilliant toy promoting children's imagination and story-telling skills. The creative play possibilities are endless and as it is similar to a fuzzy felt, the pieces won't slip easily but are removed without a problem. I can't wait to review this with The Boy, but in the mean-time Whitestep have kindly donated a Create-a-World (worth £49.99) for one of my readers.

To be in with a chance of winning this amazingly creative blogoversary prize, simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below:



Please note that by providing your e-mail address you are agreeing to receive correspondance from the PR company for Whitestep who may contact you about promotions.

Choo-Choo: A Train Set Review

by 2 Comments

A few months ago I contemplated getting The Boy started on a wooden train set. When I was a nursery nurse working with the two-three year olds, I used to love setting up elaborate layouts for them before they came in every morning, even if the little blighters did destroy it within five minutes. I mentioned to Tracey from London Toy Co. that I was wondering if this was the next step forward for The Boy with his toys, and out of the blue she very kindly sent me this:

Which I think you'll agree was rather kind of her, and The Boy was chuffed as well!

The large wooden railway set has 100 pieces in its sturdy carry-case. I can hear some of you squealing; I'm not sure if it's delight or dread at the amount. But for us, that's 100 pieces of fun and imagination. Not all of the pieces are train track, there are a lot of other items to make a 'town' like: a bus, trees, church, people, cars, train, houses etc. The attention to detail in the variety of accessories really allows for the imagination to develop: The Boy was 'brumming' the cars under the bridge and around the houses within minutes. He also built a little house up and then parked one of the cute cars outside.

The track pieces are obviously designed to fit with other compatible sets, which is incredibly useful. All of the pieces included in the box make the cover illustration and I created it within a few minutes. He loves having a bridge to drive the trains over and cars under.

This is a brilliant starter set with such a wide variety of pieces included that it is hard to fault it; it's such good value for money. However I would like to point out one or two tips for ease of use:

  • in the left picture above you can see that the bridge piece rests on two supports, however it can easily slide off the supports demolishing the bridge. We've fixed this by gluing the bridge unit to the supports.
  • the tracks have a variety of junction pieces in them (which is really hard to come across and ever so useful) but most of the normal track pieces are curved. There are only a handful of straight pieces which makes it difficult to come up with another layout.

Combine this starter set with a few more straight pieces and it is perfect for keeping pre-schoolers entertained for hours on end! We love the inclusion of the road vehicles and buildings.

The Large Wooden Railway Set is available from London Toy Co. for £54.99

We were sent this item for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.