First House

A few months ago I discovered the wonders of RedTedArt and The Imagination Tree. Both are blogs that I admire hugely because they promote the marvels and benefits of Learning Through Play and the importance of Art in a child's life.

Before I was a primary school teacher, I trained as a Nursery Nurse and was intent upon becoming a Nursery teacher. And then I had a teaching practise in Year Five and I've never looked back, turning away from the littlies proclaiming them "too small and easy to accidentally step on!" in a jovial and, quite possibly, dismissive manner. However since having The Boy, I've rediscovered the joy of craft and role-playing with the 'littlies'. To the point where I asked my boss (in my annual review) if I could work with them again. She almost fell off her chair in shock, but at that time was unable to grant my wish.

So I channel my ideas at the moment into the most important 'littlie' of them all, The Boy. Last week, we took delivery of a Little Tikes house to review as a part of the Toyologist programme. The box was massive (well it had to hold a house!):

What do you do with a box that big?

Turn it into a play-house for The Boy to decorate!

The box was huge, big enough for daddy, The Boy and Me (see what I did there?) to get in easily. I cut a door on one side and windows with shutters on the other side, and he absolutely adored it. Daddy? Not so much, it kept getting in the way of the recycling which he needed to empty, or the toilet, or anything really. Admittedly for a time, The Boy was the only one who could get through to the utility room (through the open end and out of his door) so once or twice I had to send him on a little job!

The Boy has had great fun this week; painting, decorating, hiding and playing house in his, um, house. Which is great because it's rained a fair amount so he hasn't managed to get out to the main toy; the Little Tikes house. He's played in it with his friends and cousins, and I have discovered that there is nothing more likely to make children giggle than crawling through a cardboard box.

Well I managed to hold onto it for a week, but it's cardboard recycling on Friday and I've got a toddler group coffee session tomorrow, so we've had to move the house. I'm hoping that The Boy doesn't ask where it is in the morning!

Click this widget to see the marvellous Imagination Tree

And this one will take you to the fabulous RedTedArt

 

TRU Review: Rainbow Aquadraw

For The Boy's last birthday, and at Christmas time, I asked for some Aquadraw for him. You know the stuff; water pens and a special mat which when drawn on looks like you're actually using colours. At Christmas we had a similar version which paled in comparison to the real thing, and for his birthday a friend bought him some small Peppa Pig mats. He enjoyed them for a time but I knew that it wasn't really doing what it could for his enjoyment or development.

Therefore when we opened up our box for review and saw a huge Tomy Rainbow Aquadraw box, both of us were very chuffed! The mat is huge and what is even more special about this one is that it has a rainbow coloured backing so when The Boy draws it actually looks like he's using colours.

Included in the set are two pens and three stampers with a star, a cloud or raindrops on them. There is also a squeedgy style brush and small water pot. The water pot deserves a special mention as, very cleverly, it is no-spill. You put a small amount of water to cover the base and due to the smart design, the water does not come back out again. Perfect for when your little one knocks it over in eagerness.

The Boy adores this; he has completely ignored all other aqua drawing tools that he has in favour of it, and will go and seek it out in order to play with it. This is definitely because of the coloured backing and accesories. He's not interested in the pens for the most part, although he is only 2 and I'm sure as he experiments more with mark making then this will be of more interest.

At £24.97 it is quite pricey, but at the same time it has brought him a great deal of entertainment, and future learning opportunities are endless. If you only buy one Aquadraw, invest in this one!

For more reviews by the Toys R Us Toyologists, click on the image below.

We were provided this free of charge to review. My opinion is, as always, honest.

Things The Boy Learnt On Holiday

When we were away on holiday last week, my little treasure learnt a few things!

Hide and Seek

A new catchphrase courtesy of Nana.

Early mark-making

How to do a 24-piece jigsaw

  • Imagination: One night he raced to the door of the conservatory, looked out at the sea which was rough and tipped with Neptune's horses and declared that he could see Iggle-Piggle sailing off to the Night(time) Garden. My heart burst with love and adoration for my clever little boy who had just displayed his first twinge of imagination. I milked it and built on what he could see. We now regularly discuss it.

He walked onto the beach, picked up this pebble and tried to unlock the big rock on the beach, "This is the key mummy!"

  • Role-playing: after visiting Peppa Pig World, one night The Boy started shouting out "Daddy Pig, daddy pig where are you?" He then looked at me and said "you Mummy Pig!", when I asked him who he was, he said "me George!" Love it.

Maybe I was more aware of this because I was spending so much time with him than I normally have a chance to. Maybe it's because other people were having an input to his development. Either way, at the age that he is now, his capabilities are developing day by day. And he is the biggest form of entertainment and wonderment around

A Sticky Situation

We were recently sent the 'First Words' Sticker Activity Book by Top That! to review. I'll admit to opening it and thinking "Really? He's two!" However that opinion quickly changed when I opened it, examined the pages and showed it to The Boy; he was captivated!

My reservations centred around the fact that sticker books often have flimsy pages with a matt finish that mean once the sticker is put down (often in the wrong place the first time), that's it it's stuck there. You can't peel it back off to move it, and if you try the stickers are so thin, they rip and you have a distressed child.

That is not the case with this gorgeous activity book. The pages are thick and glossy which means that stickers can be peeled back off and realigned. The stickers are also a really good quality and easy to hold. The Boy has gone back a few times since he first did one of the pages and rearranged the stickers, well over a week later, with no problem.

'First Words' tells the story of David and Lizzie who live in a house with their mum and dad. The book introduces different aspects of David and Lizzie's homelife from the rooms in their house to their routines. You can dress them, give them their breakfast in the kitchen, follow them on a walk to the park or when they go shopping, when they play with their toys,go to the countryside, and then go to bed. The pages that illustrate each of these everyday occurences are beautifully drawn with bright colours and attractive designs. The additional bit that I like, and I think the first time that I've seen it, is that the colours around each of the stickers matches the section of the page where they are meant to go perfectly. Too often the stickers are surrounded by white which makes them stick out like a sore thumb.

This is part of a series of books from Top That! which is aimed at children three years old and over, other titles included are 'Colours', 'Counting' and 'Shapes', and all four support the Foundation Phase and National Curriculum learning objectives (as a primary school teacher I can see how these would support his learning). One of the features of the book is that the words being introduced are also printed in the book allowing the reader to over-write and practise his/her writing skills. Obviously this is the area where The Boy has not been able to fully enjoy the book, but it's not a problem because in the future he will be able to and it hasn't hampered his enjoyment of the book. There are other lovely activities like dot-dot, tick-lists, drawing areas and colourings.

The Sticker Activity Books normally retails for £4.99 but at the moment they are on offer for £4.49. I shall definitely be popping over and buying the other titles in the series (is it too early to think of Christmas presents?)

Another top-tip (stolen borrowed from Damian Johnson) is to remove the surrounding and unnecessary sticky; it makes it so much easier for their little fingers to get the stickers off.

We were provided with this book free of charge for the purpose of this review. My opinion is, as always, honest.

Toy Genius: Djeco Animal Puzzle

You may have seen me rave about an amazing independent online shop called ToyJeanius in the past or on twitter, and quite frankly I don't think I will ever stop adoring the toys that they sell. Over the past two years I have come to realise that there is a lot of old tat out there, especially bright and garish plastic which ensnares the child with it's fairground style flashing lights and noises. Yes, we have some but I'd rather The Boy play with better quality, more traditional style toys, and I am fortunate that he seems to prefer them as well. I am fortunate that we have recently been chosen to be Toy Geniuses/Genii (the debate ensues) and therefore will get to enjoy a lot more of the amazing toys that are chosen by Jean personally and with much thought.

With that in mind, we were recently sent this gorgeous little toy to review, made by the fabulous French company Djeco. It really is completely stunning and it has become one of The Boy's favourite toys. And Mummy's. And Daddy's. Oh, and Nana's.

The toy is a traditional wooden box with a slide lid, inside it contains fifteen colourful wooden pieces; five animal heads, five arms/torsos and five sets of legs. They fit together to make five different animals; bear, owl, cat, dog and a mouse. Each 'set' is colour-coded in attractive colours and patterns, which is great and awful for my OCD tendencies. Great because they look fabulous laid into the hollow holder in the lid; awful because The Boy mixes them all up, just like a two year old would!

The Boy loves making up the different animals, and has started to lay all the pieces out onto a surface selecting a head and legs and inserting all the arms in between. He them makes a cat-erpillar, or a mouse-erpillar, or an owl-erpillar with the pieces. Seeing him choosing the different pieces, fitting them into place and then disagreeing with his choice is so funny. From such a simple traditional toy, he has had hours and hours of pleasure. Everyone who has seen it has admired it, and quite rightly so. The box is a really handy size being approximately 16x13cm, so it fits into a handbag or changebag with no problem whatsoever. It's hardwearing wood, and the quality of the paint on each piece is extremely tough as he's been playing with this for three weeks with no damages whatsoever. Also I am happy to report no lost pieces, because that would really screw with my OCD!

One last thing that I have to mention before you 'coo' over the video is that it carries both the CE mark and the FSC logo, meaning that this long-lasting, heirloom of a toy has come from a well-managed forest. Now isn't that better than bright orange plastic?

I am lucky enough to be able to offer a 10% discount available for my readers. Simply enter the code 'theboyandme' at the checkout. Happy shopping!

We were sent this toy without charge to review. My opinions are as always honest.


I'm a Toyjeanius toy genius

WOW: Fun with Fred!

From the first moments that The Boy could crawl, one of his favourite activities was crawling up the sofa and onto the windowsill behind. He'd then lift up the net curtains and sit there waving at the people going past. His most favourite person to wave at was the driver of the dustbin lorry that goes up the street on a Tuesday and a Friday. Even now, he still insists on watching them go past, and now they wave back to him.

When I saw that WOW Toys have a range of vehicles found about town and that one of these is Flip'n'Tip Fred the recycling lorry, I was more than happy to review it with The Boy. His little face when he saw it was an absolute picture and he spent a very busy hour or two playing extremely contentedly with it.

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