Night-Night Kisses

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We've always had quite a strict bedtime routine. Not in the dictatorial, no fun sense of the word, but without sway or deviance from the procedure. Bath, bottle, teeth and book, before lights out and mobile on. (We'll ignore the fact that he still doesn't go to sleep by himself yet, just shhhh!)

We have our little sillinesses; for example, I kiss daddy, Oliver Monkey and then The Boy night before declaring "What more kisses? You greedy little monkey!", cupping The Boy's face and smothering him in tiny little kisses all over. He then giggles and when I'm at the door, Oliver Monkey waves 'goodnight' to me.

I think a bedtime routine is important, but I also think that fun and happiness is just as necessary as I don't want my little boy being sent off to dream-land on an unhappy cloud! Which is why when ToyJeanius asked me to review Djeco's bedtime game Night-Night Kisses I was more than happy to oblige.Night-Night Kisses (or Bisous Dodo to give it its proper name) is a lovely little game by Djeco, designed to play just before bedtime to encourage your child to feel loved and happy. The above box has a slide-out drawer that is used as the 'bed' for either of the adorable little characters that are 'put to bed' during the game. There is a little boy or a little girl, on one side they are awake and on the other their eyes are firmly closed as they've drifted off to sleep.

For hubby, the time when he comes in from work up until when The Boy drifts off to the land of nod, is precious. He always does bedtime, with the exception of a Wednesday and Thursday (when I work all day so also want some time with The Boy), and he loves spending that time with him. Night-Night Kisses gives him the ideal opportunity to spend some quality time with The Boy before we start the bath etc. routine.

The game involves laying the bed out and placing the boy (not The Boy to avoid confusion!) on top of the soft blue mattress. The cards are then placed face down and little one lifts them up in turn to reveal what's on the card. Some of the cards represent items, for example a sheet or a pillow, and these you lay under the boy's head or over his legs. The remaining cards represent actions such as tickles, cuddles and kisses. As each card is selected the parent must do that action to your child. When the game is finished, you turn the little boy over (again not The Boy, he's not a doll) so his eyes are closed and off he goes to sleep. If only all children obliged so easily, hey?

The Boy really liked the game; he and daddy had great fun playing it. It does require the adult to read the instructions first as there are a few different cards and you need to know what they represent. The feather and music cards are obvious, but there's also a 'kiss' card which means you have to kiss your little one wherever the heart features on the card. There are also birdy and butterfly kisses which can be bestowed upon your precious bundle, much merriment happens as a result of this; we're fond of butterfly kisses in this house!

As this game is aimed at 3-6 year olds, and The Boy is only just two, we adapted it slightly. For example there are 32 cards, but we only had out one of each choice otherwise we'd have never got him into bed! When they are a little older, then the game is designed to take ten minutes and they will also be able to remember what all the different cards mean.
This is a lovely game to play with your precious bundles of joy and happiness before bedtime; they will end up feeling so loved from all the kisses and hugs.
Night-Night Kisses is available to purchase from ToyJeanius for £11.45. Readers of this blog can use a special discount code of 'TheBoyandMe' to get 10% off this and any other purchase.


I'm a Toyjeanius toy genius

LeapFrog LeapTop

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Last Christmas I bought The Boy a little 'laptop' from Early Learning Centre. At the time he wasn't really interested in it and it took him a few months to start playing with it. I think part of the problem was that it didn't look enough like mine (because he still kept trying to jab my keys mid blog-post!) and that really it had a handful of buttons that had limited functionality. I bought it on an impulse a few days before Christmas day and wish I'd thought it through.

Because for the same amount of money, I could have had this:

The LeapFrog LeapTop

It just looks better doesn't it? It appears to be more like a laptop with the keyboard and the little mouse on the side. The Boy is completely and utterly won over by it and for the first week after it arrived for review, he would come down for breakfast in the morning and demand to know where his laptop was before he would do anything else.

Prior to giving it to The Boy, it required some initial setup connected to my laptop and the Internet. There is an easily accessible USB port on the side of the screen (potentially this could have been located under the battery compartment cover as in the Tag Junior, as The Boy keeps trying to play with it). I easily downloaded the software from the LeapFrog website, picked The Boy's name from the list, and chose from the selection of 'e-mails' that are uploaded to the laptop to be read out by Scout. I was then also able to choose the classical music that I wanted played on the laptop, along with instrumental versions of nursery rhymes. This setup took approximately five-ten minutes and was easy to do. The LeapTop can be connected to the laptop to chart his 'progress' and this can be e-mailed to family members; ideal for grandparents, etc.

The Boy adores the personalised e-mails. The first time that he heard them, his eyes lit up with wonder and excitement and he started talking back to Scout. There are a few additional e-mails that are programmed in from the green dog himself (giving eight in total) and they help add to the variety. He's also very fond of the 'new blog entry' button. When I discovered that option I roared with laughter! I love that LeapFrog are ahead of the game here in recognising the importance and power of blogging. Whereas The Boy just likes to hear that Scout has been to the beach and made a sandcastle!

As the e-mails are read out, the text is displayed on the screen and The Boy chuckles at the pictures that come up alongside the blog entries. The screen is quite small in comparison to the surround which in the wrong light can make it difficult to see. However, The Boy pays a great deal of attention to the pictures that are displayed and absolutely adores the images of Scout dancing in the music section.

The 'mouse' on the side is a sliding button which switches between three modes for the keyboard: learning about animals and the sounds they make, the alphabet and phonics, and musical mode:

  • In animals mode (my favourite) when you press a letter it asks you a question about that animal which then is named. If you don't know, press the 'paw' button and it tells you the answer. We both like that game.
  • The musical game is a little basic or not suited to him at the moment (aged just 2); the first two rows are funny sounds, the bottom row is musical notes.
  • The 'abc' game involves pressing the letter, hearing the phoneme, then the letter name and an example word. As a teacher, I like that game a lot, although it's a tad too tricky for The Boy at the moment.

Why is the LeapFrog LeapTop so good?

  • The Boy thinks it's a proper laptop and leaves mine alone!
  • There are so many different games on it that it holds his attention for a good period of time
  • The games are a mix of educational and fun
  • Easily set up and personalised
  • The personalisation helps to make it more appealing to little ones
  • Good value for money
  • It uses British accents in 90% of the programming (I think that there must have been an error somewhere along the line as it states on the box that it uses British voices but on a few of the e-mails or blog entries, Scout's voice switched over to an American accent and then back to a British one).

Overall I think that this is the best little laptop around in this price bracket (£20) and will continue to aid The Boy's development for another year or two yet, supplementing and supporting his formal learning in the Foundation Phase.

This was provided as part of the Toys R Us Toyology review programme. However, our opinions are as always honest and fair.

The Next Picasso? A TRU Review

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Being both a qualified nursery nurse and a primary school teacher, I've had training on the development of most areas of a child's ability from 3 months old to 11 years. One of the areas that I know is important to develop at this age is the fine motor skills as it is a precursor to the ability to write; the pincer grip, hand-eye co-ordination, control of small objects are all important skills to develop.

Therefore threading, lacing, painting, colouring, jigsaws, sticking are all really important activities for toddlers to experience to help develop these skills. A drawing table or art easel would be something that would allow these activities to happen easily. We've got one and The Boy loves it; it's his own little territory and he spends quite a lot of time there.

Combine the two things together and you get the Artisto Table and Easel by Keter which we were sent to review as part of the Toys R Us Toyologist scheme.

Do you notice what's different about it? Yep, an easel and table combined, but for two children!

What I liked:

  • that using the perspex, two children can work collaboratively on a drawing or a game like noughts and crosses etc.
  • there is an individual table for each child and they both have a pot and compartment for their drawing/sticking equipment
  • it's easily cleanable
  • bright and attractive colours
  • very easy to put together, meaning five minutes after getting it out of the box, it was assembled
  • encourages social interaction.

What I wasn't keen on:

  • the space on each side is big enough to fit a landscape sheet of A4, portrait won't fit on it
  • the perspex is quite high up and is an unnatural position to draw on from a seating position
  • when the moving compartments swivel around, one can completely cover the other person's drawing table; I can see arguments happening
  • the distance from the seat to the table is quite wide in comparison to other tables available
  • it's big, very big! (width 65cm, length 122cm, height 96cm).

At £79.99 (RRP) this is a more expensive table, but does have a lot of functionality and is perfect for twins, near-aged children or playgroups.

This will soon be available to purchase at Toys R Us. Keep an eye on the Facebook page to find out when!

Due to its size (and the fact that we've already got a drawing table) I will be donating this to Ty Hafan Children's Hospice (my local children's cancer hospital).

WOW: Fun with Fred!

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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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Squishy-Squashed Potatoes: TRU Review

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If you watched the video of the opening of the first box of toys from TRU then you will have noticed that The Boy kept referring to paint and wanting to open it up. Meany old mummy wouldn't oblige at first, mainly because the item (which was actually a Play-Doh board game not paint) is aimed at children five years or above, and I therefore wanted to review it with his cousins.

The Play-Doh Smashed Potatoes board game is a really lovely game which is very easy to understand, and The Boy's cousins (Boy Cousin – 5, Girl Cousin – 8, Fiery Cousin – 5) picked up the rules very quickly. The board has a 'kitchen' in the centre with various ways of turning a 'potato' into another form and a route around the outside of this which the (up to) four players must complete in one piece in order to win. Each player makes their own playing piece from one of the four different colours of Play-Doh provided, and using the Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head mould.

They spin the arrow on the dial to decide how many spaces they move and move that amount. If the arrow stops on a potato symbol then they must move to the nearest section of the kitchen and squash their potato using that device. Following this, they remould it and start again.

All of the children wanted to play it, we just gave The Boy a potato-head mould and lump of Play-Doh and he was perfectly happy. Boy Cousin (5) really got into the game very quickly and wanted to complete it, Girl Cousin (8) was very interested too and was enjoying it, but Fiery Cousin (5) was getting demoralised with it, mainly because her potato kept having to be squished. This is the element that might need to adapt depending upon the ages of your children; the five year olds weren't happy to have to keep making their potatoes. Another minor, and I mean minor, irritation is that the blue 'kitchen' insert kept sliding around while we were trying to use it and the scissors occasionally popped out of the guide on the cutting device.

The children said: "I like this game because it's delicious" (Boy Cousin was having a mad moment), "I like the mashing", "Chopping potatoes is fun", "The Play-Doh is nice and squidgy, it's easy to make the pieces."

Generally a good game, I personally feel it's suited to 6+ years due to the fiddly nature of the squashing, but that depends entirely on your child's skills.

Play-Doh Smashed Potatoes board game is priced at £24.99 and launches this month in Toys R Us stores.

I'm a Toy Genius!

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I am over the moon to have been chosen by the extraordinarily lovely Jean at ToyJeanius to be a member of her new family of reviewers.


I'm a Toyjeanius toy genius

For those of you who don't know what ToyJeanius is, where have you been shopping until now?!

Toyjeanius is a family run online toy shop based in Hertfordshire. These are not your run of the mill plastic and garish toys that you find in the high street, not from Jean. She spends copiuous amounts of time scouring the latest catalogues from gorgeous companies like I'm Toy, Djeco and Haba to find toys that are attractive, hard-wearing, traditional, education, but most of all, fun! She is a mum herself, albeit to older children, and she knows what works and what doesn't (often through testing them out herself).

We have been fortunate to review for ToyJeanius in the past with the stunning Pally Pirate Noah and the I'm Toy Fire Engine Work Bench which The Boy both adore. Having had the pleasure to review for her, I of course became a customer buying the Haba Threading Beads (which is one of the best toys I could recommend buying for a toddler to develop hand-eye co-ordination) and Haba Baguette Play Food (excellent way to role-play making his lunch). I can't wait to find out what other toys we get to review for my favourite independent toy-shop!

One last point that I have got to make about why I love ToyJeanius. When I needed a present for a friend in a rush I tweeted the lovely Jean who processed my order there and then. She gift-wrapped the item and wrote a card, and the next morning (because this had happened at 10 o'clock at night!) she went straight to the Post Office and sent it recorded delivery. Tell me how many high-street chains give you that level of personalised service?

Proud to be a Toy Genius for the best ToyJeanius there is!

Addendum

When I posted this originally, I forgot to share the blog-love and say who the other Geniuses (genii?) are!

We're proud to be working with the marvellous:

The Crazy Kitchen

Me and My Shadow

Brink of Bedlam

ChocOrangeCityMum

and Edspire.

Review: Bit Bike

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We have been very lucky to be asked to review one of the fabulous BitBikes,  from Barcelona duo Sergi & Marc.


And it really is fabulous, The Boy is a child obsessed! He had recently become very interested in the Tiger Trike that he'd been given for his first birthday, but with the advent of his second birthday we thought he might find this innovative design more interesting. I do like being right.

The BitBike is a different style of ride-along to others already on the market. There are no traditional handlebars, instead there is a handle cut into the chassis of the bike which promotes the correct riding position from a young age. The forward position which the rider sits in allows good control and The Boy can steer really easily.

My husband has always been a keen cyclist, but hasn't had much chance to get out on his bike for the last few years. I'm a scaredy cat on a bike, I learnt in the lane behind my friend's house. Problem is that it was a straight lane so I never learnt how to steer! When it comes to teaching The Boy in the future, it's going to be hubby that teaches him, not me. When he saw this, he was thoroughly impressed with it. There aren't many ride-ons nowadays that have only two wheels, the BitBike does. There are two really wide wheels which are so sturdy that there is hardly any wobble when The Boy is riding about.

It's a really attractive and smart bike. It's also incredibly light. Not only does that make it easier for The Boy to steer, but it also makes it really easy to carry if you're out and about. The integral handlebars also make for a great carry handle, or there is a lightweight canvas bag with a shoulder strap.

Practical points aside, The Boy loves this bike, he finds it easy to climb on and off, to steer and to push along. Aimed at 18-36 months olds, The Boy at 2 years is really reaping the benefit and enjoyment out of it.


For more information on The BitBike, click here.

I was provided with the BitBike for review purposes. My opinions are, as always, honest and unbiased.

The First Box: Anticipation

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Today we received our first box of toys to review as part of the Toys R Us Toyologists scheme. Yesterday we had received the larger item which funnily enough wouldn't fit in the box! I'll be posting proper reviews of the items within the next few weeks but for the moment I thought I'd share the moment that The Boy opened them up.

 

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