Bouncy Castles v. Sand Castles

by 7 Comments

Today we went to a birthday party. Little Miss Chatty was celebrating her 2nd birthday with soft play and then party food. When I was telling The Boy about this last night, he was able to tell me straight-away that you have cake and 'b(all)oons' at a party. We talked about the fact that there would be a bouncy castle there which he wasn't sure about, and that he'd give her a present.

As it so happened another work colleague was there with her little boy who is slightly older, Mister Rough and Tumble, and The Boy thought he was the best thing since sliced bread! Or since bubbles anyway, he doesn't really have an opinion on sliced bread. He followed him everywhere and had great fun trying to copy everything he did!

After he'd filled his Doodles with party food, we trotted off to Barry Island for half an hour playing in the sand building sand castles. It was a little parky and full of tourists. I think we'll be giving it a wide-berth on weekends until September!

Review: Happyland Puzzles (ELC)

by 1 Comment

I popped into Mothercare yesterday to buy The Boy a pair of sunglasses (with the band that goes around the back of the head) and ended up spending £56 on toys in the Early Learning Centre department! They've got a brilliant little wheelbarrow at the moment, which he just had to have, and some other things fell into the trolley as I was walking around. (Whoops, don't tell hubby!)

One of the things that I bought is the Happyland Puzzles, which is a set of 6 puzzles for ages 18 months – 3 years.

I'd become very conscious lately that the only puzzles that The Boy ever does is the inlay designs; this is not helping him develop his problem-solving skills that much. I was especially alarmed when a work colleague had told me that her 2½ year old son had just completed a 25-piece jigsaw. I panicked! I don't think that The Boy has managed more than a 2-piece one that I bought him at Christmas and he struggled with then!

[Please note the image shows a tin and the one I bought came in a cardboard box made from 'forest friendly cardboard'. I know which one I prefer]

Why I particularly like this pack is three-fold.

  1. It has 6 jigsaws in it, some are 2-piece, some are 3-piece and some are 4-piece. It doesn't follow suit that the hardest one is the 4-piece; I actually think that the hardest one is the 3-piece one because of the angles that it has to join in at. Therefore they are of differentiated ability and challenge. As a teacher, this pleases me.
  2. The pictures are of the Happyland range, and we have quite a few of them. Seeing his face earlier as he recognised the merry-go-round was classic. He then upped and pulled open his toybox and yanked it out. He looked back at the picture and even tried to press the button on the jigsaw. The other set that we have that features on the jigsaw is the school, and yes, he tried to open the door on the school and press the bell on the tower.
  3. The pieces are nice and chunky, but small enough for little hands. They're also made of FSC mixed sources cardboard.

This jigsaw set is a winner in this household and at only £6 is a bargain as far as I'm concerned.

No, I didn't get the sunglasses, they're not in stock yet.

'Education'

by 15 Comments

Being a teacher you'd think that I'd find The Gallery theme set by Tara this week easy, correct?

No, wrong.

I suppose because I blog about the way the The Boy learns and how I find this fascinating, I didn't want to go for the obvious solution. So I decided to think a little outside the box. I did ask him for suggestions but he just looked at me, handed me the remote control and said "Tubbies?"

I hung my head in despair, which is when I noticed one of his play-sets.

And so I bring you our take on education, because we like to be a little bit different.

Learning Through Play: Water!

by 22 Comments

Before I became a primary school teacher, I trained and worked as a nursery nurse. My 'dissertation' equivalent had the rather considerable and earnest title of "The Importance of Play as a Part of a Child's Development". That was written 15 years ago when I conducted a comparative study between the pre-school establishments in Denmark and those in Wales. A group of my fellow students went out to visit a range of nurseries and took a whole load of photographs for me, while I poured over reference books and a fledgling Internet search engine.

What was hugely apparent back then was how the Scandinavians viewed education to be something that evolved through the child's natural curiosity and desire to learn and understand their world. At the time, nursery education in Wales was still incredibly formal and started at three years lasting a year before little Myfanwy or Dafydd entered formal schooling (as is still the case). In Denmark, children don't start formal education until the age of six which allows them time to be infants before the stiff structure of schooling.

The reason that I mention all of this is because The Boy is 21 months old now and I am fortunate that when he starts his formal education, he will enter into The Foundation Phase. This shift in the style of schooling has been heavily influenced by the Scandinavian model, and sees children exploring their world, getting mucky, playing with toys in a guided manner.

So after a wander around my school's nursery last week, I pinched their ideas and came home and set up a water-play area in the garden!

Do you know what that equals? A whole lot of fun!

Our garden is already quite child-friendly; swing, slide, a cube climbing frame and a playhouse. However, I wanted a messy area. Somewhere that he can mess around with water and dig and get dirty, just like children should. Somewhere he can find insects and bugs and learn about nature. I used to adore my garden as a child and I want The Boy to feel the same way.

Therefore on Saturday I decided to get creative with the above equipment. This is the result:

The educationalist in me will point out the scientific development and vocabulary learnt: pour, empty, full, splash, down, up. That's in addition to the mathematical enhancement when he started pointing out the shapes: triangle, square (ok so it was a diamond, but he was trying) and circle.

The mummy in me will highlight the pride when my son learnt that the water he poured into the funnel came out of the tube a metre away. Or when he was pouring water from one can to another.

The big kid in me is too busy splashing in the mud to care!

The next step is to surrender one of my small vegetable patches to a digging area and 'mini-beast' hotel for him!

—

This post has been submitted to the Tots100 March Blog Hop.

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Competition: 'Red Dog, Blue Dog' – Orchard Toys

by

I’ve recently been sent the game ‘Red Dog, Blue Dog’ by Orchard Toys to review with The Boy. The game is a first colour match lotto aimed at 2-4 players and children from 2-5 years and priced at £9.25.

When he first saw the box, The Boy was extremely excited and eager to ‘ope’-n it up, he then spent ten – fifteen minutes examining the four different lotto boards, identifying the pictures on them, and then popping out the lotto cards from the punched-out templates. He took a shine straight away to the card with the blue spider on it, and spent much of the remaining morning carrying it around clutched in his hand!

We’ve brought the game away with us on our mini-holiday as I decided that far from the madding crowd would be a good place to help us concentrate and test the game out. The players comprised of mummy, daddy and The Boy, with Oliver Monkey refereeing to ensure fair play.

We haven’t played the game strictly according to the rules as the game is aimed at 2-5 years and The Boy is only 21 months; he doesn’t completely understand the concept of taking turns. However, this shows the adaptability of the game.

We started by sorting the cards into colours, he was able to help us do this quite easily and it was quite reassuring that he could do this as he hasn’t always put the right name to a colour, but in doing this he showed us that he was aware that they were separate and that he could sort. I chose to do this because there are six different coloured objects on each board, but there are not six colours of each object (as there are only four boards).

Next we took it in turns to choose an object from the board for him to find; I am extremely pleased that whether we were asking him to find a blue spider or a red spider, he was able to identify the colours. So even though he can’t remember the names at the time, he does know what the colours are. Playing this game will help consolidate his knowledge of colours. He thoroughly enjoyed finding the game, and I could see his eyes flitting between the cards as he was trying to identify the card he needed.

My husband and I were discussing other uses of the game afterwards, and I suggested that we could use the cards to play ‘Pairs’ or as a colour sorting game. As both a parent, qualified nursery nurse and primary school teacher, I think that this is an extremely adaptable and suitable game for toddlers and infants. A feature that I like on the box is the Orchard Toys’ Educational Guide, which suggests:

  • Links with Early Learning Goals
  • Develop personal and social skills
  • Encourage observation.

I would agree with those educational outcomes but also feel that it will help to develop children’s pre-mathematical and reading skills (identification of shapes and colours, plus the objects’ names are written on the cards).

Definitely a winner in this household!

 

Tidying up is part of the game!

 

To be in with a chance to win your own copy of 'Red Dog, Blue Dog' either follow Orchard Toys on twitter (@OrchardToys) or 'Like' their Facebook page

Extra entries are available through:

– tweeting the following: I want to win an @OrchardToys 'Red Dog, Blue Dog' with @TheBoyandMe https://www.theboyandme.co.uk/?p=1197

– following me on twitter (@TheBoyandMe)

– subscribing to my blog.

Don’t forget to tell me what you’ve done, or you’ll only receive one entry!

Competition ends Thursday 31st March 2011 at 8pm.

Open to UK residents only.

Winners will need to reply to my notification e-mail by 8pm on Saturday 2nd April 2011, or I will draw another winner.

The winner of the competition is Jenny Paulin. Congratulations Jenny, a new baby last night and now an Orchard Toys game for new baby's older brother to play with!


—

While I received this game free of charge to provide an honest review, I have not been offered any other reward for my opinion.

Galt Art Equipment

by 3 Comments

Imagine The Boy's surprise and delight when he opened up the box of the above goodies from Galt Toys for us to review. He absolutely adores all types of craft activities, but painting and drawing with his crayons are the utmost all-time top two for him. He was almost beside himself when he saw some new 'draw-draws' and when his little eyes caught sight of the paint, bless him, he couldn't stop jigging with excitement.

The crayons got the first round of serious analysis: definitely a success there! He took the pot over to his desk, sat down and started to examine the colours. In the pack of goodies that Galt sent us was a pack of 25 sheets of paper. The paper is A2 size and therefore quite large, perfect for large scale painting or sticking activities, but it also means that I can halve each sheet making it go further (we also always use both sides of the paper – environmentally aware!).

The crayons are a delightful rainbow of colours, 24 in total, including various shades of the primary colours and a range of secondary and tertiary hues aswell. They are described as chunky crayons which are ideal. As a teacher I remember a training session where we were taught not to give little children jumbo writing implements because they only have small hands and small grip. However, I've tried thinner crayons and he just ends up accidentally snapping them in half as he is too young to be aware of strength of grip.

As you can see from the pictures, drawing is a very serious business in this household (definitely a left-hander).

In the pack of art resources, we were also sent these finger paints:

The Boy is an independent little creature who likes to think outside the box already (don't you love toddler thinking?) and therefore wanted his paintbrushes to use with them. These paints are great; in the pack are six 100ml pots of bright, thick and washable paint. And yes they are washable! I've had my hands stained for hours after using the Crayola washable paints (especially the blue and green ones) but not with these paints.

*There is a disclaimer on the box that it may not remove from materials and surfaces that cannot be laundered, although it does say it can wash from most machine washable clothes.

The Boy had great fun with painting, he loves exploring the colours and textures as you can see:


We were also sent a pack of face-paint sticks to use, and I tried to test these but the little monkey wouldn't keep still long enough for me to get more than the outline of a spider's body and three of his eight legs! When he's a few months older, I'm sure that he will enjoy using these a lot more but I suspect he's just a little too young at the moment. I will say though that they are encased in a plastic tubing to prevent mucky hands with a push-up sliding holder for the actual face-paint stick in order to maximise the amount of face-paint used. It strikes me as an excellent idea.

I was very impressed with both the paints and the crayons, they are a much richer hue and depth of colour than other well-known branded crayons and paints. I will be purchasing these in future, especially  because of the fact that the deeper coloured paints doesn't stain skin!

—

While I received these products free of charge to provide an honest review, I have not been offered any other reward for my opinion.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...