Orchard Toys: Nursery Rhymes Jigsaws

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I cannot even begin to convey how big a fan I am of Orchard Toys. The British brand produces some of the best games and toys around on the market, and that's both mummy-voice and teacher-voice speaking there.

We were recently sent Nursery Rhyme: Four in a Box jigsaws to review, which came at the right time because The Boy has become very interested in puzzles lately.

The images used on the puzzles are: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Humpty Dumpty; Jack and Jill; and Hey, Diddle, Diddle. Which is, quite frankly, ever so convenient as these are his favourite rhymes at the moment! If you are unsure of the words (I'm certainly not, that much I can assure you) then they are written on the back.

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Old MacDonald Lotto: TRU Review

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When we opened the first box of toys to review, I was absolutely delighted to find an Orchard Toys game in there. I am incredibly fond of the marvellous learning resources that they produce. We were lucky enough to be sent the Old MacDonald Lotto which is a stunningly attractive and traditional game.

Here's the blurb: Old MacDonald Lotto is aimed at 2-6 year olds and is for 2-4 players. It contains 4 bingo board and 28 cards which feature various animals, objects and people that can be found on the farm. The game is played in the traditional cards-face-down manner, with the added twist that in order to gain that card the player has to make the noise to go with that animal or object. If they don't have that card then they show it to the other players and then return it to the table.

  • reinforces object matching skills
  • encourages observation and memory skills
  • develops social communication
  • links with Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum Key Stage One

Obviously, The Boy is a little too young to remember where the cards are, especially face down, so we adapted the game. This is one of the features that I like about Orchard Toys games; you can adapt them to suit the needs of your child.

We played as a simple matching game with the cards face up. We had a fantastic time and The Boy learnt some new vocabulary through it as well. And of course we definitely made animal sounds!

This is a definite winner with us; I love the bright and attractive designs of Orchard Toys, the simple and traditional games, the sturdiness of the packaging and play equipment.

Old MacDonald Lotto is available from Toys R Us priced at £9.99.

I was sent this free of charge for review purposes, however my opinions are as always honest.

Water Wheel: TRU Review

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With the sun blazing in the sky today, it feels appropriate to post this review of the Step2 Water Wheel Play Table.

This item came separately to the main box of products to review, and thankfully after The Boy's birthday because we had actually give him the Step2 Sand and Water table as his present! He was absolutely beside himself as daddy opened up the packaging to the Water Wheel Table, he really was desperate to get into it and tried to help as much as possible.

As with many of the Step2 products, assembly is extremely easy; the three sturdy legs just push up into the holes and click into place. That is the biggest bit of assembly required! The water wheel table (suitable for 1year +) is a large round table which sits very nicely at waist height (for my two year old) off the ground. It isn't height adjustable, however what I would say is that Boy Cousin plays with it alonside The Boy, and he is five and very tall. I also think that for younger or shorter children, you could remove the legs and have them sit on the floor to play with it.

Accesories that come with the table include a water wheel (obviously!), a blue cup that rests on the top of the water wheel to control the flow of water, a pouring cup and two small plastic sailboats. It is bright and colourful and very attractive. The water play area consists of two pools of water, one higher than the other, and they are connected together on one side by a slope which the boats can travel down. The water wheel is on the opposite side to the ramp so in theory a boat can be placed on the top pool, water poured into the water wheel and then the boat travels down the slope.

I've tried the table out now for the last three weeks with a variety of children; Boy Cousin, The Boy, Fiery Girl Cousin and my baby and toddler group. These children have ranged in age from just 1 year old to 5 years old. All have loved playing with it and have gravitated towards such a simple toy. This is an excellent recommendation by itself.

There are a couple of small points to make about the Water Wheel Play Table:

  • The 1 year old boy who played with it had great difficulty not knocking the water wheel out of position; it rests in place and really could do with a clip or catch of some sort to prevent it from coming out of place.
  • The boats take on water incredibly easily and capsize. They also don't flow down the ramp easily because the top of the ramp is a little bit too high for them to glide over, unless you fill the table to capacity.
  • Filling the table to capacity will make it extremely difficult to empty because there is no plug! As I've mentioned, we' ve got the Step2 sand and water table and there are plugs in both halves. This makes it easy to collect the water in a bucket and dispose of in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner. Emptying the Water Wheel Table is tricky and invariably wastes water.
  • There is no cover, which is something that Step2 supply on other products. This means that the toys need removing over night, and the table can get quite dirty.

These things would make the Step2 Water Wheel Table a '10/10', and easier for parents to use with their children. As it is at the moment, I'd give it a '8/10'. Initially I'd have said a '7', but The Boy has not stopped playing with it, so I'll be generous!

 


 

The Step2 Water Wheel Play Table is available from Toys R Us at the moment of the bargain price of £34.99 (was £44.99) and is suitable for children 1 years old +.

We were provided with this product for review purposes. Our opinions are honest and our own.

Eruptions

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The Boy loved the brilliant coloured milk experiment so much, and it went right, that I've had the confidence to have a go at the Volcanic Eruptions experiment. MultipleMummy and MummyMummyMum are doing a marvellous job coming up with a way of sparking the interest of infants, and me, in scientific discovery, and I am keen to continue this with The Boy.

One of the reasons that I'd been hanging back from this one is because I didn't have any vinegar. Well I did, but it's balsamic and I'm not using that for a science experiment. I stopped procrastinating and bought some. Then I didn't have any playdough. So I finally found a recipe, worked out what the hell Cream of Tartar is and made some. Next time I'm doing the stuff that doesn't need cooking. My copper-bottom saucepan was not happy with me.

And so we have a volcanic eruption that The Boy thought was amazing. It went a bit wrong at first; I had poured the food colouring on top of the baking powder and the vinegar couldn't get through, so I had to stir it. The male voice in the background is my dad, affectionately called 'Grandma'. Don't ask, it's easier. But no it's not for any bizarre reasons other than pronounciation.

Swirly Science

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Science and me? Nooo! I scraped a C grade in my GCSE and have always found it a challenging subject to teach. I'm not so bad with biology, chemistry I can just about cope with, but physics has me quaking in my boots. I've even been known to swap teaching a science topic to avoid it (I taught the other teacher's art lessons, she did my science for the remainder of the term). I've managed to find that by reading up and staying one step ahead of the children in my class that I managed to con them into thinking that I knew what I was talking about. In a way, the avent of child-led learning means that I don't have to panic so much because I can't turn it around and say "I don't know, let's find out together!"

How will I help The Boy with his scientific enquiry? Eeek! We already know that there is not enough interest in Science in schools; the curiosity needs to be started young. However, I'm as compatible with Science as oil and water. So when MultipleMummy and MummyMummyMum came up with the idea of Science Sparks I rejoiced!

I've been admiring their weekly experiments and saving the e-mail notifications in a little folder, but have still been too scared to do them. Until Monday when I had a go at Week Four's idea of Colourful Milk. Here's the video of our attempt. First of all please excuse the snips in the footage; he kept saying his name! And secondly, I know I keep correcting him with the colours, I felt stressed out about the Science!

Now you should pop over to Multiple Mummy's Science Sparks page and check out a master at work and the other link-ups.

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