This day I love.......: imagination

I laid the brightly coloured chunky Smartmax pieces out for Little Man to play with after his nap. The large chunky colours grabbed his attention and he toddled rather quickly over to investigate these new shapes.

In the box, then out the box, then in the box and out the box. Then he discovered that some pieces slot together.

click. Then pull apart, followed by another click.

Little Man was enjoying this. The chunky pieces the perfect size for a toddlers hands to grip. The animal shapes capturing his imagination as he made random animal noises, followed by asking me 'this' he says pointing at the animals.

He carefully matches up each colour. Not wanting to mix and match even though he could. Everything carefully thought out before he attempts the next move.

Sometimes though the pieces didn't go click. Little Man looks at me confused. After a thinking for a little while he turns the piece round. Click.

I have loved watching Little Man play with the Smartmax My first safari animals set. I love watching him trying to work out why it won't click together and his thought process in turning the pieces around. We build the animals together and have used the set to talk about animals and also talk about colours. It has been a great introduction to both. His sisters like to line the animals up in size order too, which has been another topic of discussion.

Smartmax is a wonderful way to introduce the concept of magnets to children but it has also provided us with other discussion topics. My eldest at 7 is asking more in depth questions regarding magnets but we can still use the Smartmax pieces to demonstrate. Little Man just loves connecting the pieces together. I cannot wait until he discovers that due to the magnets in the pieces he will also be able to make them stick to other surfaces too!

The Smartmax My first safari animals set has certainly been a hit in our house. I have a feeling we will be buying other Smartmax kits to extend our building!

This item was sent for the purpose of review, all words are my own personal opinion.

No comments

I love to play games with the girls, especially those that help to get them thinking. After Christmas dinner we play board games as a family, it is a wonderful way for us to all be together and enjoy each others company. Crayola games 3-2-1 is one such game that has had us laughing and having a lot of fun.

3-2-1 draw packs away neat and tidy. The game consists of a drawing board and pen, which all store neatly together. In the top of the drawing board, which is wipe clean, is the eraser and three dice. A sand timer is also needed for the game which slots neatly on top of the pen. I love this compact storage as it means it is easy to tidy away, and things then tend to be tidied away in our house so they do not get lost.

The game is aimed at 6 years and over but my four year old was able to play. The great thing about the game is you can make it as complex or as simple as you like. You can have as many players or teams as you like, or even test your drawing skills yourself. The dice included give inspiration as to what to draw, or you can simply choose not to use them and think up your own. You can use one dice or a combination of them. Dice 1 contains letters, Dice 2 has categories like film, stars and books and Dice 3 has challenges like only draw half.

We stuck with playing with just the letter dice, as it got my youngest thinking about her phonics and it gave us all a basic starting point as to what was going to be drawn. We had split into two teams to play, one person in the team drew and the others guessed the drawing and they kept drawing until the time ran out. This meant we had a challenge of drawing and thinking of as many things as possible before the sand timer ran out. We liked the timer fitted onto the end of the pen but found some people put the pen in their mouths to think and would tip the sand back the other way!

Crayola games 3-2-1 draw got the girls working together and thinking together about what they could draw. It got them to play in teams and to also take turns, and share. They did all of this without arguing and having fun.

Both girls thought really hard about what they would draw and came up with some pretty imaginative ideas for letters. Things I would not have thought they would think of like a basketball net for B.

My favourite drawing has to be one my youngest did. She drew a circle with lines coming out of it, and it looked like a sun. The letter was a S. It was however not a sun. I could not guess, I was really stuck. In the end the timer ran out and we asked her what it was. She had drawn a ball and the lines represented the air coming out of the ball making a 'sssssssssssssssssss' noise!

For 'R' she draw roller boots!

The most drawings in the time goes to my Mum also with 'R' who got a rabbit, rainbow and rain all guessed by my eldest daughter!

Crayola games 3-2-1 draw is incredibly good fun and perfect for the whole family! It is one we will be playing a lot over the Christmas period and beyond. I love the way it can adapt to be as complex or easy as you want to make it so that it grows with your child or can be played by adults as well!

Crayola games 3-2-1 draw was provided for in exchange for this review, however all words are my own opinion and we really do love playing it!

No comments

My youngest daughter has a new favourite tv show, Shimmer and Shine. For those not familiar with the show it follows 2 genies Shimmer and Shine and their friend Leah. Shimmer and Shine are Genies in training and whilst they do their best to grant wishes for Leah things often go wrong. They all work together to fix the problem and achieve a good outcome. Personally I like the show as it helps to teach kids to learn from their mistakes and to right a wrong.

My youngest is very much like her favourite character, Shine. They are both always hungry, they both have a love for animals and they both are very courageous. Her class recently had a fancy dress party and of course she wanted to attend as her favourite character. Whilst I was unwilling to let her wear purple contact lenses I did agree to let her have blue hair, well sort of.

New from Just Play is the Pony Tail Assortment. I put my youngest daughters hair in to a bun and the blue pony tail of Shine clipped over the top. The bright blue sparkly hair matching that of her favourite character. She loved that is was sparkly and had a jewel bobble just like Shine.

My youngest daughter had to grant wishes just like Shine and began dancing and performing.

She was very impressed with her sparkly blue hair and I think it really helped her get into character. We didn't have a Shimmer and Shine dress up costume, but we made do with a genie costume and a yellow t shirt [ it was rather cold outside] and to add to it the Wish come true purse set.

The Wish Come True Purse Set comes complete with a purse, 2 bracelets, sticker sheets, a brush and a Magic Wish Necklace giving my youngest daughter those little extras to be Shine. She even put a few bits in that she needed for school.

My youngest loves her Shimmer and Shine accessories and her blue hair. As a fan of the show she loves that she can dress up like Shine and be a genie too!

All words are my own opinion, items mentioned were sent in exchange for this post.

No comments

About me

Follow Us

Popular

Brands