Nancy B’s Nature Keeper and Tree Diary – Review

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Nancy B’s Nature Keeper & Tree Diary from Learning Resources is a great way for children to learn about nature, and document their findings in a journal packed full of activities and guidance on things to look out for. Also included in the set are a flower press, tweezers and a leaf press cutter.

The set includes a 28 page Nature Keeper & Tree Diary booklet, which is very informative and full of information for children to learn about trees and leaves. Every page has activities to follow, things to observe and note down and spaces to stick samples of leaves. There is a lot to learn but written in a simple, easy to understand way, with plenty of illustrations and colour pictures to help maintain interest. Recommended for 8+, I think this was perfect for Miss M who’s a few months away from being 8, to engage her interest in nature and she was eager to collect samples.

As well as the nature journal is a flower press. This proved very popular with Miss M and she collected a whole bag of samples for us to use inside. The press is very easy to open and close with velcro fastenings and inside has layers of card and paper with which you place the samples within. We had a selection of small flowers and a few leaves which we carefully laid on the sheets and then closed the press tight to let them dry out.

We left the flower press for 3 or 4 days before opening it to ensure the samples had plenty of time to dry out but couldn’t wait to see the results. The items we had placed inside had become incredibly thin and flat, and importantly retained their colour. Miss M was fascinated as she hasn’t seen anything like this before so I explained that they were very delicate, hence why the tweezers were included to enable us to pick them up.

The dried leaves and flowers can then be used for art projects, pictures etc. Miss M is currently making a birthday card for her Nanny at the end of the month using these, which I think will look very beautiful once finished. What a great way to incorporate nature into crafts and this Nancy B nature kit is a lovely introduction into nature, trees and flowers with a mixture of facts and activities to keep children engaged but learning at the same time.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the nature set in order to write the review.

Gears! Gears! Gears! Movin’ Monkeys Building Set – Review

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Gears! Gears! Gears! is a fabulous range of creative, building sets using tactile gears and cranks to wind the pieces round, creating a magical moving scene. We received the Movin’ Monkeys set from Learning Resources to play with.

The Movin’ Monkeys set comprises of 136 pieces which includes base plates, coloured gears, cranks, tree parts, monkeys and a sticker sheet to decorate some of the gears. There is also a very easy to follow instruction booklet which allows you to build the entire scene as shown on the box. The instructions are clear and broken down into manageable sections.

Miss M immediately got to work building the first tree and added the gears. This gave her a little bit of a challenge to follow the build instructions and construct the pieces correctly. To build the whole set is quite a challenge for a young person and although this set is aimed at age 4+, I’d definitely suggest a slightly older age would be better. Miss M is 6 and I feel this is a great construction set for her and something very different to the normal construction toys you see. She did require some guidance and assistance but I’m sure she’ll improve each time she plays.

Mister B decided to take it upon himself to build the palm trees. He gathered all the necessary pieces and within a few minutes he proudly showed off his bit of construction work! He was so pleased with his trees and carefully held onto them until the rest was built so he could put them in their correct places.

The pieces slot together quite easily although quite firmly so the set is quite durable and doesn’t fall apart easily once built. Once we had constructed the full build, it looked like a brightly coloured jungle scene and both children were eager to see what happened next. The next step was to add the monkeys which can be hung from numerous trees and branches either by the hooks on their hands or tails. Then it was time for the magic – would it work? Miss M slowly turned the handle on one of the gears and very cleverly all the cogs starting turning at the same time, the monkeys starting moving, spinning and swinging around the trees and my two children looked upon their Movin’ Monkeys jungle scene in amazement!

Both were keen to take turns in turning the gears and have fun moving the monkeys around to hang from different places, the Movin’ Monkeys construction set certainly gave good play value for a while once it was built.

What I like about Movin’ Monkeys is that it is both a construction set and then can be played with as well. You can be creative and build any design you like out of the set, however big or small. On her own Miss M likes to build just a small tree structure that she can get turning and is quite fascinated watching it move. This allows her to be creative independently and as she gets older she’ll become more confident in building bigger jungle scenes.

You can watch Movin’ Monkeys in action here:

Overall I think Movin’ Monkeys is an interesting, fun construction set that a child aged 6+ would get the most value out of. It’s made from brightly coloured, durable plastic pieces and has lots of fun features for the monkeys to play on. Being a large set with a lot of pieces, this enables you to be versatile with the building and use your imagination to create a different design every time.

A great bonus of this set is that it is compatible with any other Gears! Gears! Gears! sets so you can join them up and make a huge moving scene! Why not try a set today and see how creative you can be with moving gears?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and Movin’ Monkeys was sent to us in order to write the review.

Nancy B’s Scientific Microscope and Activity Journal – Review

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Nancy B is a former science teacher and science enthusiast who always longed for a microscope as a child. She has now invented her own range of science tools to help children engage in the world of science and enable them to investigate and experiment themselves. Each tool comes with a colour page activity journal with lots of ideas of things to do and it’s a place to record and document your findings. The range is aimed at children 8+ and includes a Microscope, Moonscope, Aquascope, Binoculars and a Crime Solver Scope.

We were sent the Nancy B Microscope from Learning Resources to try out which comes with an activity journal and an impressive array of accessories.

The set includes:

Microscope
Activity journal
Tweezers
Scapel
Spatula
Stirring rod
Test tube
Pipette
Specimen vial
Petri dish
7 cover slips and slide labels
4 prepared slides and 7 blank slides

The Nancy B Microscope is a great piece of equipment. It does require 3 AAA batteries in order for the light to work but the detail you can see through it is incredible. It comes with three different magnification levels, 30x, 100x and 400x.

It has two lights, a top light to see 3D views and a bottom viewing light to see through things. There is a focusing knob that easily turns either way, a rubberised eyepiece for comfort when viewing and a specimen holder with clips and a adjustable stopper to hold items in place.

Miss M who is getting ever closer to 7yrs old was keen to start observing. As she is at the younger age for this range, I carefully showed her how to operate the Nancy B Microscope and assisted her in finding specimens to view. We started with the pre prepared slides which I think are a fantastic idea to be included with this set. On these we had items such as a peacock feather, a goldfish scale and some wool. It was amazing how miniscual these samples were and showed that you don’t need much of a sample in order to see fantastic detail on the objects.

She was eager to be hands on and put items on the slides herself, using the included tools. She also took the sample pots in the garden with her to collect small items to look at. We used the activity book for ideas which I have to say is also fantastic. It really does guide a child through using the microscope and starts with really basic objects before moving on to more interesting ideas. Everything is detailed in step by step stages, it has been really thought through and written for a child to follow and understand. They are also spaces for the child to write their observations down, becoming a journal to look back on.

Some of the simplest ideas start from drawing some pen lines on a piece of paper, using a pen, pencil, crayon etc and then seeing what the difference is between them close up. We then looked at the skin on our face by putting a piece of sticky tape on our cheek and peeling it off to look at the results. You can also look at cells from inside your cheek, different foods and of course anything from outside although I did have to remind Miss M as she dashed off to find some bugs, that the journal does say to only use dead bugs and don’t kill them to view them. We did manage to find a dead fly on the windowsill and hope to find some other things over the summer. Flower petals and leaves were interesting, in fact your possibilities are endless, keep trying different things, you may be surprised at the results.

Our most exciting sample was a drop of water from a pond, Although the pond was covered in algae, the drop we took using the pipette looked clear, but in fact under the microscope, there were two micororganisms dashing about across the drop of water. Miss M found this very exciting and we all jumped up to take a look. Even Mister B showed his interest and wanted to take a look although we did hold the microscope carefully while he did this.

I think the Nancy B Microscope is excellent. It really helps children to engage in science and gains them many new skills through using this. Miss M has learnt how to carefully collect samples using different tools, how to prepare the slides and how to operate the microscope. She did require a little assistance focusing sometimes as depending on the object, different levels of magnitude were better but she did get the hang of the focusing knob and learnt how to move it away from the light so as not to crush the specimens!

I think the included accessories are excellent, I wasn’t expecting such a range but there really is a tool or pot suitable for every sample. I think the design and quality of the Nancy B Microscope is great too and see it as a lasting piece of equipment that will be used time and time again. I’m sure it will come in handy for many school projects and homework too, so definitely see this as a valuable piece of equipment that your child can enjoy over many years.

Why not take a look at Nancy B’s science range yourself, whether your child loves nature, water, the stars and sky, there is a piece of equipment to suit everyone!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and the microscope was sent to us in order to write the review.

Design and Drill Set from Learning Resources – Review

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Design and Drill Set from Learning Resources is a creative construction set where children can drill patterns and pictures onto a design board. Aimed at children aged 3-7 years, I thought this would be perfect for my two children to try with Mister B being 3 and Miss M who is 6. I particularly had Mister B in mind though as he’s quite fancied a drill for a while and I saw this as a great learning activity for him.

The set comes with an activity board, power drill (which requires 3AA batteries), 120 brightly coloured bolts, a wrench, manual screwdriver, 3 attachments for the drill/screwdriver and 20 activity cards. The drill has 3 settings, forward, off and reverse, something Mister B grasped quickly and loved the abililty to change from drilling the bolts in, to removing them using the reverse option.

Mister B who is 3yrs old was immediately drawn to the Design and Drill Set when he saw the box, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on the drill and got to work straight away. The set allows children to create any design or pattern they wish with coloured bolts on the board. There are 20 laminated design cards to copy which I think gives a fantastic amount of ideas, they certainly can’t get bored with doing the same designs over and over.

After doing a few simple patterns, Mister B spotted an X shape. His eyes lit up “I’ve found X marks the spot” and off he started. He loves X marks the spot and is always drawing pirate maps so this he has declared is his favourite pattern to make.

The Design and Drill Set is not only fun but great for developing early skills such as colour recognition, counting, patterns and motor skills. The concentration really showed on Mister B’s face as he put each bolt in place and counted along the design card to see where to place the next bolt.

I was surprised to see 6 yr old Miss M be just as keen to have a go and she had fun creating the bigger picture designs such as a house, rocket and boat.

I think this Design and Drill Set has a lot of play and learning value and I have to say that I can’t believe how much my two children have been playing with this. They use it at every opportunity when they are home and it’s always a battle as to whose turn it is! They have done some shared designs taking a turn each to put a bolt in.

The bolts are bright and colourful, really engaging for young children giving them endless possibilities of what to create. My children have enjoyed following the design cards but also made up their own patterns and done letters in their names etc. See below some of the great designs we have made following the design cards.

I’m really impressed with the Design and Drill set from Learning Resources, it’s provided hours of entertainment for my children already, it’s got some great learning aspects with it, from recognition to fine motor skills and is a very well built, durable toy. I’d recommend to this anyone with a young child as something that will last and allow your child to gain some valuable skills but is also fun and enjoyable to play with.

I think this will get highly used in this house for sometime yet, they play with it before school, after school, after bathtime in their pyjamas, it really has proved a big hit with us and is definitely one of the top toys that we have at the moment. Why not check it out for yourself over at Learning Resources ?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and the Design & Drill Set was sent to us in order to write the review.

Pancake Pile-Up Relay Game – Review

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Pancake Pile-Up from Learning Resources is a fun, fast paced team game that all the family can enjoy. With two teams of up to six players in each, this is a game that encourages team work, promotes physical activity and builds a competitive atmosphere that everyone get’s involved in. Also for younger players it helps develop recognition with the different toppings on the pancakes and also hand eye coordination as they balance the pancakes on the spatulas.

The game comes with two plastic spatulas, 10 soft plastic pancakes (in 5 different flavours), two plastic pieces of butter, 10 order cards, two cardboard plates and instructions. Being soft plastic, the pancakes are durable and won’t break which is what you need when you are carrying them across the room. The box is made of an extremely sturdy cardboard which is fantastic to store the game in, but the bottom is actually used as part of the game play. It has the image of a griddle on it, upon which you place the pancakes and this is where you collect them from during the game.

First you need to separate players into two teams and then select an order card which shows you the order of the different flavoured pancakes that you need to stack. Also place the plates at one end of the room and the griddle with the pancakes at the other.

Then it is time to start, with the first player in each team running across to the griddle with their spatula, selecting the correctly topped pancake and running back to their team, carefully balancing the pancake on the spatula and placing it on the plate. The next player in the team then runs across and collects the next pancake on the list until a tower of pancakes is built that matches the order card. The first team to successfully do this are the winners!

When I showed my two children the Pancake Pile-Up game, their eyes lit up and they were eager to play. They both love playing games and often prefer them to toys so I knew they’d be excited at a new game. They immediately took charge and decided to be team captains and picked their team members from a choice of mummy, daddy and their grandparents. Then the relay started and they were away, I have to say the atmosphere in the room was brimming with cheers, encouragement and excitement as we took our turns at collecting a pancake for the pile. Once the pile was complete and we had a winning team they immediately wanted to mix the teams up a bit and play again.

The suggested age range for this game is 4-8 years, so this was perfect for 6yr old Miss M. Mister B is only 3yr’s old but is more than capable of playing this and totally grasped the game although did require a little direction. He often got caught up in the excitement and came back with a different flavoured pancake to which he went for but non the less we let him off as he was enjoying it so much!

Pancake Pile-Up is such a simple game but one that children absolutely love and it really does bring people together. Normally we are sat down to play games and children can get bored or distracted, but with Pancake Pile-Up we were all (adults included) totally engrossed in the game throughout as we cheered, motivated and encouraged each other along in a bid to be the winning team.

We love Pancake Pile-Up, it has been a huge success with our family. I think the relay team aspects and the physical side of it really add to the fun and enjoyment. My children have played with it again and again sometimes just by themselves racing to build their pile of pancakes. We are seeing family this weekend and my children are keen to take it with us to play with Auntie K, Uncle K and Cousin L. I think this game is versatile and would make a great children’s party game, and definitely one to bring out at Christmas. But with pancake day on it’s way this year, it’s perfect to get children thinking about Shrove Tuesday and planning their desired toppings for their pancakes.

If you have young children and are looking for a fun, quick paced family game that everyone will enjoy, then why not give Pancake Pile-Up a try?

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the game in order to write the review.

New Sprouts Grill It Playset – Review

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Fiona Martin

New Sprouts play food collections from Learning Resources are a fantastic range of toy food sets for young children to play with through imaginative and role play. There are many exciting food sets in the range including Garden Fresh Salad Set, Baking Set and Super Sandwich Set. We were sent the Grill It! My very own barbeque set to try.

Mister B who is 3yrs old, was very excited when it arrived and was eager to play with it. The set consists of a barbeque with lift off grill, tongs, tray and 15 pieces of play food including burger rolls, burgers, tomato slices, a chicken breast, corn on the cob and more.

The first thing I noticed about this New Sprouts play set is that the play pieces are very well made. The food items are a lovely quality and look good. The barbeque is a flexible plastic which is great as it helps to avoid any breakages making it a toy that will last and withstand a not so gentle toddler!

As well as having fun playing with the barbeque set, it is excellent for improving fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. Mister B who is 3 initially found the tongs a challenge to use, but after a few go’s, he got to grips with using them. You can see his little mind ticking over working out how far down the tongs to hold them in order to get the best grip.

Both children loved playing with the set to cook each other food and make different burger combinations. This set will provide hours of fun and easily combines with other food/kitchen play accessories they have to provide long term play value. They love to use the barbeque when playing picnics, or having a pretend cafe etc.

The New Sprouts Grill It set is a great, brightly coloured set that little ones will love. My two love playing with pretend food and the barbeque gives them something to cook on. It also gives great interaction with parents as Mister B loves asking what I want and then cooking it for me. Although he is a bit cheeky and I usually get what I’m told to have rather than what I ask for!!

We loved this set and recommend it as a great play set for toddlers who love to cook.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Twinkl – Printable Learning Resources for Home or School

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Twinkl is an amazing website, jam packed with printable learning resources including simple activity sheets, games, writing borders, signs, labels etc. The list really does go on – with over 88,000 printable resources for EYFS, KS1, KS2, teachers, home educators, childminders, nurseries and more.

We were given a premium subscription to try – normally costing £29.99 which gave us access to more than 10,000 further resources and also enabled downloading multiple resources at once – an option that would be ideal for schools.

The Twinkl site is easily broken down into the different age groups and also different topics. With the vast amount of choice on offer we decided to look at the parenting section which offers things like parenting guides, activity sheets in maths and reading skills, printable games and a behavioural section with things such as reward charts and certificates.

I love the way the activities incorporate fun, brightly coloured pictures but also include an educational aspect, like the butterfly to colour in – using particular colours depending on the answer to the mathematical sum in each area of the picture. Miss M who is 5yrs old loved the sheets when I showed them to her and couldn’t wait to get stuck in. She likes to be kept occupied and challenged in what she does.

Within the topic section on Twinkl there is one called Under the Sea, which I knew my children would love. We often pop down to our local aquarium as they love looking at the various fish, sharks, starfish, seahorses etc. So seeing the sealife on the activity sheets really appealed to them and added interest as it was something that they could easily relate to.

We found some interesting fun addition/subtraction sheets and some pattern worksheets with brightly coloured images of all kinds of sealife and other underwater objects which both my children loved. Although Mister B is a little young for the activities he loved pointing to the objects and telling me what they were while Miss M finished the lines of patterns and did the sums. The Under the Sea section has a wide range of worksheets – something for everyone as well as display sheets, power points and writing frames.

There’s also a friendly Forum on the site which is a helpful little place where you can ask any questions or advice and you are sure to get an answer. I’ve had a little look around and it’s very simply set making it easy to use and ask the questions you want to.

The resources on Twinkl are perfect for schools and there is currently a special offer running giving schools a free trial (normally £249.99 though prices vary according to the size of school) – this gives them access to the premium subscription offering over an extra 10,000 resources. Why not give it a go if you work in a school environment or recommend it to your local school.

I’m really pleased by what I have seen of Twinkl so far. It’s full of resources perfect for me to print for my children to help them build on skills learnt at school but also ones that are fun and they enjoy doing. Miss M thoroughly enjoyed working through a flower addition worksheet by herself and you can see her efforts below.

I’d definitely recommend Twinkl for anyone looking for printable materials – there’s such a vast selection that everyone is catered for. We’ve already printed a little folder of sheets for Miss M to work through during the summer holidays at her own leisure!

Hot Dots – Let’s Learn! Maths – Interactive Learning for Children!

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Hot Dots is an interactive learning system from Learning Resources that children can play independently. It consists of a talking pen which is used against multiple choice answers in a book to encourage learning and reinforcement of skills already learnt.

We were sent the Hot Dots – Let’s Learn! Maths set which comprises of one talking pen and three interactive work books. The pen is brightly coloured and chunky so not easily lost. Little hands love to hold it and it is used to answer questions throughout the books. The books are well made, with durable glossy pages and being spiral bound means it’s easy to turn pages, keep them flat when open and see everything on the page.

In the Maths set of Hot Dots, the three books cover Addition Subtraction and Time Telling and using just the numbers from 0-20, means they are the perfect introduction into basic Maths and great for those in their first couple of years at school. Miss M who is 5 could do the first couple of pages in these fairly easily but then they became more challenging. She did a lot of counting on fingers to work out the answers but with the repetition of doing these books again and again means that hopefully she will finally be able to carry out these sums in her head.

What I really loved about the concept of the interaction and Miss M knowing whether she was right or wrong, meant that she could sit independently and work through the books. She loved finding out whether she was right or wrong and determined to get to the right answer. If I noticed she kept getting the wrong answers, it gave me an opportunity to sit down with her and talk her through the harder sums before letting her move on through the books.

I liked the idea of the time telling book which is included in this set – it makes it a bit different. There are various pictures of clocks and you have to select the time that is showing on the clock. Miss M gets very muddled with telling the time so I’m hoping this will help her get to grips with the basics. I think we have mastered o’clock and half past now so we have had some success.

Being a handy size, the Hot Dots Maths set can be used anywhere, great for long journeys in the car, sitting in bed before night time, or just sitting at home. I’m hoping that by using these over the school holidays, Miss M will keep up with the basic Maths skills she has learnt in foundation class at school and increase her knowledge a little further before starting back in Year 1 this September.

What I also like about the Hot Dots range is that once you have a talking pen, you can buy extra sets of activity cards for children to work through covering many areas such as phonics, vocabulary, science, grammer and spelling. The age ranges vary on each set so this is something that can grow with your child and be used over many ages.

We like Hot Dots and think it is a great learning tool for children – Miss M has already packed it in her suitcase for our family holiday this weekend. I think it’s a great back up to what they learn in school and gives them the independence to learn on their own. To find out more check out the Hot Dots range on the Learning Resources website.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

No Mess Play Foam from Learning Resources – Review and win

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Fiona Martin

When I was sent No Mess Play Foam to review from Learning Resources, I was very intrigued. Would it really be no mess? How well would it stick together? Would there be little balls of foam all over the floor?

Miss M who is 5 was very keen to try the Play Foam – she loves anything crafty and was eager to get her fingers on this new and exciting looking texture. The first thing I noticed was how pliable the balls of foam were and you can literally mould them into shapes, pull it apart and stick it back together. In fact it seemed incredibly sticky but the bizarre things was there was no stickiness on your fingers or to anything else. Wow – quite amazing, I was definitely impressed, the “No Mess” quality of this product really is true.

Mister B absolutely adored testing his fingers in the Play Foam and together they had sausage rolling races and really helped them interact and have fun. The colours will merge if you mix the individual colours together which did eventually happen to ours, but this didn’t phase my little ones in the slightest and they continued to play with this day after day.

A few days later I came home to find daddy playing with the Play Foam, creating different shapes such as a pear, turtle, duck, rowing boat!! The children were fascinated by his creations and it really spurred them on to have a go at trying different ideas for themselves.

We’ve had lots of fun with No Mess Play Foam as it really is different to anything else we’ve tried. We’d highly recommend everyone to give it a go – lots of sticky fun with no mess – what more could you ask for!!

If you fancy trying a pack for free then why not enter the Learning Resources competition to WIN 1 of 5 packs on their Facebook page. Entries close on Friday 7th June 2013.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Fiona Martin

With Miss M being an avid lover of games I was really pleased to try The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game from Learning Resources. It is a simple, fun game for 2-4 players aged 3+. The game is set in a delightful tree shaped box with a lovely woodland theme to it.

The object of the game is to be the first person to collect one of each of five coloured acorns in your tree stump. The acorns are placed in the inside of the tree shaped box and using a spinner determines the action you can make, pick up a particular colour acorn, pick one of your choice, miss a go or steal an acorn from another player etc.

The highlight of the game for my children is the Squirrel Squeezer – a plastic squirrel shaped set of tweezers used to pick the acorns up from the box and transfer them to your tree stump. These are very strong, sturdy and definitely gave the game an added dimension of fun.

Although the game is fairly simple, it does encourage colour matching and improve fine motor skills along with a bit of strategy when choosing which player is best to steal acorns from.

This is a fun game suitable for younger children but is easily enjoyed by all the family. My five year old also sat quite happily playing it with her friend without the need for adult supervision. We’ve enjoyed this game, it’s been played everyday and is a great for entertaining young children – even my 2.5yr old enjoyed using the squirrel to put acorns in a tree stump and tell me what colours they were!!

If you’d like to win a Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game for yourself then head over to the Learning Resources Facebook page before 30th April 2013 where they are running a competition to win 1 of 5 copies.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.