Bellz Magnetic Pickup Game

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Fiona Martin

Bellz is a fun magnetic pick up game from Spin Master that all the family can join in with and is also great to take away with you as it comes with it’s own handy travel pouch that stores all the pieces and doubles up as the game board. Aimed at ages 6+, my 8 and 6yr olds were keen to give it a try!

The game comprises of the following parts:

A zip up travel pouch/game board
A double ended magnet

Lots of colourful bells in various sizes and 4 colours

bellz The idea of the came is to collect all of the bells in one colour. The colour you collect is determined by the first colour you pick up that no one else is already collecting. The magnetic wand is used to pick up the bells and has a bigger stronger magnet at one end and a less powerful one on the smaller end. It’s up to you which end you choose but we found the big end really strong so tended to play with the smaller side.

You can pick up as many bells as you want in each turn, as long as they are all of the same colour otherwise play passes to the next person. With the strength of the magnet you can make a chain of bells which adds to the excitement.

bellz-2 My children loved this game, the jingle of the bells kept them excited and the thrill of what they could collect on the magnet. It is tricky, not as easy as it looks at all, but we did have our own rules to simplify it a little. For such a simple game, it has been played many times over the last few weeks and it’s always lovely to see both concentration and smiles on their faces. I also love the travel pouch, a round neoprene zip up case that holds all of the bells and magnetic wand so the game is completely self contained. bellz-3 A fun family game that everyone can enjoy and is great to take on holidays, weekends away for a bit of healthy competition and fun!

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

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Magnetic Date Chart and Reward Stamps Review

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Meadow Kids are a great little company supplying toys and games aimed at pre schoolers and children in Key Stage 1. I have two children, one who is in pre school and one in key stage 1 so I was keen to find out more about their products and try them out. We received a Tell Me About Today magnetic chart and a Reward Wooden Stamp Set to review.

The Tell Me About Today chart is a thick, sturdy piece of board with a corded hanging loop. the chart is magnetic and comes with 47 magnetic pieces with numbers for dates, days of the week, months, seasons, weather and years.

This is a fun, interactive and educational chart that can be updated each day with the day of the week and the date. Also things like the weather can be changed whilst other things need changing less often such as the month and season.

This has been great for both of my children and something that they enjoy doing and are learning from at the same time. My eldest who’s 7, has some concept of what date it is, and is eager to be first down in the morning to change it to the new day. My little boy who’s 4 and only just learning to read helps by finding the right numbers or looks for days starting with the right letter and together they are able to correctly update the chart. It’s also got us practising days of the week with my youngest and getting the months in the right order for my eldest.

We’ve found the Tell Me About Today chart a great learning tool and kept it hanging in the hallway so we can see the date everytime we walk by. A success with my two children!

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The Reward Wooden Stamp Set consists of 15 wooden and rubber stamps along with two ink pads all contained in a little reclosable bag. It’s a cute little set with logos on the stamps such as:

Super Duper
Thumbs Up
The Best
Keep It Up
You’re a Star
Keep It Up
Ok
Winner
Yay

as well with a few others and four cute little picture stamps, smiley face, sad face, heart and star. All the large stamps have fun images around the words to make them attractive to children.

My children loved the idea of these and had fun stamping pictures each other had done with an appropriate stamp. They also play pretend schools a lot at home at the moment which these have been perfect for as part of their play.

What we are looking to do though is create their own reward charts which they can stamp each day with how well they did each activity. I’m hoping this will help motivate them into getting things done and doing as they are told!!

We’ve loved trying some products from the Meadow Kids range, they have proved both useful and educational, whilst being fun and entertaining for the children to do.

All reviews are my own opinions and I received the products in order to write the review.

HABA Come with us! Opposites book – Review

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Fiona Martin

We were delighted to be sent some little HABA toys to help celebrate HABA’s 75th Anniversary! HABA are a German toy manufacturing company that produces high quality children’s toys, games and furniture. A lot of their toys are made from wood but in more recent years they have expanded to use other materials but have maintained the excellent high standard we have come to know from HABA.

I have always found that any HABA toys I have come across have been beautifully designed, attractive to look at and well made. They are a joy to own and play with and great to pass down to younger children – they definitely stand the test of time.

We received a book from the Come with us! series and it was all about opposites. It is a board book aimed at preschool children and covers opposites such as tall/short, empty/full, small/large etc.

What makes this book from HABA so delightful is that it comes with a beautifully made wooden sheep called Willow. He is magnetic and what makes the book clever is that on each page the Willow will only stick to the opposite described in the story.

My two children both enjoyed this book and had fun playing with Willow to see where he would and wouldn’t stick and although 5 yr old Miss M knew immediately where to stick him, 2 yr old Mister B had to think a bit more and by trying to stick Willow in various places has helped reinforce opposites with him.

We love this HABA Come with us! book and think it would be great for any child of pre school age. A nice little story along with learning opportunities in a fun, interactive way.

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.