Sprout Pencil – the 100% sustainable pencil that you grow after use

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Fiona Martin

Sprout have developed a 100% sustainable pencil right to the very end of it’s life – as when you’ve almost used it up, you just turn it upside down and pop the end in some soil. Et voila! – the seeds at the end of the pencil will grow and you will have a plant growing in 1 to 4 weeks! It could be some wonderful herbs, flowers or vegetables. The stub also acts as a marker with the name of your seeds labelled on it so you won’t forget what plant is growing in each pot.

Each set of pencils has a different theme, I went with the ‘Mindful Thoughts’ edition which has a lovely quote along the length of each one. At the end of each pencil in an enclosed capsule, there are seeds such as Sage, Daisy, Basil, Chia and Thyme.

The pencils themselves are lovely to write with, perfect for my shopping lists and the children have been using them for drawing etc. They look smart and feel like they are good quality. I can’t wait to get near to the end of one to turn it it into a beautiful plant that I can use – in fact I can just imagine the whole set of pencils in a row of pots along my kitchen windowsill. Then watching them turn into a beautiful array of fresh herbs to use in my cooking – how wonderful would that be!

I think the Sprout Pencil ‘Plant Your Pencil’ concept is a lovely idea and very eco friendly. They would also make a lovely gift for someone and sure to put a smile on someones face seeing the double use for the pencil and something a bit different from usual. Make sure you check them out!

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.

Great Gizmos NICI Stationery for Kids – Review

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Great Gizmos sell a wide range of children’s toys and gifts, and have a lovely selection from the brand NICI, of which we were sent a few items to try out. I could immediately tell all the items are of a high quality, well made and look good so I was keen to get the children to try them out.

We received a Timmy the sheep backpack, sloth pencil case, coloured pencil tin and child size scissors.

The Timmy backpack has been a huge success in both it’s softness and likeness to a cuddly toy as well as it’s usefulness as a bag. Both my children loved this and decided to take turns each day in using it. Miss M above is modelling it and you can see it’s a medium size bag and Timmy’s head lifts up to get inside. It fastens with a strong magnetic button that keeps everything secure inside. The straps are adjustable and are a lovely bright lime green colour. The bag itself is exceptionally soft and my children loved cuddling it when they were out and about in place of a cuddly they would use at home. This bag has been a hit with my two and has even been on it’s first trip to France and was great to carry a few useful items in.

The Sloth pencil case is lovely, one of the most luxurious pencil cases around. It feels so soft to the touch and has a really cute sloth on the outsdie. Inside the lid unrolls to reveal storage for a number of pens or pencils. You then have the main zipped compartment with plenty of storage inside for all your other stationery items.

The scissors are cute with a wild animal theme and are sharp enough to cut well, but perfect for little fingers. My little boy has made good use of these as he loves to cut his pictures out when he draws them.

I just love the coloured pencils in the Kangaroo tin, how I would have loved these as a child! The ideal of them being double ended with two different colours in each pencil is fabulous and means you only have to carry half the amount of pencils around with you but still have all the colours!

I think the NICI range of stationery from Great Gizmos is lovely and made to a high standard. They are a little pricier than other brands, but to be honest, you get what you pay for. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for other NICI products as I’ve been really pleased with what we’ve tried out here.

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

Stabilo Stationery for Children – Review

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Stabilo have created a range of ergonomic designs specifically aimed at children and young writers to help boost their letter formation and make it easier for them to hold a pencil and improve their writing skills. We were sent a selection from Stabilo to try out and see what we thought.

The Stabilo EASYgraph pencil comes in a triangular shape with special non-grip mouldings along the edge for little fingers to grip easily. Miss M was immediately drawn to this as she has been given one at school to use, so she instantly knew what the red end on this meant. All the pens/pencils in this range have been carefully colour coded with red or yellow for right and left handed. Miss M knew she had a right handed one because it was red. I watched her grasp the pencil, it is very comfortable on the hand and because the finger grips are there so it really allows for little ones to start forming letters easily as they are holding it correctly. This has become a firm favourite of Miss M’s and she uses it everyday.

We also tried the EASYoriginal which is an ergonomic rollerball pen. The outer casing of this one is pink, a right handed model, which immediately appealed to Miss M. This is a really comfortable pen to hold that Miss M has loved using to write endless little stories and diaries of her day. It’s great that it encourages little ones to write and because it’s comfy and easy to hold, it is always the first pen they pick up first. Being refillable means you can keep the comfy outer shell and just buy replacements for the rollerball ink. I love the ergonomic aspects of this pen and think it’s great to help young writers boost their writing confidence and improve their letter formation with this easy to write pen. It does just glide along the paper with no smudging, a well made, high quality child’s pen.

The pack of point 88 Fineliner’s from Stabilo are a wonderful set of brightly coloured pens with a sharp point that glides easily as it writes. The selection of pens all produce bright, vibrant colours on the paper in non smudge ink. I have loved using these to write various things down from birthday cards, to entries on the family calendar using a different colour for each person. Miss M has tried them and loved the colours, but I have kept them away from everyday use, letting her use them if she is writing something special. The pens are hexagonally shaped making them nice to hold and I’ve always been a fan of fine points. They claim to have a long cap-off time which is great especially with younger ones using them.

I’m very impressed by the Stabilo range of stationery, although a bit pricier than some other stationery ranges around, they are of very high quality and built to last. The ergonomically designed pens and pencils for children are the highlight of the range for me and something well worth considering investing in for your young ones. To improve their quality of writing can only be a bonus, well worth paying for.

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.

Robinsons Fruit Shoot Smencils – Review

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Fiona Martin

I think nearly all children love to draw, write and colour so Smencils – the new gourmet scented pencils from Learning Resources were sure to be a hit with Miss M when we received a pack to try. The amazing thing with these pencils is not only their scent but the fact that they are made from 100% recycled newspaper!!

We received a pack of the new Robinson’s Fruit Shoot Smencils which contained 5 graphite pencils in the 5 popular Fruit Shoot flavours – Orange, Tropical Fruit, Apple, Summer Fruits and Blackcurrant & Apple. They each come individually cased in a plastic tube to preserve the scent but this also adds to the appeal for children as they love things in little containers to open and close.

When I gave the Smencils to Miss M to try her eyes lit up. She carefully opened each tube and had a sniff, then tried to guess the flavour – in fact she found it quite fascinating that each pencil smelt differently. After opening each tube and sniffing each pencil about three times and getting mummy and daddy to have a sniff she proceeded to do some drawing. What fascinated me whilst watching her was that although each pencil had the same graphite lead in it, she would draw a little then put the pencil back in the tube, open another tube, have a sniff then draw bit more and so on.

We’ve loved trying Smencils and Miss M loves trying to get people to guess the different scents. A great novelty pencil idea but eco-friendly being made with 100% recycled newspaper.

If you fancy trying some then why not join the Learning Resources Facebook page where you can enter a competition for your chance to win a pack of Robinson’s Fruit shoot Smencils. The competition ends on Friday 7th September so get your entries in now!!

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.