Playing and Learning with Faber-Castell

Freddy returned to school last week, and after a slightly shaky start is settling down well into Year 2. It is a big jump for him to go from a class where play was the focus into a class that consists of children in both years 2 and 3. Hopefully though, he will do OK and get more confident and discover loads of new things that will ignite his passion for learning.

At home, I think it is important to maintain the momentum and support his formal education with some fun creative activities, so when Faber-Castell sent him a bundle of art goodies, we were very pleased to test them out. Faber-Castell allows children to explore their creativity through the world of colour and their products are individually designed to suit the child's age and development.

The products we received came from the Connector range, which all benefit from having connectable attachments keeping component parts together. We received the Connector Clip Colours, a Jungle Adventure Creative Craft Kit with Connector Pens and a Connector Paint Box.

The Clip Colours Connector Pens have special lids that clip into each other, keeping the pens attached to one another. This is extremely handy to avoid the problem of rolling felt tips, especially when in the hands of a six year old on an arty mission. 

The tips are quite fine and the colours are vibrant, making these pens lovely to use for both colouring in and drawing pictures or designs.

The connectors are used for creativity rather than practicality in the Jungle Adventure craft kit. The pieces clip together in a way that makes them great for modelling. The set comprises of some art sheets featuring cut out animal body parts, which can be coloured in using the 12 pens that are included in the set, and attaching them together with the 20 Connector clips and 50 caps to make a giraffe, a bird and an elephant model. Full colour instructions are included, for completing the project. There is also a background that can be coloured in to create a fun jungle scene. The set gives tips on how to colour in using different techniques such as using squiggles or dash lines. The Connector pieces can be used in a lot of different ways in other creative projects that children will enjoy discovering. At £7.99 this is a good value set, also available in Desert and Ocean Adventure themes.

The Faber-Castell Connector Paintbox is really lovely. It contains twelve blocks of colourful water soluble paint, a tube of white paint and a retractable Clic & Go paint brush in a palette with a lid.

Each individual block of paint can be removed from the palette and they can be joined together using the connectors on their edges. This enables the artist to put together a set of colours of their choosing or order them in the palette to suit their needs. The brush is great as it retracts into the handle keeping it safe from damage when not in use. The underside of the lid of the box can be used to mix paints, which is handy, and the lid clips on securely for storage. Prices start at £10 for the 12 paint palette.

The Faber-Castell products will certainly inspire little artists to create some works of art, but are also suitable for older, more serious creative kids.

Stockists include www.stonegift.com where you can find the range of Faber-Castell Connector products.

Badge It!

Toys R Us sell loads of fabulous creative toys which are perfect for keeping the kids occupied and entertained in the summer holidays.  We were sent Badge It! from Ban Dai to review and as ever, my eager Tiny Tester Kizzy was ready and willing to try it out.

Badge It! is a gadget which makes metal badges using pictures or photographs.  It comes with enough pieces to make 15 small pin badges.  You basically pop the badge front, picture and plastic cover  in a special compartment, turn the dial, add the badge back, turn the dial again and voila...your badge is ready to attach the safety pin to.  It was a very simple process, but it took some effort to turn the dial enough to make it work properly.  Some minimal adult help was required with this.

The set came with some ready printed circular pictures for making badges which were in fun and funky designs.  Alternatively, there was a template that could be used to cut pictures from magazines.  Kizzy enjoyed being able to use pictures she had found herself to make really unique pin badges!

Once she got going, Kizzy got through the badge making pieces really quickly.  Thankfully refill sets are available to buy separately.  Badge It! would be a perfect activity for making name badges for a party.  It is  really fun, quick, not messy and easy to operate.

Here is Kizzy demonstrating how easy it is to make your own unique badges using Badge It! from Toys R Us.

I really liked how the badge making machine came fully assembled and ready to use.  The see through purple casing means you can see what is going on inside as you turn the dial. Kizzy was quite interested in the process.  It is something she could do independently without it being too fiddly and the end result was good.  She was very proud of her creations!

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