Playing Traditional Board Games with the Bigjigs Games Compendium

Being Play Patrol Agents for Bigjigs Toys has been an honour, but our time as testers for their wonderful wooden toys has come to an end. However, Freddy has one more toy to test and it is a good one!

The Bigjigs Games Compendium is a beautifully made set of traditional wooden games that packs neatly into its own box. The games included are Snakes and Ladders, Tic Tac Toe, Draughts and Tiddly Winks. The set includes two reversible games boards and all the playing pieces, which are kept in cloth drawstring bags. One of the games boards doubles up as the lid to the storage box. It is a very clever design. The box has a handle making it easy to carry, so it's great for holidays or visits to the grandparents' house, ensuring kids are never at a loss for something to do.

The four games are really well constructed and everything is made of wood except for the tiddly winks counters and dice.  The Snakes and Ladders game is lovely and colourful, featuring pictures of favourite nursery rhyme characters that children will recognise, prompting many a rendition of a story, a rhyme or a song whilst playing. As a twist to the game, we made the rule that you had to recite the rhyme if you landed on one of the picture squares, which was a lot of fun.

The Tic Tac Toe has really chunky playing pieces, which made playing it really satisfying - more so than using the paper and pencil version. Freddy really loved this game of strategy and did really well trying to make his winning moves while blocking my attempts at getting three in a row.

This is Freddy's first ever Draughts set and he took to the game really well. It was lovely to see him so engaged with a traditional game, rather than playing Minecraft on the computer! It made him think and he enjoyed learning new skills.

The Tic Tac Toe board features a target with scoring circles that the counters have to be flicked into. Unfortunately neither myself or Freddy could get the counters to flick upwards and just ended up shooting them across the table missing the board completely! With a bit of improvisation we tossed the counters instead, which Freddy loved doing.

Playing traditional games with children helps them develop many skills. It helps their dexterity, their communication skills, social skills, logical thinking skills, maths skills and helps them learn to take turns. The games are suitable for children aged 3 and up, but will definitely be enjoyed for many years to come.

You can find the Bigjigs Games Compendium at www.bigjigstoys.co.uk/p/games-compendium and its RRP is £22.99.

My Mini Golfer

Freddy loves getting outdoors and playing in the garden, so when he received a Mini Golf Set from Great Gizmos to try out he was very excited.  Still in his school uniform, he raced outside to have a few rounds of golf.  Unfortunately, our lawn was more "rough" than a putting green, but unperturbed, Freddy put down the hole and was quickly enjoying his game.

The Mini Golf Set includes a kids' size wooden golf club and ball, along with a flagged hole and two tracks, which can be put down to make the game more challenging.  Everything fits into a cloth bag for storage and for carrying around easily.  

Everything was the perfect size for Freddy and he enjoyed putting the ball around the lawn, through the tracks and into the hole.  The club and ball are well weighted and are great for little hands to manage.  

Each piece is beautifully made, strong and sturdy, making this a great investment that will last for years (unlike some of the flimsy plastic golf sets on the market with bendy clubs and balls that blow away or get crushed when whacked by a 5 year old wielding said club!)

The Plan Toys Mini Golf Single Set is £21.95 from Great Gizmos.  It is a great introduction to the game and gets little ones up and active out of doors, learning a new skill. It is suitable for ages 4 and up.  Freddy loves it and I am very impressed with the quality of the pieces and the fact that it packs away into a bag.

Trackside Fun with Bigjigs #PlayPatrol

We are huge fans of the Bigjigs road and railway sets.  The beautifully crafted wooden pieces are the tools to unleash a child's imagination as they create their own miniature world complete with tracks, roads and vehicles.  Like tiny town planners, children can make a fully functional transport network, add houses, shops, zebra crossings, bridges, roundabouts and even recycling plants!

Freddy received a Bigjigs Trackside Accessory Set to test out for his latest Play Patrol mission.  The set contains 34 wooden pieces such as workers, shoppers, farm animals, vehicles, houses and trees.  It makes the perfect addition to his road and railway sets, as he can use the figures and vehicles as props for adding an extra element of story telling to his games.  The fireman, the policeman, the nurse and the builder become the everyday heroes in Freddy's little world, while the cars, ambulance, fire engine and police vehicle whizz around the roads on their travels.  An imaginative story unravels as he explores the day to day adventures in his Bigjigs town.

Freddy used the accessory set alongside his figure of eight road set.  The extra people, buildings and vehicles added to the play value, allowing Freddy to make an elaborate set up.  He enjoyed making up a story involving a pig that got run over by a car that came flying over the bridge (typical Freddy). The policeman, the nurse and the fireman came to the rescue so it all ended well!!

The wooden accessories develop a child's dexterity and coordination and spark creativity and imagination through play.  The figures and vehicles are also great tools for counting, matching, comparing and for encouraging conversation.  A child's vocabulary can be enhanced by discussing the various animals, the jobs done by the characters, the shops and the types of vehicles.  There is so much to look at and talk about in the busy town set up.

Freddy's verdict on his new toy was that it was "awesome!"  He loved being able to extend his play and enjoyed arranging everything exactly how it wanted it.  The scope for imaginative play was increased by having the extra accessories to use in his games.  He made a tower block out of the individual shops.  He used the people as skittles, knocking them down with his cars! He made some of his characters into superheroes flying over his town and he raced the cars against each other.  He had so much fun!

The Bigjigs Trackside Accessory Set is available on the Bigjigs website for £20.49 and is compatible with all road and rail sets from Bigjigs and other major wooden railway brands.  It's a great add on set to engage young minds for hours of imaginative play.

Bigjigs Magnetic Theatre Presents - The Three Little Pigs

Freddy's latest Play Patrol Mission from Bigjigs was to put the fun of the Magnetic Theatre to the test, helped by his big sister Kizzy.  So it was time for them to raise the curtains and let the drama begin!

The Magnetic Theatre comes complete with a theatre, decorations, 15 figures and 2 magnetic sticks.  The theatre is constructed by slotting the thick cardboard curtains and scenery into slots on a wooden base.  The scenery and decorations are interchangeable, giving the backdrop for four exciting fairy stories.  

The assembly of the theatre was very straightforward and Freddy was able to build it himself.  The 15 figures provide all the characters needed to put on plays of Pinocchio, The Three Little Pigs, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.  There is a story sheet included so children can remind themselves of the stories.

The hand painted wooden figures each have a magnetic base, which allows them to be controlled using the magnetic sticks from underneath the stage. 

The characters were quite easy to control once Freddy got used to how to use the sticks without knocking down the whole theatre.  (It took a little while but he got there!) He really enjoyed the fact he could make the little figures move around the stage using the power of magnetism!  Magnets always fascinate Freddy and it was good to see him understand how the movement of the figures was controlled from underneath the base of the stage with the force going through the cardboard. He had some fun experimenting with the movement both on and off the stage.

Using the magnetic sticks and moving the characters around the stage helps develop a child's dexterity as it requires quite a deft touch.  Constructing the stage and matching up the backdrops with the stage decorations is also something that children could do independently.

The figures and the stage scenery help unleash a child's imagination and they will soon be immersed in a world of storytelling, as they act out their own plays.  They can stick to the traditional tales or make up their own exciting tales featuring princesses, wolves, piggies, old grannies and handsome princes!  The stage direction is in their hands!

Freddy and Ella decided to keep it traditional for their big performance as they acted out the tale of the Three Little Pigs.  Piggies 1, 2 and 3 are really cute with their snouts and beady eyes.  Mr.Wolf has a long snout and pointy ears, perfect for starring roles in both the Three Little Pigs and Red riding Hood!

Here is a 30 second theatre performance demonstrating the fun of putting on a play with your big sister!

I love that the Bigjigs Magnetic Theatre is a prop to imaginative storytelling and role play.  Both help a child's communication skills and boost their confidence.  Putting on a show is always fun to do and having the figures from four different stories adds to the variety of plays that a child can perform.  There are no scripts, so little ones can act out plays from memory or just invent their own tales.  

Freddy absolutely loved putting on a show!  He particularly enjoyed the fact that I filmed it and he can watch his performance as the rather terrifying big, bad wolf whenever he likes.

The Bigjigs Magnetic Theatre is suitable for ages 3 and up and retails for £16.99, which is great value.

It all packs back into the slimline box once showtime is over, making it easy to store away.

Freddy the Weatherman - Bigjigs Play Patrol Mission #1

My little Play Patrol Agent Freddy was delighted to be picked by Bigjigs to carry out a series of secret missions over the coming months, where he will be trying out a selection of their toys and putting the fun to the test!

His first mission was to test out the Bigjigs Magnetic Weather Board. On Sunday we had a wonderful family barbecue to celebrate Freddy's 5th birthday, which is next week.  Once everyone had left, Freddy put his new toy to the test in the garden.  Donning his new uniform of baseball cap and T-shirt he took on his Play Patrol Agent role very seriously. Being outdoors was the perfect location to see exactly what the weather was doing.

The Bigjig Magnetic Weather Board is a lovely, educational toy, perfect for the bedroom, playroom or classroom.  The large wooden framed structure helps children to learn about the seasons, the weather, time and dates, all within the context of a yearly calendar.  The wooden magnetic pieces can be positioned into the relevant spaces, allowing children to record what they did, when they did it and what the weather was like.  A clock face with moveable hands also allows little ones to record the time.

Each of the date, year, season, day, month, activity and weather pieces are made of wood with a magnetic back allowing them to be stuck onto the board.  The colours and designs are appealing making this a fun activity for children to enjoy.  The clock face has words as well as numbers to assist the learning of terms such as half past, quarter to and o'clock. Freddy has always enjoyed playing with toy clocks and seeing how the hands go round.  This will hopefully help him to take his time-telling to a new level!

Being magnetic allows little ones the chance to be creative and explore the different combinations of dates and times through play.  They can learn letter and number recognition, practice counting skills, enjoy colour matching and also learn the spellings of the days, months and seasons of the year.  Older children will enjoy filling out the daily record, making them more aware of time, the weather, seasonal changes and the calendar.

It is a great starting point for discussions about weather and time related things.  For example it prompts children to think about why it rains or what causes the wind to blow, sparking their quest for scientific knowledge.  It also gives them an opportunity to understand how days, months and seasons fit together within a year.  

Freddy has been enjoying having his Weather Board to record his days on.  It is a lovely toy to go alongside his enquiring mind. It has the potential to last for years (and as it includes pieces for the years up to 2020 it will literally last until then!)  It will grow with him as his ability to tell the time and read the words improves. 

                            

The handle allows the Weather Board to be easily carried, while the magnetic pieces stay safely attached to the board.  So Freddy had some fun in the garden putting the fun to the test up the slide, on his climbing frame and on the grass.  This proves that Bigjigs Play Patrol agents can have fun anywhere!!

Using his Weather Board up the slide!!

I love the traditional and highly educational toy.  It aids concentration and dexterity in children aged 3 and over.  It's a real classic piece with lots of play value.  As with all Bigjigs toys it is made using responsibly sourced materials and conforms to EU safety standards.

Telling the time out on the lawn!

I'm sure that Freddy will enjoy this for years to come in lots of different ways.  He has already invented his own game which involves throwing the pieces at the board to try and make them stick.  He thinks it's a great laugh...but what he doesn't realise is that he is learning all about magnetism too!!

Carrying his new toy on his climbing frame!

Filling in the 'Today' section on the Board together is a chance to chat about the child's day with them, which is a lovely way for them to recount what happened and consolidate memories.  Communicating with children is vital for their language development, and boosts their self-confidence too. It's a lovely activity to share at the end of a busy day.

You can find out more from the other Play Patrol Agents on the Bigjigs Facebook page and browse their beautiful range of toys at www.bigjigstoys.co.uk.

Bigjigs Play Patrol - Freddy Reviews Safari Blocks

My little boy Freddy and I are delighted at being shortlisted to become one of this year's Bigjigs Play Patrol Agents.  We have loved being ambassadors for the brand, as we genuinely love the company's ethos, their beautiful toys and the sense of humour that runs through their social media, so we are honoured to get through to this stage.  Thank you Bigjigs!

  Freddy has been given a very special mission to review a set of Bigjigs Wooden Safari Blocks.  As toys suitable for babies from 1 year old, I was worried that he would not be very interested in them.  Oh how wrong was I!!??  He LOVES them!

It just goes to show that traditional wooden toys are timeless classics with masses of play value.  When toys rely on imagination instead of batteries, the scope for play appeal is unlimited and long lasting.

The Bigjigs Safari Blocks are a collection of thirty two colouful, wooden bricks, which come with a handy drawstring bag for storage.

The blocks include pieces to make six fun animals, a sun, moon, flowers, bushes and trees.  They are completely child friendly making them suitable for toddlers from a year old.  They are the perfect size for little hands to manipulate, but still solid and chunky.

The Bigjigs Safari Building Blocks encourage and develop a number of skills in children.  Freddy displayed lots of these skills as he played, developing and learning as he put the fun to the test!  

Learning through play is the best way for little ones to explore the world around them, laying down the foundations for their future development. These blocks are fantastic tools for the following skills:

Dexterity - stacking the blocks helps develop the ability for children to use their little hands and practice those all important fine motor skills.  Hand eye coordination is improved as little ones manipulate the pieces to create the animals or build towers.

Balance - making towers that stay standing requires a good sense of balance.  Then knocking them down teaches them about cause and effect....plus it's totally fun!

Imagination - bricks can be built into anything, limited only by a child's imagination.  The cute animal characters lend themselves to being the stars of many role play games.  This aspect of play is something that Freddy really enjoys as he acts out wonderfully elaborate scenarios using the blocks as props for his storytelling.   From building huge towers to making a safari adventure, there are lots of things to be built, encouraging spatial awareness and creativity.

Vocabulary - animal names and sounds, colours, shapes, size, prepositions (such as above, below, next to, on top of) etc. can all be learned through playing with the blocks together.  Interacting with your child as you play together opens up a fun and engaging dialogue, encouraging children to chatter about what they are doing, improving social skills, confidence and teaching new words.

Problem Solving - For little ones, working out how to make the animals is a lot of fun.  Older children can work out how to fit together the circles inside the semi-circular spaces to make stable structures or work out ways to build the tallest towers, all the while testing their problem solving skills.

Matching - children will enjoy sorting out the blocks by size, shape or pattern and  matching up the pieces of the animals.  And of course, mix and match creatures are fun to make too!

 Shape Recognition - with rectangles, semi-circles, circles and squares, little ones can learn the names of shapes. This activity can be extended for younger children who could draw around the blocks to make shape pictures. Freddy was able to name the 3D shapes such as cubes and cuboids, counting their faces and matching them by size.

Number Skills - Freddy counted the animals and the number of bricks in his tower.  He also used the blocks as an aid to counting on, learning the basics for early maths skills. Blocks are really handy when children begin to learn simple addition and subtraction problems.  You can use them as a resource to help solve simple problems, making maths much more fun, hands on and practical!

Encourages Tidying Up - The drawstring bag made clearing up much easier and Freddy loved that it was in his favourite colour; light blue.  This fact made him positively eager to tidy the bricks away after he had finished playing.  This is a great social skill for little ones to learn (and it makes my job as a mum easier, giving me less mess to put away at bedtime!)

Watching Freddy play made me realise the value of these traditional toys.  I expected him to build the animals and create a safari play scene, build towers and knock them down.  But I was surprised at just how much fun he's had with them.  He has had them out everyday since they arrived, and has come up with some seriously entertaining ways to play. His sense of humour and imagination has shone through: 

• He has made his own funny jokes using the bricks as props...he made lots of mix and match animal characters including a 'two headed cat' which he thought was hilarious, then proceeded in doing his best Annoying Orange impression as he gave us a running commentary and laughed at his own gags!

• Freddy made himself a 'Minecraft World' with the blocks and played out some exciting Minecraft action with the animal heads as TNT!  He gave a running commentary on creepers, pigs and chickens as he brought the online game into real life with a colourful and fun Bigjigs twist.

I love his quirky way of unleashing the fun from toys, discovering ways to play that I would never have imagined. This it what I love most about Bigjigs toys.  The play value is unleashed through the imagination of the child and is not pre-decided for them. Being free from the constraints of expectation allows that imagination to soar. How much fun must it be to be a 4 year old!

As ever, Freddy played hard and the blocks are withstanding his rough and tumble approach to playtime perfectly, without a dent or scratch on them.

Take a look at the blocks (and Freddy) in action in this video:

                                 

It really was eye opening to see how much these blocks sparked his imagination and how many ways he found to play with them.  Buying these for a younger child would be a great investment as they will last for years, with the play value growing and changing over time.  The blocks can be added to or combined with other sets of building blocks, so the fun keeps growing.

Priced at just £11.99, the Bigjigs Wooden Safari Building Blocks are a great value toy that little boys and girls will love.

Join in the fun, enter competitions and keep up to date with the latest Bigjigs news on the Bigjigs Facebook Page.

20% Off Melissa & Doug Toys from Ocado

We all associate Ocado with being a high quality online supermarket with home delivery on our grocery shopping. But did you know that they also sell toys including brands such as Playmobil, Mega Bloks and Sylvanian Families?  Plus at the moment, Ocado have a promotion running on their range of  Melissa & Doug toys with 20% off all purchases made until April 8th!

Melissa & Doug toys are beautifully made, well designed and with a traditional feel that both children and grown-ups will love. They are innovative, fun and educational.

We had a lovely Ocado delivery man bring us some of the Melissa & Doug toys to celebrate the 20% off promotion.  We received a Scoop and Stack Ice Cream Cone Playset, a Habitats Reusable Sticker Pad and a Dinosaur Stamp Set.

The Melissa & Doug Scoop and Stack Ice Cream Cone Playset consists of two wooden cones and a selection of different coloured ice cream scoops with a magnetic scooper.  Little ones will love indulging in some Ice Cream Parlour role play serving up cololurful ice cream combinations.  This is brilliant for their social interaction and also helps develop their fine motor skills.  It is also a great toy to introduce patterns and sequencing as little ones try to make your orders. After they have finished playing, everything packs away into the sturdy, plastic ice cream tub, which is a great idea when it comes to tidying up.  This toy is usually £18.99 but is on offer at £15.19.

The Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Stamp Set is a great activity allowing little dinosaur fans to create pre-historic scenes using the ink pad and eight stampers.  The set also includes coloured pencils, with everything stored in a lovely wooden box with a cool dinosaur design on the side.  Freddy loved the mix of dinosaurs which includes the T-Rex, Stegosaurus and Triceratops and the volcano stamp adds some background to children's designs.  Usually £8.47, with the 20% discount you can buy it for just £6.77.

I love the Habitats themed Melissa & Doug Reusable Sticker Pad!  It comes with five scenes and 150 stickers featuring animals from the farm, prehistoric times, the jungle, the desert and the ocean.  The strong vinyl stickers can be repositioned again and again onto the glossy, full colour backgrounds.   It is an educational activity helping children to learn about different animals and their habitats, but if little ones want to have fun by putting a Diplodocus next to a cow on the farm, then they can!  Anything goes when a child's imagination is put into action.  On sale at just £3.99 this is a bargain that will keep the kids entertained for hours!

With Easter coming up, why not buy a Melissa & Doug toy from Ocado as a gift for someone special?  It will last a lot longer than a chocolate egg!

Find out more at Ocado.com.

Bigjigs Seaside Slope

Our Bigjigs Play Patrol adventure is coming to an end, and we have one mission left.  Freddy was sent the Seaside Slope to play with to put the fun to the test!

The Bigjigs Seaside Slope is a beautifully made wooden structure featuring four angled ramps on which the colourful wooden fish roll down.  Starting at the top, they travel to the end of one ramp before dropping down onto the next and so on.  Passing the centre point they ring a little bell.  If you time it right you can have all fish rolling down the ramps at the same time.

Freddy couldn't wait to try out the new toy as soon as he got home from school.  He loved the colour and the design of the toy. He instinctively knew what to do and soon had all four fish rolling and ringing the bell.   It is a lovely gender neutral toy with appeal to both boys and girls.

At four and a half years old he is a bit above the recommended age (36 mths +) and the Seaside Slope didn't keep him fully engaged once he'd mastered how it worked.  Unlike his trains or cars, the concept of rolling fish didn't lend itself to any role play or imaginative story telling from him.  I guess aquatic creatures just aren't his thing!

He was initially quite mesmerized by the friendly faced fishes rolling down the slopes. I could see him thinking about the timing of setting the fish go and he showed great dexterity as he positioned them on the slopes.  He was very interested in how it worked, watching the fish fall onto the next slope and travel down it in the opposite direction.  The science of the motion was clearly of interest to him.

I took note of some of the comments, questions and observations he made while playing:

The bell rings when the fish hit it.  I'm not sure why there is a bell in the sea though?

I love the blue colour.  Blue is my favourite colour.

The holes look like bubbles.

Why do the fish get stuck if two go together?

The fishes roll down the track. They roll and fall, roll and fall.

They go in the other direction when they get to the end.

I wish it was a car racer instead of fishes.

The whole fish spins around and not just the wheels. 

I like it when they all go down together.

I want to show this to baby Ted because I think he'd like it. (Ted is his 15 mth old nephew.)

The build of the toy is excellent.  It is strong, stable and well made and perfectly designed for the job.  At 4 and a half, I think Freddy was just a little too old to be kept enthralled by this toy for very long.  However, I was impressed by his scientific reasoning as he worked out the Laws of Motion without even realising it! And he recognised the play value the Seaside Slope would have with a younger child, as he wants to show his nephew how it works.  I'm sure that if fully supervised, a little one would be mesmerised by the constant motion of the colourful fish. Then the toy would grow with the child giving it more longevity.

I do wonder that if it had been a toy with racing cars or construction vehicles whizzing down a sloped road, if it would have sparked more of an element of role play and he would have had the vehicles rushing to the rescue of some disaster to save the day. (Yes...I know he is very gender stereotypical when it comes to cars and trucks!)

For a slightly younger child, or one with an interest in fishes, this toy would tie in beautifully with a play session involving reading some themed books like The Rainbow Fish.  Or with a musical tie in with the song about the three little fishes who "swam all over the dam!"  Fishy craft activities such as a collage made using shiny paper for scales would also be a lovely way to extend playtime and explore the theme further.

You can find the Seaside Slope on the Bigjigs website and it costs £29.99.  They also have a huge selection of  gorgeous wooden toys including their rail and road collections and other top quality toys.

We have loved every minute of being Play Patrol agents for Bigjigs.  The toys that Freddy has tested have all been beautifully made and he's enjoyed each and every one of them.  I love the fact that long after he has outgrown them, they will be handed on to the grandkids. We still have wooden toys that belonged to my eldest son from 25 years ago.  That's the beauty of buying such great quality toys...they last a lifetime and they are timeless classics that never go out of date.

Here is a round-up of all our reviews:

Bigjigs Groceries Set

Bigjigs Wooden Construction Set

Bigjigs Road Zebra Crossing

Bigjigs Figure of Eight Roadway

Bigjigs Carpenter's Bench

Bigjigs Farmhouse Sorter

Bigjigs Dockside Recycling Centre

Playing Shops with Bigjigs Groceries

When you are a 4 year old, playing make believe games is a big part of what you do!  One minute you can be a superhero fighting crime, next a train driver en route to the seaside.  Role play games can be inspired by using props, which help bring to life the games that are born from a child's imagination.  

Bigjigs sent Freddy a box of wooden groceries featuring solid wooden blocks, beautifully painted to represent a range of familiar food tins and packets.  Each one has the product name and an image on them, and make perfect creative stimuli for role play games involving shopping, cooking or kitchens.  From budding chefs to little shopkeepers to busy mums and dads, the scope for pretend play is as big as the child's imagination itself.

Freddy arranged his groceries to create his very own grocery store.  He loved 'selling' the cans and packets to his sisters, his dad and to me and shouted out "Come buy your food here!" like a seasoned market trader.  We enjoyed going to Freddy's shop and we paid for our shopping in his currency of choice... chocolate coins!!  Playing shopping games is a great introduction to understanding money, although Freddy's prices were super inflated...£101 for a cornflakes, tomato sauce, cookies and orange juice!  I know prices in the shops are expensive, but thankfully they aren't this bad yet!

For children, playing games based on the things they see grown-ups doing, helps them to make sense of the world around them, encourages empathy and teaches important social skills.  Role play exercises children's minds, allowing them to grow and develop while having fun.  

             


Role play is just one of the ways that the Bigjigs Groceries can be enjoyed.  Little ones can practice colours, counting, 3D and 2D shape names,  letter recognition and reading the 'food' related words.  Freddy also loved stacking the similarly shaped blocks into towers and organising them by shape and size.  

Bigjigs range of role play toys includes a wonderful range of gender neutral products including kitchens, market stalls and village shops along with a host of food accessories, fruit, vegetables, bakeware, scales, tills,  shopping baskets, kitchen appliances and cookware, all beautifully crafted in wood.

Taking an interest in food through role play provides an opportunity for parents to talk about healthy eating with their little ones and lets future budding chefs cook up a (mess free) storm in the playroom!

Find out more about role play toys on the Bigjigs website.

Learning Road Safety with Bigjigs

Now Freddy is four years old, the way he plays has developed to become much more focused on role play and imaginative games.  Acting out different scenarios allows him to explore emotions and feelings, develop social skills and learn more about his environment. Language skills and communication are practiced and creativity is exercised.  Through these games, there is scope to learn and develop knowledge about different topics.  And all this is cleverly disguised as play!

Bigjigs sent Freddy the Zebra Crossing Set, which is part of the Bigjigs Road range, an interconnecting range of toys that fit together to build exciting environments for imaginative play. 

The set includes three connecting road pieces, one with the Zebra Crossing markings, two pedestrians, a car, two Bellisha Beacons, a lamp post and a School road sign.  

Straight away Freddy started a dialogue about what he could see and what things he recognised from the 'real world'.  "There is one of these at my school," he said whilst holding the School road sign.  "Does it mean 'No Running'?" he asked.  I explained that it was to warn cars to slow down because there might be children crossing the road. 

He also recognised the Zebra Crossing and 'the big yellow lights' as something he had seen outside his big sister's school.  He was very interested and it allowed me to explain to Freddy all about road safety, the Green Cross Code and how to use a zebra crossing.  

Then it was Freddy's turn to try out what he had learned using the little wooden pedestrians and the wooden car as props to demonstrate how to cross safely.  He wheeled the car to the zebra crossing and the boy and girl checked to see if it had stopped before crossing over.  Perfect.

However, he also discovered that is was fun to mow down the pedestrians, the lamp post, school sign and Bellisha Beacons in a scene reminiscent of something from GTA5.  But that's the fun of play time - anything goes!

Playing with the set also gave rise to some counting as Freddy counted the stripes on the Zebra Crossing, the number of freestanding objects and the number of times the pedestrians crossed.  Colour recognition was used as he named every colour he could spot.

Dexterity and co-ordination are enhanced as little hands manipulate the pieces and fit the road pieces together (Freddy insisted on having a long run up to the crossing rather than having it in the centre.) 

As with all the Bigjigs Road and Rail wooden toys, this toy will grow with your child, giving them the tools to unleash their imagination, learn about new things and develop their creativity to build exciting new worlds to play with.

The Zebra Crossing Set is £12.99 from Bigjigs.

Bigjigs Dockside Recycling Centre #playpatrol

I love a toy that can introduce a child to something that is really important in the real world.  That can open their eyes to a serious issue through the medium of play.  That teaches them about something that can make a big difference to the world that we live in.  Something like recycling.  Hats off to Bigjigs for doing just that with their Dockside Recycling Centre.  Fully compatible with other leading wooden rail systems, children can add an environmentally friendly activity into their playtime, teaching them about the importance of recycling and helping them to learn more about the process in a fun way.

Freddy, my little Bigjigs Play Patrol Agent, was very intrigued by his new toy.  The recycling centre comes with a colourful sign, a barrier gate, two working cranes with magnetic ends, a barge, a recycling truck, a train carriage, two recycling skips and two container loads of recycling.  As the recycling arrives by road, rail or sea it needs to be picked up by the cranes using the pulley system, swivelled into position and deposited into the skips.  

The play value of this toy is great.  It leads the way to imaginative games where your child becomes the harbourmaster, deciding where the recycling is going and by what mode of transport it will travel by.  Little fingers show great dexterity as they wind up the pulleys on the crane to pick up the recycling with the magnetic end.  All the while they are learning about recycling and this opens up an opportunity to discuss this issue in a fun and engaging way, asking what they think can be recycled, getting clues from the colourful pictures on the sign and the containers.

Learning through Play

Freddy loved the magnet and quickly realised that it could pick up more than just his toy recycling containers.  He raided our real life recycling bin to find a sweetcorn can and experimented with how best the magnet would stick to it.  He discovered that concentrating the magnetic force on the edge of the rim, created the best hold to pick up the can.  He wielded it about like a fisherman with a prize catch on the end of his rod!  Freddy tried the magnet against lots of materials to see which ones would stick.  This opportunity for scientific discovery is another great aspect of this toy, enabling little ones to learn through play - exactly how it should be done!

Our Play Patrol Mission Captioned Photo!!

As the set is fully compatible with Bigjigs Roads and Rail toys (and other leading wooden rail systems) it can be incorporated into a world of your child's creation.  I love toys that can grow with your child and which can be added to on birthdays and Christmases.  Each new addition brings a new lease of life to the play experience, adding its own touch of excitement and enjoyment.

The Bigjigs Dockside Recycling Centre is priced at £20.79 over on the Bigjigs website.  Take a look at the huge range of wonderful wooden toys they have on offer.  I could browse for hours!

Freddy won the opportunity to be a Play Patrol agent for Bigjigs and received this toy to complete his latest mission!

Fun Sorting with Plan Toys

Plan Toys Fun Sorting is a beautifully made wooden toy that challenges children aged 3 and up to sort and turn coloured rings to get them down a centre rod.  The rod has bumps on that  correspond with cut out sections on the rings, so children have to twist them to match the shapes.  It helps develop dexterity, co-ordination, colour and shape recognition.  The centre rod is adjustable and can be turned to angle it,  making it more challenging for older kids.

Freddy was sent one to try.  The toy is very tactile and invites exploration.  Freddy recognised the aim of the game and enjoyed matching up the correct rings and aligning them to go past the bumps, twisting them where necessary.  He spotted that each of the rings had a different shaped hole with a different number of cut out sections and was able to find various ways of putting the rings onto the rod.  He had fun experimenting with shape and space.

This toy is one of those things that you just have to pick up and have a go with.  It looks good sat on the shelf in his room and is something he will pick up and have a play with when he spots it.  It's a bit like one of those fancy executive toys which while away the time and occupy your hands and mind in a quiet moment.  It is simple, but absorbing.

You can buy the Fun Sorting toy from Amazon for £13.99.

Bigjigs Wooden Construction Set Review

The Wooden Construction Set from Bigjigs Toys gives kids aged 3 and over the tools to unleash their imagination and create whatever they can think of using the 51 pieces of beautifully made, colourful wooden nuts, bolts, wheels and panels.  Freddy's latest mission as a Bigjigs Play Patrol Agent was to review this set and unleash the fun!

He was very excited to test out his new toy and make some fantastic model vehicles using his tub of wooden bits!  It was lovely to talk to him about what he wanted to create.  He chatted about cars, trucks, helicopters and aeroplanes animatedly.  His imagination was fired up!

At first Freddy made 2D models from the pieces but quickly progressed to creating 3D vehicles with a little bit of help.  He was soon using the bolts to attach the pieces together.  This improved his dexterity and honed his fine motor skills.

There are enough pieces in the set to make some quite elaborate vehicles, but you can only do one project at a time as you run out of bolts and wheels quite quickly.

Here is a video of Freddy and the journey of imagination he enjoyed when playing with the Bigjigs Wooden Construction Set!


                           

The construction set costs £21.99 and is for children aged 3+.

  Find out more on the Bigjigs website.

Bigjigs Figure of Eight Roadway

 Freddy has had a very busy week.  With birthdays, parties, family visits and nursery picnics going on, his schedule has been fully booked.  So today, it was lovely to finally relax and introduce him to his latest Bigjigs Play Patrol Mission, to review the BIGJIGS ROAD Figure of Eight Roadway.  The 36 piece set is suitable for children aged 3 and over and is part of the Bigjigs Road range.  The set comprises of roadway pieces that interconnect to form a figure of eight road, part of which goes under a bridge, along with cars, trees, traffic lights, a road sign, buildings and pedestrians.  Children can make a busy little town and play imaginative games to bring it to life!

Freddy got stuck in straight away, delighted to have a new Bigjigs toy to play with.  As ever, the quality of the wooden pieces is excellent and the pieces of the road fitted together easily.  I always love the feeling,  natural look and smell of the wood.  The traditional wooden toys are just so aesthetically pleasing!

Freddy needed a little help to make the figure of eight shape, but was equally happy making his own road layouts as he explored the set, putting the pieces together.  

The pieces and accessories are perfect for little hands, being chunky and robust.  The cars are freewheeling and Freddy loved whizzing them around, rolling them over the bridge and making them have races.

I loved listening to his ongoing dialogue as he played, narrating the story of the three cars.  At times the cars were naughty and bashed over the trees and buildings!  At other times they came to the rescue of one of the people in a race against time.  I love how Bigjigs toys fire his imagination and give rise to some wonderful role play opportunities.

A child's dexterity and co-ordination is developed as they play, manipulating the pieces and building the tracks.  There are opportunities for further learning as children count objects and recognise shapes and colours.  I was particularly impressed with Freddy who put two roof triangles together and said "Look Mummy, it's a diamond!"

I really like the idea of having a roadway range that is compatible with other Bigjigs roadway sets and also the train sets through additional Road and Rail link items.  Other accessories such as roadsigns, vehicles and parking spaces add to the play value. A child's collection can be built up over birthdays and Christmases to create bigger city scenes and expand the fun.

Our only criticism is that the people are so much bigger than the cars, the buildings and even the bridge!  They seem a bit out of place when everything else is more or less scaled. That said, they were still fun as Freddy pretended they were giants!

The Roadway set costs £31.99 and is available on the Bigjigs website here.

A brand new  Bigjigs Roadway website is coming soon.  If you want to be notified when it's up and ready, register here:  www.bigjigsroad.com.