Retro Toy Review: Plasticine fun for creative kids

We were sent these Plasticine products for the purposes of this post. All images and opinions are our own.

I remember my childhood as being fairly Plasticine packed. It was one of those things which was brought out on rainy weekends to keep us entertained, and it did. I remember playing with it; creating little scenes, rolling it out and cutting out shapes and eventually muddling all the colours together until I had a giant blob of brown Plasticine to play with. It was all good fun and it remains popular today.

Plasticine was invented way back in 1897 and is a non-toxic, sterile, soft and malleable clay that does not dry when exposed to air. Ideal not just for kids, but for makers of stop-motion animation, like creators of Wallace and Gromit, Aardman Animations. It’s also excellent for sensory play; my son tells me they use it at school to help them calm down and relax. I’m all for that, and having spent a happy few hours messing about with the stuff, I can confirm it can calm adults too.

Plasticine Softeez Noodle Doodle Assortment

These Plasticine Softeez come in three different themes, ocean, jungle and circus. The boy wanted to try his hand at the ocean themed one, so we sat down and had a quiet hour carefully peeling off each “noodle” of Plasticine and decorating our card templates with it. We had lots of fun with this, deciding how best to fill in the blanks and what colours to use. They are great little sets and make ideal little gifts. They are suitable for ages 3+ and cost around £4.99 each.

Retro Toy Review: Plasticine fun for creative kids

We did have to borrow a plastic cutting tool from the Plasticine Toolz box, and I think adding a small tool to the set would be useful; but you could just as easily use a butter knife or something blunt and child friendly instead.

Plasticine Toolz

The Plasticine Tool Box includes everything you need to help you make your very own Plasticine models. It has 7 colours of Plasticine; 5 shaped cutters, 1 modelling tool and 1 roller which are stored in a sturdy box. The tool box comes with carry handle for modelling on the move.

Retro Toy Review: Plasticine fun for creative kids

It is suitable for aged 3+ and costs £12.99 from Amazon (other online stores are available). We really liked this little tool box of fun. The range of colours is great and although it comes with a selection of tools and some suggestions for what you can do, the only limit is your imagination.

Retro Toy Review: Plasticine fun for creative kids

Plasticine is great for young hands to make fun shapes with. It’s a perfect modelling material as it never dries out. You just need to use your imagination to create shapes, animals, vehicles and all the things you can dream of, plus it’s a great way to teach children how colours are made and mixed, with basic sets from just £1.50, it’s a great budget buy for creative kids!

Retro Toy Review: Plasticine fun for creative kids

Review: So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case

AD/Gifted. We were sent the So Sand Satisfying Sand Case for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

It’s been a long old year, what with lockdown and home schooling. The last few weeks I’ve felt like I’m all out of ideas. My boy is about as against doing anything educational as it’s possible to be right now, so all our activities have to be overtly fun and any learning or educational benefit has to be hidden. Thankfully the So Sand Satisfying Sand Case comfortably ticks all of those boxes; being FUN as well as bringing some creativity and sensory play to the table.

Review: So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case

The So Sand Satisfying Sand Case is a handy carry case with a selection of cutting tools, bags of sand and decorations. The instructions are easy to follow, you make up your own brightly coloured kinetic sand.

If the kinetic sand craze has passed you by, Kinetic Sand is made from 98% sand and 2% silica oil. It behaves a bit like playdough but without the sticky horror if it gets walked into your carpet. You can clump the sand up together like a ball, then watch as it melts through your hands almost like a liquid. It’s strange, but in a good way and making your own is super fun.

Review: So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case

There are three colours to make up; yellow, pink and blue, and there are a selection of glitter packets which you can add to your kinetic sand creations. My son, with his love of being extra extra, added glitter to all of the sand. He quickly shot down my suggestion if having half plain, half glittery sand.

If you making the sand isn’t enough for you, the So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case contains a selection of tools for you to roll, shape and cut your sand into all different shapes. The instruction leaflet has a number of kinetic sand serving suggestions, but why follow convention? My son started to follow a couple of the suggestions, then the urge to freestyle took over and he made all kids of fun shapes.

Review: So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case

The storage case makes great storage for the tools and the sand too. It even includes a play tray to keep everything tidy. Playing with kinetic sand and this So Sand DIY Case is really relaxing and a great sensory activity. It’s suitable for ages 6+ and costs around £20.

My son really enjoyed playing with this sand kit; and after months of stressful home schooling, he relished the chance to play with something pretty darn restful and creative.

Review: So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case

The So Sand DIY Satisfying Sand Case is available from a wide range of retailers, including Amazon.

Toy Review: Outdoor fun with Gazillion Bubbles

AD/Gifted. After a drab and dreary start to the year, this week, our first week in coronavirus isolation was full of blue skies and sunshine. It seemed a bit of a shame to spend all day indoors, slaving over worksheets from school, but as a reward for hard work, we spent our afternoon in the garden enjoying the good weather and playing with some Gazillion Bubbles we’d been kindly sent by Tesco.

Toy Review: Outdoor fun with Gazillion Bubbles

If you’ve not heard of Gazillion Bubbles before, they’re a range of bubble making toys. We were sent the following products from the range; Gazillion Bubbles Tornado Machine; Gazillion Incredibubble Wand; the Gazillion Megabubble Blaster and the Gazillion Giant Bubble Solution 2L.

Toy Review: Outdoor fun with Gazillion Bubbles

All of the Gazillion Bubbles products were heaps of fun. We started off by setting up the Gazillion Bubbles Tornado Machine (usually £12, currently half price), which needed 4AA batteries (not supplied). It comes with a small bottle of bubble solution and once it’s switched on, it blows out about a gazillion bubbles. This was so much fun and would be really great for parties and get togethers. We cheerfully aimed the bubbles over the fence towards our young neighbours and they enjoyed them too.

Toy Review: Outdoor fun with Gazillion Bubbles

The boy was super keen to get his hands on the Gazillion Megabubble Blaster (usually £10, currently half price); a bubble blowing gun. This needs 3AA batteries (not supplied) and is lovely fun and great for angling over fences to delight other young children. He loved chasing us around and firing bubbles at us and the dog!

My personal favourite was the Gazillion Incredibubble Wand (usually £8, but currently £6). If you’ve ever watched people blow those huge bubbles and wanted to try this for yourself; this is the kit you need. It’s really simple. It’s just a circular reservoir for the bubble solution and a large hoop which you dip in, then waft through the air. It produces the biggest and most beautiful bubbles and we were all fighting to get our hands on it to try it out for ourselves.

Toy Review: Outdoor fun with Gazillion Bubbles

Each of the sets comes with a bottle of bubble solution to get you started. If you’re serious about bubbles; then I suggest you also get the 2 litre bottle of Gazillion Giant Bubble Solution (currently 2 for £10 at Tesco). The Giant Bubble Solution is a giant version of the little bubble pots. It comes with a big wand for you to blow bigger bubbles with. It’s also ideal for topping up the little bottles in your other Gazillion Bubbles sets.

We had so much lovely fun with Gazillion Bubbles. It was lovely to get outside in the sunshine; run about a bit, laugh a lot, be silly and forget our worries. We really like the Gazillion Bubbles sets, and we’re looking forward to more bubble filled sunny days this summer!

Gazillion Bubbles are available from Tesco and Amazon.

Note: We were sent these toys in exchange for this blog post. All images and opinions are our own.

Learning: Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box

A few weeks ago we had a really fun afternoon playing with a dinosaur sensory Gelli Baff activity box which we put together. We had so much fun with it, the boy made several requests to do something similar; so I went back to my local toy shop and bought some Slime Baff, which is similar to the Gelli Baff but made of slime. We invited some friends around and had some Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box fun!

Learning: Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box

The Slime Baff is available in a range of colours (red, green and blue) but I opted for blue which seemed about the right shade to create a lovely blue ocean with. It’s safe for children and should be fine for sensitive skin. It also has a pleasant fragrance.

A packet of Slime Baff costs £5.99 and there’s enough for one bath in the pack. I used the whole pack in our box of slime. I wanted a fairly thick, gloopy slime for the sensory box, but you could experiment with using less for a looser slime.

Learning: Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box

HOW TO CREATE A Ocean slime SENSORY ACTIVITY BOX

You will need:
One plastic storage box. I used an IKEA Trofast Storage box
Slime Baff
Warm water
Selection of plastic fish and ocean life and maybe some shells

How to make your ocean slime sensory activity box:
In your clean plastic box pour in six pints of warm water, you can add more if you need to later. Pour in the Slime Baff powder and stir it in. It should turn to slime fairly quickly. If the texture is too thick for you, add some more warm water and stir until you’re happy with it.

Learning: Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box

Grab your plastic fish figures and shells and put them in the box, let your imagination run wild.

Once you’ve finished playing with your ocean slime sensory activity box, pour it into the sink and add more hot water until it slides down the plughole.

TIPS:

Although Slime Baff doesn’t stain (or shouldn’t), you might want to wear an apron to protect your clothes.

I put the washing up bowl nearby so any figures he’d played with could go in there and be rinsed off afterwards. Some of the goo did cling to them quite a bit.

We played with this in the kitchen which was fine because if there was mess it could be mopped up. If you’re playing with this in a carpeted room I’d but a wipe clean cloth down under the box to minimise the mess.

Children might like to use tools in the sensory box. The slime really lends itself to scooping and pouring, so if you have some small plastic cups, they might be quite fun to include too.

The slime really clings to your skin, so keep an old towel close by to wipe hands on. You can wash the slime off your hands with soap and water. It is very slippy stuff, so be careful if any gets on the floor too.

Learning: Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Like with the dinosaur sensory activity, this was a good way of expanding his vocabulary and exploring new ways to describe things. We founds words such as; slimy, wobbly, gooey, warm, cold, soft, stretchy and floppy which all described the Slime Baff well.

We closed our eyes and felt around for sea creatures in the goo. When we found them we had to try to feel to guess what we had. We had a selection of shells in the slime too. We tried to figure out what they were by feeling the shape, size and ridges of the shells. This was a great game and one we all really enjoyed.

For a more interesting tactile sensory experience you can make the Slime Baff up with quite warm water and children can explore the different temperatures as the slime cools while they play with it.

He mostly enjoyed just playing with the ocean slime sensory activity box, and who can blame him. It was great fun, perfect messy play for slime loving kids!

Learning: Ocean Slime Baff Activity Box

Learning: Dinosaur Sensory Gelli Baff Activity Box

A few weeks ago I spotted a packet of Gelli Baff in my local toy shop and decided to treat my son to a Gelli Baff bath. It was brilliant fun and we all ended up having a go. It’s really tactile so I thought it would be something we could use for some sensory play. Today it’s been too grey and wet to go to the park, so I assembled some stuff and we had an hour or so of dinosaur sensory activities.

Learning: Dinosaur Sensory Gelli Baff Activity Box

The Gelli Baff is available in a range of colours but I opted for “slime green” which seemed about the right shade to create a dinosaur swamp with. Gelli Baff comes with a sachet of dissolver, so when you’ve finished it just washes down the plughole like water. It’s safe for children and fine for sensitive skin. It also has a pleasant fragrance.

A packet of Gelli Baff costs £5.99 and there’s enough for one bath in the pack. But if you want to use it for sensory play you can probably get a minimum of five trays of goop out of a packet.

How to create a Dinosaur Sensory Activity box

You will need:
One plastic storage box. I used an IKEA Trofast Storage box
Gelli Baff
Warm water
Selection of dinosaurs and dino accessories

Learning: Dinosaur Sensory Gelli Baff Activity Box

How to make your dinosaur sensory activity box:
In your clean plastic box pour in six pints of warm water, you can add more if you need to later. Weigh out 30g of the Gelli Baff powder and stir it in. It should turn to jelly fairly quickly. If the texture is too firm for you, add some more warm water until you’re happy with it.

Grab your dinos and put them in the box, let your imagination run wild.

Learning: Dinosaur Sensory Gelli Baff Activity Box

Once you’ve finished playing with your dinosaur sensory activity box you can sprinkle over the dissolving powder and then just pour it down the sink.

Tips:

Although Gelli Baff doesn’t stain (or shouldn’t), you might want to wear an apron to protect your clothes.

My son LOVED this activity and decided he wanted to make a pond for the dinosaurs to drink out of and swim in. We used a small plastic bowl, this definitely added an extra dimension to his play.

I put the washing up bowl nearby so any dinosaurs he’d played with could go in there and be rinsed off afterwards. Some of the goo did cling to them a bit. I’m a big fan of tidy as you go and this helped.

Children might like to use tools in the sensory box; we used some normal teaspoons to dig the goo out for the pond.

Learning: Dinosaur Sensory Gelli Baff Activity Box

What did we learn?

My son loves dinosaurs, so for him this was a really good way of stretching his imagination by creating a habitat for his dinosaurs. For me it was a good way of expanding his vocabulary and exploring new ways to describe things.

We founds words such as; squishy, wobbly, gooey, warm, cold, soft and grainy which all described the Gelli Baff well.

We also closed our eyes and felt around for tiny dinos in the goo. When we found them we had to try to feel to guess what kind of dinosaur we had. This was a great game and one he really enjoyed.

For a more interesting tactile sensory experience; make the Geli Baff up with quite warm water and children can explore the different temperatures as the gelli cools while they play with it.

He mostly enjoyed just playing with the dinosaur sensory activity box, and who can blame him?

Learning: Dinosaur Sensory Gelli Baff Activity Box