Sensory Play: Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom

Kinetic Sand has been incredibly popular for several years now. It’s one of those things you can’t help touching and playing with if there’s an open box nearby. It’s incredibly tactile, which makes it perfect for sensory play; and if you drop it on the floor it is easily swept or vacuumed up, it’s no mess sensory fun!

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.

The Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom is a brilliant set for anyone who wants to bring the beach into their own home. It comes in its own beachy box, but it would work equally well in a high sided plastic box, like I used for our sensory play activities. The set comes with 3lbs of kinetic sand and 6 castle-themed moulds to create walls, bridges, towers and more. There are also 2 multi-use tools which can be used to cut, dig, rake and shovel the sand.

The beauty of the Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom coming in its own play box, is that once you’ve finished playing with it, it’s all easily packed away back in the box for next time. You build sandcastles and other structures, which stay in position for a while, then eventually melt away into a heap of sand.

Sensory Play: Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom

Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom is great for sensory play, you can use it to fuel your imagination too. I especially like the set because for me, sand is always about the beach. We’ve enjoyed playing with various Kinetic Sand sets over the years; but the simple joy of doing what you would do on the beach, but in miniature, and at the kitchen table is so much more fun.

Kinetic sand isn’t just great fun to play with, it also has a number of sensory benefits.

It can help to develop and hone fine motor skills, which in turn can help with writing and drawing.
It can encourage creativity, imaginative, creative play which in turn can help speech and language development.
Focusing on a task, such as creating a sandcastle can help increase attention spans. It gives something to focus on and can encourage calm play.

The Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom costs £19.99 and it’s available from a wide range of retailers and online. It’s suitable for ages 3+ and if you’re wanting to create a miniature beach at home, this is just the thing.

Sensory Play: Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom

If you would like to read other reviews of Kinetic Sand products, you can find some here:

We were sent Kinetic Sand Beach Sand Kingdom for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Toy Review: Kinetic Rock 3-in-1 Loader Set

Kinetic sand has been incredibly popular for a few years now. It’s great stuff, kinetic sand is 98% sand and 2% silica oil and behaves a bit like playdough but without the sticky horror if it gets walked into your carpet. We play with our box of kinetic sand regularly, it’s really tactile and great for building and moulding. But what about the newly released kinetic rock? We got our hands on the new Kinetic Rock 3-in-1 Loader set to see what it was like.

Kinetic Sand is the leading sand brand in the UK. It’s a perennial favourite and kids and adults love the feel and texture of the magical mouldable sand and rock. You just can’t stop playing with it!

The Kinetic Rock 3-in-1 Loader set is suitable for children aged 3+. When I gave it my 7 year old he went completely nuts for it. The set comes with a loader with three changeable attachments (a bucket loader, a jackhammer and a drill), it also comes with a poseable construction figure and shovel, pick, wrench, lunchbox and a bag of the gold kinetic rock too.

The set itself is great, really well thought out with lots of tools included. The way you can change the attachments by clipping them on and off the front of the loader is very clever and really simple for children to do. The construction figure is about the same size as a Lego minifigure and slots together easily.

Kinetic rock and kinetic sand are great for hands-on, imaginative play. My son has played with it very happily every day since we opened the box. He creates all kinds on construction scenarios and plays them out. He’s got a lot of construction toys, so sometimes extra diggers come along and join in the fun!

The kinetic rock is made from natural rock and it somehow, magically stick together. It’s really tactile and mouldable, so great for this construction site. We use a plastic tray with a deep lip to keep everything together, it helps to stop accidental rock spillages. Though even though the rocks will stick together, they won’t stick to your carpets, you can pick them up or vacuum them if you need to.

If I were to criticise anything, the bag of kinetic rock included is a little on the small side. If I were buying this again I would buy an extra bag of the kinetic rock to go with it, especially if more than one child will be playing with the set.

The Kinetic Rock 3-in-1 Loader is a great play set with the potential for lots of creative, imaginative play. My son really enjoys playing with the set and I actually prefer it to the kinetic sand, I think I prefer the slight chunkiness of the rocks. The small boy thinks it’s brilliant!

The Kinetic Rock 3-in-1 Loader Set costs £16.99 and is available at all good retailers nationwide. For more information, visit their website.

Disclosure: We were sent this kinetic rock set for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: Wobbly Worm – a great garden game!

With summer upon us and children to entertain during the school holidays, it’s good to get out in the garden and play some games. We’ve been playing a new game from Spin Master Toys which is great in the garden, or works equally well inside if the weather is not on your side – Wobbly Worm.

Review: Wobbly Worm - a great garden game for kids

I confess I was initially drawn to this because I loved the name and seeing it in action on YouTube made me smile. I knew my son would love it and I was right. Wobbly Worm is designed for children aged 3+ and is an update on old fashioned hoopla. Wobbly Worm is a plastic worm with a base shaped like half an apple. Switch him on and he will wibble and wobble while you try to toss your hoops over his head.

The game is suitable for 2-3 players, but you could happily play with this by yourself, or in a group of friends or family.

Review: Wobbly Worm - a great garden game for kids

Wobbly Worm comes with 9 plastic hoops in different colours and sizes and a set of instructions. What aren’t included are batteries (you’ll need 2 C batteries) but you can put the worm together and play with your stationary worm while your other half nips tot he shops to buy some batteries.

The hoops come in three sizes, obviously the smaller the hoop the harder it is to get on the worm. I liked that the hoops have little connector for safety, which can be quickly unclicked and opened up if someone does something they shouldn’t be doing with their hoop.

It’s really easy to put your Wobbly Worm together, there are four worm pieces which fit together with connectors. You push one of the connectors into the base and put the smiley worm head on the top. All you need are the batteries which you’ll need a screwdriver to open up the slot to fit them into the apple base.

Review: Wobbly Worm - a great garden game for kids

You can make your worm as long or as short as you want, just by adding or removing worm sections. The Wobbly Worm has a maximum height of 3ft, so at full length he’s about right for my quite tall 6 year old. Of course, the taller he is, the more he wobbles. To set your worm off wobbling, just press the start button on the apple base and off he goes!

Wobbly Worm is a great way to build hand-eye coordination and it takes some concentration to get the hoop over your worm, even before you switch it on and the worm and apply both start wobbling all over the place. It really is lots of fun. You can make it easier or more difficult by adding worm sections; drawing a line where you have to throw your hoop from. If you’re a beginner, just don’t switch your worm on until you get the hang of it.

Review: Wobbly Worm - a great garden game for kids

My son absolutely loved it and it will be coming on holiday with us. Luckily it all packs down into a reasonably small box which we can just throw in the car. I like that you can play with it differently to change up or change down the difficulty levels. I also like that it’s working and refining his co-ordination. It is really good fun for all the family, even the adults!

Wobbly Worm costs around £20 on Amazon, but the price may vary depending on where you shop.

We were sent the Wobbly Worm for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own. This blog post contain an affiliate link.

Toy Review: Spy Gear Spy Video Walkie Talkies

One of the most fun things about Mummy’s iPad is the Facetime app. The boy loves to Facetime his dad, or his cousin, or anyone really. I remember walking to the phone box at the end of our road to make a phone call, so all of the communication technology available today is almost a thing of wonder to me. Even now there’s something a bit extra special about being able to video chat with someone. The video chat loving boy and I put a set of Spy Gear Spy Video Walkie Talkies to test. What did we think of this latest accessory for junior spies?