educational toys

Peg Activity from Junior Scholars

November 12, 2013 By In The Playroom in Toy Reviews 4 Comments Tags: activities for colour matching, activities to help fine motor, educational toys, fine motor development

You might remember, we recently visited Junior Scholars for their first ever blogging event. It’s a great shop and they have a wide range of products online as well as in store.

Mr Z and Mr T chose a product each to take home and review. Mr T chose the Lanka Kade Dinosaur Alphabet puzzle which we reviewed here. Now it’s time to tell you about Mr Z’s choice – the Miniland Pegs case:

Large Pegs: 20mm Pegs in a case

Mr Z (5) had been really enjoying playing with one of the peg boards at the blogger event. I think it may have been this one as it had slightly smaller pegs. When he opened his packet at home we realised that we had taken a version with slightly larger pegs so this would be more suitable for younger children too – but it’s okay as it meant Mr T could join in very well too!

The peg case comes with 160 brightly coloured pegs, a clear board and 6 design sheets which you can place underneath the board. The designs are mainly animal related with a duck, a chicken and a butterfly amongst others.

Mr Z and Mr T were both able to work together to complete the designs and found that the pegs were easy enough to put into the board. When there was just a small gap to place a peg, Mr T (3) needed a bit of help on a couple of occasions.

This activity is great for developing their fine motor skills, which is really useful for both of the boys, Especially Mr T. He has delays in both fine motor and gross motor, so any extra practise he can get is brilliant. The activity is also good for colour matching, which Mr T is still practising at nursery. I think it would be even better if two boards were included to make it easy for siblings to play at once, but Mr Z and Mr T were happy enough to share.

The peg activity is recommended for age 3-6. I would say that this set is better for 3-5 and for 5-6 then one of the sets with the smaller pegs will be a better option as it feels a little more grown up for them. As well as copying the pictures using the cards underneath, it can also be used to work with patterns playing games like copy the pattern, continue the pattern or make up your own pattern.

This set is £14.99 from Junior Scholars and I would recommend it as a great toy to help support learning and fine motor skills development at home.

Lanka Kade Alphabet Dinosaur Puzzle from Junior Scholars

October 31, 2013 By In The Playroom in Toy Reviews 10 Comments Tags: alphabet, educational toys, ethical toys, fair trade toys, lanka kade, literacy, preschool, sri lanka, wooden toys

In case you missed it, I recently posted about our day at the Junior Scholars blogging event in Watford. The children were given the chance to take an item each to review at home. Mr T did not hesitate to make his choice: The Lanka Kade Dinosaur Alphabet Puzzle.

This is a wooden Fair Trade product made from sustainable rubberwood and painted with safe non toxic paint. You can definitely tell that it is a good quality product and very well made. Each piece is thick and chunky and there are no rough edges, chips or imperfections anywhere on the puzzle.

We do have a couple of Lanka Kade products already and it’s a company I really like, as our family is half Sri Lankan its nice to support great ethical Sri Lankan companies like this so I was pleased to see Junior Scholars stocking a wide range of the Lanka Kade puzzles. (See the full range here)

Mr T chose the puzzle due to the dinosaur design as he is keen on dinosaurs and he seemed to like the large size of the puzzle. Once we got it home, all 3 of the boys have enjoyed playing with it (age 2, 3 and 5)

Mr T and Mr R don’t yet know their alphabet but by working out where the pieces fitted together they were able to complete the puzzle, and Mr Z (5) was able to complete it very quickly as he does know his alphabet. He enjoyed using the puzzle to teach some of the letters to the younger ones. I can see the younger two (age 3 and 2) getting more play from the puzzle over time as it challenged them more.

It’s a lovely puzzle to help familiarise them with their letters in a fun way.

The only improvement I would say with Lanka Kade puzzles is that it would be good to have a storage tray or box to come with them. We do have a turtle one, which we got from a relative who bought it in Sri Lanka, which comes in a tray so its easier to keep all the pieces together but with the ones you find in the UK you do need to find your own way of storing them. We keep ours in a basket, but any storage boxes or even zip lock bags could work.

The large dinosaur puzzle is £14.99 from Junior Scholars which I would say is good value, and you can get the same puzzle in the number version if you prefer. Junior Scholars also have some really cute small Lanka Kade puzzles which would be great for stocking fillers at Christmas:

Lanka Kade Puzzle Stocking Fillers from Junior Scholars by intheplayroom on Polyvore

Have you tried Lanka Kade puzzles before? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Junior Scholars Blogger Event

October 30, 2013 By In The Playroom in Blogging 4 Comments Tags: blogger events, educational toys, junior scholars, watford

Earlier in the month, we went along to Junior Scholars shop in Watford for their first ever Blogger event. It was great to meet the faces behind the company as I have been following them on Twitter for a while now. (@juniorscholars and @jscholarsSocial if you want to follow!)

Junior Scholars are online retailers of a massive range of educational toys and games, and they also have a shop in Watford. Luckily for me, we are quite local so I will definitely go back to the shop in future. It was way bigger than I expected, and really impressive. It is in the building of an old bank, and is full of loads and loads of toys and games on the ground floor then down in the vault they have a recording studio (the sound cube) which can be hired out for parties – very cool!

If you’re not near to Watford no need to worry as you can order all the toys and games online.

The Junior Scholars event was a great chance to meet some other local bloggers like Carolynne from Mummy Endeavours and Hannah from Caterpillar Tales as well as catching up with some familiar faces like Mary and her little monkey from Over 40 and a mum to one.

We also had a chance to play with and try out plenty of the products from the shop, which Mr Z and Mr T both really enjoyed

As you can see above, Counting Caterpillars from Orchard Toys was a big hit with both of them. We couldn’t resist buying a couple of things from the shop after the event. Mr Z chose the Money Activity Book – he really really loves maths so he sees this more as fun than work! Mr T chose himself a jumbo magnifier which he has been really enjoying.