My Three Little Strawberries

Learning Resources – GeoSafari Jr. Critter Habitat Review

Learning Resources – GeoSafari Jr. Critter Habitat Review

Children love to be outdoors and it’s so benifical for them. They can explore the natural environment and there are so many learning opportunities for them.

The girls have always been into nature and love looking at bugs. I think this is great and always encourage it to minimise any fears they may have and also to teach them to be respectful to other creatures and their habitats.

 

 

 

 

We were super excited to review this GeoSafari Jr. Critter Habitat for Learning Resources.

First impressions were that it’s a great size as we have had bug collectors in the past but they are very small so you could only fit one bug in it.

The gallon sized clear container has 5 magnifying windows and it provides a safe ventilated place for the creatures with its breathable air holes.

One of my favourite features is that it provides such a clear view so children can really see inside and having five magnifying windows makes it perfect for more than one child. This encourages working together!

It has a rubber grip handle for carrying it when out on your adventures and the lid pops off easily to collect your creatures in it.

Its a wet and dry habitat  (water tight) making it perfect for collecting almost anything from flowers and leaves to tadpoles and frogs.

 

We first used it to examine a birds egg shell, we found that had fallen outside our house and Isabella loved getting to see it in the magnifying windows as she could really see all the speckles on it.

Next we decided to take it on an adventure to explore the outdoors. We took it to a lake and Isabella had so much fun using a net to try and catch some creatures to examine. We filled it with some water and even thought we didn’t manage to catch any creatures this time, it was still so much fun.

I must add that its super easy to clean it out!

 

We did catch some leaves and plants from the water and Isabella decided one of them was a creature and so she wanted to feed it. I love that she was also using her imagination. She did find the feeder a bit tricky to open herself so I helped her with this part.

We are taking it with us to the beach in a few weeks and I can’t wait to see what we might find to observe in it.

We are also going to fill it with mud and worms which will be amazing to see the worms moving around through the mud.

Overall this really is a fantastic Critter Habitat and I would definitely recommend it.

It’s such a great introduction to Stem learning and perfect for animal lovers. It encourages children to explore the outdoors and learn to care for other living things.

We are going to be storing it in our mud kitchen so its easy for Isabella to get any time she’s in the garden.

 

As with all our reviews, I would never recommend something I didn’t truly love and all words and opinions are our own.

We hope you enjoyed this review and as always if you have any questions we are very happy to answer them.

Recommended age 3+

RRP £20 and can be purchased from www.learningresources.co.uk

My Three Little Strawberries

                  xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Learning Resources – Alphabet Acorns Activity Set

Learning Resources – Alphabet Acorns Activity Set

We have just loved this Alphabet Acorns activity set from Learning Resources. It’s so much fun but educational too. A real learning through play experience.

Children get to experience early literacy skills and alphabet awareness without even realising it, as they are having fun!

 

The set comes with 24 acorns with different coloured lids and each acorn has a capital letter on the front of the acorn. Inside the acorn lid it has the lower case letter with a line underneath so children can identify it the correct way up.

Hidden inside each acorn is an object that corresponds with the letter printed on the acorn so for example D for dinosaur.

 

Isabella started off by putting them all into a basket and naming all the colours. 

She loved taking the lids on and off which she could do herself easily. This is great for developing her fine motor skills and hand-eye do-ordination.

 

 

Next I laid all the acorns out empty in colour order and the objects next to them.

Isabella choose an object and I helped her to find the correct acorn and she really enjoyed putting the object inside. As we did this we we made the sound for the objects so for example with dinosaur we made the “dddd” sound and I told her what letter name it was. She really enjoyed this and managed to maintain her attention for the whole alphabet.

 

 

For younger children this set is perfect for starting off with colour matching and then moving onto the identifying the letters and sounds.

One of the things I really love about this set is that there are so many things you can do with it.

Here is a list of some of the ways we have used it so far :

  • We took them into the bath and used a net to catch the objects and put them in the correct acorn.
  • We counted all the objects and named all their colours.
  • We sang the alphabet with them
  • We stacked them up to spell out words (with my help)

I can really see Isabella using this set a lot, especially as she becomes more knowledgeable and confident with the alphabet and phonics.

I would highly recommend this set to anyone that’s introducing the alphabet and phonics to their children. It really does make learning fun.

 

 

 

 

ALL the pieces are of a high quality and very well made. They fit perfectly into a childs hand and are a nice texture so they can grasp them easily.

Beautiful colours and they come in a great box, although I think we will store them in a basket whilst they are in the play room but they box will be great when I want to rotate toys and store them away.

These Alphabet Acorns have been on my wish list for ages and they did not disappoint. I can’t wait to see Isabella use them over the next few years.

 

We hope you enjoyed this review and if you have any comments or questions please leave them below

 

My Three Little Strawberries

      xxx

 

RRP £31.00 and available to purchase at www.learningresources.co.uk

Ages 3 – 7 years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Learning Resources – Beakers Creatures Whirling Wave Reactor Review

Learning Resources – Beakers Creatures Whirling Wave Reactor Review

We have previously reviewed the Beakers Creatures – Liquid Reactor Super Lab and the Magnification Chambers sets and as we really enjoyed these we were delighted to get the chance to review the new addition to the Beakers Creatures sets.

The new Whirling Wave Reactor set certainly did not disappoint.

The girls love collectables and are always really excited to see what they will get. I love that these collectables are not just your average, get a toy inside an egg. It’s also an educational activity where they learn something from it and lasts a lot longer that just popping open an egg.

What you get inside the 12 Piece set 

Five piece Whirling Wave Reactor Chamber

One Reactor Pod with a mystery Beaker Creature

One Limited Edition Colour Creature

Two Classification cards

Two Mini-posters with amazing science facts

One Experiment guide

The girls found it super easy to put everything together and it only took one minute.

Colour-Changing Creature

First we tried the colour changing experiment and added some cold water to the chamber and popped the creature inside and spun it round using the crank.

Isabella loved watching it change colour then we put it in a bowl of warm water and watched it change colour again!

 

Beakers Creatures – Whirling Wave Reactor

 

First put the reactor pod into the reactor chamber and fill it with water.

Next turn the crank to trigger the whirling, bubbling reaction.

Keep turning until you start to see all of the pod dissolve.

Then for the fun part, revealing which creature you got!

(you may need to dip it into a bowl of water to wash off any excess)

Use the mini-poster to learn your creatures name.

This time we got “Slurpus” from the Dogstars collection in Series 2.

Lastly fill in your classification card and add them to your collection.

There are a further three experiments to complete with this set. So plenty to keep children engaged and so much fun to be had.

I really like this set and for a RRP of £16 I think this is a fantastic set, that can be used again and again. You can buy extra Reactor Pods for RRP £4 from series 1 and series 2 but you can also use the set for the other experiments without purchasing another Reactor Pod.

They are an amazing pocket money gift and my girls just love collecting them all and using them for small world play and putting them in the slime recipe from the other Beakers Creatures Sets.

If you are looking for a fun way to introduce your children to science then this is the set for you.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to bringing you more fun stuff soon!

Recommended for children ages 5+

My Three Little Strawberries

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Learning Resources – Slide & Splash Seals

Learning Resources – Slide & Splash Seals

All three of my children have loved bath toys so I am always on the look out for something new to add to our collection and when we were asked by Learning Resources to review the Bright Basics – Slide & Splash Seals , I was so excited.

My First impressions were how well made and sturdy everything was. The slide came in two parts that fold together for easy storage and it was super easy to put together. Isabella loved the seals which are basically seals sat on wheels so, like a push along car. The set comes with two seals, one with a penguin sat on its back and one that’s a seal on an aeroplane.

 

The slide has two suction pads that stick firmly onto the side of the bath or shower if you don’t have a bath.

Isabella just loved putting each seal at the top of the slide and watching the whizz down the slide really fast and there is a jump at the end so the seals really do fly off the end fast into the water. She thought this was hilarious and so did I !

Isabella also really liked to push the seals through the water and round the side of the bath. Included in the box is a song “The Wheels on the Seals Go Round and Round” and Isabella picked the words up very quick and happily sand it whilst pushing them round.

One thing I really like about this bath toy is that there is no place for water to hide and grow mould in it as I have to bin a lot of bath toys for this reason and it also comes with a handy storage bag which I hung over the taps to drip dry.

Isabella loved this toy so much that she wanted to take it into the garden so I stuck the slide onto the patio door and put some water in our tuff tray to extend her play.

She happily played in the garden with this for over an hour and loved putting on little voices for the seals and using them for imaginary play. So not only is this toy amazing for sensory play but its also fantastic for encouraging imaginations and small world play.

It helps children to learn about cases and effect, watching how far the seals will go and introduces them to STEM learning in a fun way.

 

I really think this is an amazing toy not just for the bath and would highly recommend it to anyones children that enjoy both sensory and imaginative play.

Its definitely in my top list of favourite toys and Isabella’s.

If you have a child that is not keen on the bath or water then this will be sure to distract them and help them enjoy bath times.

The recommended RRP is £18 and can be purchased from Learning Resources.

Thank you for reading and I hope you have fun with this toy too.

Any questions or comments please leave them below.

 

My Three Little Strawberries

xxx

 

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This post was written in collaboration with Learning Resources but all thought and opinions are my own.
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Learning Resources STEMS 3D Fun Educational Construction Toy

Learning Resources STEMS 3D Fun Educational Construction Toy

What The Set Comes With

We received the set of 60 STEMS RRP £25 ( they also have a set of 20 available RRP £9 ) to give an honest review on.

This set comes in a handy durable storage box with a twist on lid, complete with handle.

Inside you get 12 of each colour including pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

Now the amazing thing about STEMS is that there is only one shape but you can create so many amazing designs with just this one piece!

Learning Resources brought STEMS to life from the mind of Euan Lind after they met him at the 2017 London Toy Fair and I have to say they are a fantastic creation.

Each piece is super bendy with a bumpy edging that allows them to snap together. There is a small gap in each one with allows them to be moulded into almost any design, From a 2D to a 3D design.

The set also comes with an activity guide but you don’t have to follow it as with this open ended toy you can create whatever your imagination would like. I really love the fact you don’t need to follow the instructions, especially for younger children as it means they can start off creating more simple designs and then move onto the guide as they become more able. Suitable for ages 5+.

I will say that it can be a bit tricky to start so definitely recommend starting with something small and some adult help may be needed for the younger age groups. However my 12 year old daughter needed no help and really enjoyed it.

What You Can Make

Some of the things you can make are a crown, balls, wheels, birds and frogs!

The possibilities are endless and here are a few that we created.

A Small Ball

A Crown – we even added some drawings into the squares but I didn’t get a photo of that.

 

 

A Helmet 

A Spiral

 

 

A Large Ball

 

Some of the Learning and development outcomes that can be achieved from STEMS

Problem solving skills

Fine motor skills

Hand – Eye coordination

Geometry

Creative Development

Mathematic skills

Overall we absolutely loved testing STEMS out and would highly recommend them. I think they make a perfect gift and a must have for any school classroom.

We hope you enjoyed reading this review and if you have any questions please leave them in the comments below.

My Three Little Strawberries

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