Magic Bubble ARt – review

 

Growing Tree Toys recently sent us this fun little kit to use and review. 

We’ve done bubble art before – with dishsoap, water, and food coloring – and truly the fun part of this is the bubble blowing.  So, yes, that’s simple to do at home without a kit; but I noticed that the colors this time, with the kit, turned out to be much more vibrant, and the included crafts were a bonus.

Here’s everything the kit includes:The picture is so very bright it isn’t showing the tons of punch out pieces that came with this.  There are 90 shapes and stickers included, and a little booklet that gives ideas of things to make.

Also included: pipe cleaners, dye, a stir stick, straws, green embroidery thread, paper cups, and a large bottle (much more than we needed) of soap with gold glitter in it. 

I was not sure about the glitter soap, but it did sparkle up the bubbles (as long as we occasionally stirred it), and looked so pretty on the paper after it had dried!  I’m afraid my photos aren’t good enough to show this, but take my word for it – very pretty!

The basic concept is to fill the cups about 1/3 full with water, soap, and dye; then stick in a straw and start blowing bubbles onto the papers and shapes.  This MUST be done over some sort of covering – we used an old towel – because the dye will stain.

M really had so much fun doing this.  I wish the kit had more disposable cups because they got very soggy very quickly, what with the bubbles spilling over the sides, but obviously regular cups could be used also.

Blowing 4 colors of bubbles all at the same time proved to be a lot of fun too: Take a look at that towel – definitely a good thing we used it!  Fingers were stained too, but all in the name of fun, and no worse than when dying Easter eggs.

Now, M would have been content to blow bubbles all day long, but he knew this was a review and very seriously did every single craft included.  In one sitting.  He is a sucker for punching perforated shapes out of cardstock, so I think that had something to do with it. ;)

Here is a look at about half of the bubble prints he made:

 

A few things he crafted from all this colorful goodness…

A crown:

A hot air balloon:

Flowers: 

Stick puppets, a fish, a door hanger, and some pretty patterned paper to use in the future:

As we were doing this (yes, I did get in on a little of the fun too!), I kept thinking about how perfect this would be for a birthday part, or any group of children.  More cups and straws would have to be used, but there is definitely enough soap and dye mixture and paper crafts to make this fun and engaging for a group of 4 to 5 children.

M ended up loving this much more than I anticipated!

Have a beautiful day! :)

*I was provided a free Kid Concoctions’ Magic Bubble Art kit in exchange for writing a review.  This review is entirely my own, honest opinion of the product.

CSN Product Reviews

I recently received a $75 gift card from CSN Stores in order to purchase and review some products.  I am very pleased with all my choices and happy to review them here for you!

M recently played with the Melissa and Doug Fold and Go Mini Castle at a friend’s house:He enjoyed it so much and played with it so long that I decided to get one for a Christmas present for him.  It engaged him in make-believe play in a way that not many toys can.  He will love it!  The castle is made of wood, as are the figures.  It comes with a king, queen, two knights, two horses, two thrones, a royal bed, and a treasure box.  I love how this captured his imagination and this little set is a great toy for a girl or boy.  The castle opens up, like this:   It is full of rooms and staircases, has a dungeon, and a working drawbridge.
 
I also chose this set of Junior Design Cards to go with our Wedgits:There are 48 cards in all.  8 of the cards offer instructions on the various ways of wedging the blocks together, then there are 40 cards of designs to build.  These are a lot of fun and add another dimension to M’s playtime with his Wedgits (ok, my play time too – I love them!).  The cards are separated into 4 levels of difficulty, A through D, with 10 cards in each level.  There is a full color image of the finished design on one side; on the other side of each card is a black and white image of each design, along with a listing of each size and number of Wedgit needed to make the design.  It’s fun to try to figure out which Wedgit goes where when using the black and white image only.  M has already gone through the A and B sets, but seems content to do them over and over.  This was going to be a stocking stuffer for him, but he loves his Wedgits so much I broke them out early. :)

Lastly, the choice that I am the happiest with – this little darling: The Electrolux Cordless Rechargeable Vacuum.  I am in love.  The one pictured above is blue, but mine is silver and very streamlined looking.  Where do I begin with all that I love about this vacuum?

1. It’s cordless, so it takes no time to get it out of the closet and start vacuuming
2. It vacuums my entire home on one full charge.
3. It comes with two batteries so you can always have an extra one charged.
4. The charger can be wall-mounted or simply set on top of a counter (which is the way we currently have it).  The battery is simple to remove and replace, and the charger allows either the entire vacuum to hang on it (when wall-mounted), OR you can just charge the battery in the side section of the charger. 
5. The handle removes easily, and converts to a smaller hand-vac, making it easy to vacuum stairs, drapery, etc.
6. It has one setting for carpets, and one for hard surfaces.  The roller brush spins on the carpet setting, and is idle on the hard surface setting, so it simply sucks instead of beating up your hardwood floors.
7. It is bagless, and has a cup that you empty into the garbage.  And, man, does this thing suck up a lot of dirt and dust!  The filter is excellent and I can not believe all that we’ve vacuumed up every time I empty it – it’s amazing!  Not only that, but I really only have to empty once every 3 or so times of using it because the cup holds so much!
8. My absolute favorite thing is that this is light-weight enough for M to use.  He calls it “his” vacuum (I really think he believes I got it just for him), and he uses it at least once a day.  I haven’t had to vacuum in 2 weeks now, no kidding. :)  Vacuuming has officially become his chore, and he really does a great job with this thing.  We haven’t had our regular vacuum with a cord out since we received this one. 

I received the products in this post for free for the purposes of reviewing them.  The opinions stated are completely mine, and I’m very happy with each products, and happy to be able to share them with you!

Have a beautiful day! :)
 

Wedgits

  I planned on reviewing a wagon from CSN (remember I said it was in the Riding Toys section?), but they were out of the particular one we wanted.  That’s ok – I’ve been wavering back and forth over Wedgits for a long time – are they really as great as everyone says?  Will M actually play with them?  Are they easy to use, yet still challenging enough to keep him engaged?

Yes, yes, and yes.  I finally decided to get them and try them out.  We opted for the Deluxe set, which has 30 pieces.  I’m glad we did because they are so much fun that we all play with them and we need as many pieces as we can get! :) 

These are amazing building blocks (I guess you’d call them blocks??) – they fit inside one another in a variety of ways, and you can even wedge them together so they “lock” as M says.  This set came with a book that shows several designs to copy.  This is great reasoning work for M, since he really has to think about what to do first, second and so on in order to duplicate the design shown.  He also enjoys just “building with my imagination”. :) 

I wish we’d ordered a set of design cards so we’d have more to work on.  That’s on our Christmas list for now.

If you’ve been wondering about Wedgits yourself, I definitely encourage you to go ahead and get a set.  They are a bit pricey, but well worth it in my opinion.  We are very happy with our Wedgits and they are something that will grow along with M.  I envision him playing with these for years to come!

Have a beautiful day! :)

I was given a complimentary set of Wedgits from csnstores.com in return for writing a review.  This review is my honest opinion of the product I received. 

Construction Toys – Review and Giveaway!

The great people at CSN Stores sent me the following 3 construction toys to review.  Their shipping was super fast and I’ve had no problem with their customer service.  One other product is on back order and they’ve been keeping me up to date on a regular basis, which is so much nicer than having to call or email them!

First off, something I’ve wanted to get M  for a long time – a set of magnetic construction pieces.  There are several to choose from, but I opted for this one because the pieces stick together well and there’s enough in this small set to keep a him happy and interested for a long time.  There are very small pieces, so this is definitely not a toy for someone still in the “put everything in my mouth” stage.  There are a lot of other sets made by Magz that we’ll be adding to this one as we go through birthdays and Christmases… it’s great to have sets like this that can grow along with your child and hold their interest as they get older.  M is fascinated with magnets, and this is a fun way to let him explore the many things magnets can do!

 

We also received two other construction sets – a box of Duplo blocks, and a Kid K’nex Railroad Pals set.  We already have many small Duplo sets to go with this 33 piece one, and M LOVES playing with these.  They are the perfect size for his hands and while they work those fine motor muscles, they aren’t so tiny that he finds it frustrating.  And Kid K’nex – well, what can I say?  We all love them.  We bought a set of Kid K’nex Buddies for M for Easter and we all had a blast putting them together and making all kinds of interesting creations.  And the great thing about this new set (Railroad Pals)?  It is compatible with Duplo!  Some of the pieces for the trains are similar to Duplo blocks and sure enough, they fit together.  So now we have a fantastic collection of various building materials to use in just these two sets! 

Now, for the giveaway part. :)  I am going to send one winner a set of 56 Magz, just like ours pictured above.  These are for ages 5 and up, but I feel comfortable letting my soon-to-be 4 year old play with them under supervision.  The contest is open to U.S. addresses only. (I know.  Sorry!) 

To enter, leave a comment below letting me know your favorite construction toy.  For an extra entry follow me (or let me know you are a follower/subscriber), and leave a comment letting me know.  For another extra entry, blog about this giveaway, then leave me a comment with the post url.

I’ll be picking a random winner on June 23rd!  Make sure to leave me an email address so I can reach you!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Guidecraft “3-D Feel and Find” – Giveaway!!

We recently received this toy from CSN Stores’ online toys site, and boy, was it a hit with both myself and M! It’s perfect for developing his sense of touch as well as a sense of size and space.
I have to be honest, there are not a lot of pictures to go with this post, which is a little disappointing because I’d love to share with you how much fun we had with this. However, it is something M needed assistance with, and it’s hard to hold a bag with a 3 year old’s crazy hand in it, and take a picture at the same time. :)
First of all, I love the look of the toy’s pieces – all the shapes are made from wood and painted in bright colors. There are 20 shapes in all and 20 wooden tiles to match them to. Everything seems to be very well constructed! The wooden tiles have the shapes cut into them and the recessed area (and backing for the wood) is textured hardboard. A cloth drawstring bag is included for playing “Feel and Find”.
However, I just knew at first look that there would be many great possibilities for playing with this toy.
First we set the tiles out in rows and M matched the shapes to them: As you can see there are several animal shapes and several geometric shapes; there are also two people shapes (one is a bit more “robust” than the other) and two tree shapes (a narrow one and a wide one).
We talked about each shape and identified the animals and other shapes by name.
Then we began playing with the wooden shapes in the drawstring bag and the tiles in a stack. He picked a tile from the top, then reached into the bag to see if he could *feel* the correct shape. M was very, very excited about playing the game and eager to get everything perfect. However, with 20 fairly unfamiliar shapes in the bag, it was a pretty challenging game for him (which is a good thing, since it means we will get a lot of use out of this as his skills develop!). So, remembering to set him up for success, I decided to change things up a bit before any discouragement or frustration set in, by sorting the pieces into three groups of shapes and tiles.
We grouped all the animals together, the two people and two trees were grouped together, and the third group was all of the geometric shapes.
Then, beginning with the small group of trees and people, we took time to look at each one and note the different characteristics. Then we stacked the tiles, put the 4 shapes into the bag and proceeded to play “Feel and Find”. :) M did a fabulous job! And his confidence soared! We continued the same way with the other two groups and handed out high fives each time he found the right shape. We were laughing, M was excited, and we were having a great time. We spent about 45 minutes total with this our first time, and it felt like time flew by. We’ve played several fun games since then!
Once he is familiar with the toy and knows all the shapes, I want to play a game with him using just the tiles. Since they are textured, I’d like to have him close his eyes while I set a tile in front of him. Then, using just his fingers (eyes still closed or possibly blindfolded), I’ll have him feel the textured area and see if he can guess which shape it is. This is only one of my ideas for extension activities with this toy. :) It’s such a great way to get a good sensory workout.
And, the wooden shapes all stand up on their own, and would be fun for creative play time too – I’m thinking of building block play or adding them to sensory tub playtime. As his fine motor skills develop they’d also be great to use for tracing around and then drawing in details. (You knew I’d find something artsy to use them for, didn’t you?)
Oh my goodness, I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot of this toy in our Tot School posts! ;)
Ok, thanks for reading such a long post… but here’s what you are really waiting for… the GIVEAWAY portion. ;) CSN Stores is graciously giving away an award-winning Guidecraft “Feel and Find” toy to one of my readers!
This giveaway contest will begin now and end at midnight (CST) on Thursday, and is open only to US and Canadian readers. On New Year’s Day I’ll announce the winner! Be sure to check back here to see if it’s you! If I don’t hear from the winner within 24 hours of posting, I’ll pick someone else.
Rules for entries:
1. Mandatory first entry – go to CSN Stores’ online toys site and pick your favorite game, puzzle, or creative play toy, then come back here and let me know what it is in a comment.
2. For an extra entry, write a post on your blog about this giveaway and link to this post as well as to the online toys site (and leave another comment).
3. For another extra entry, if you are a follower or subscriber to Tired, Need Sleep, let me know (and leave another comment!). You can subscribe or follow now, but please only if you really like me, hee hee. I don’t want to buy any friends with a giveaway. :)
Good luck, everyone!!
Have a beautiful day! :)