Becoming Bigjigs Toys Play Patrol agents has been great, the boys have loved being able to review their wonderful toys. Each mission has been a little adventure and as you may well know, we love adventure. Play Patrol mission Three came two weeks ago and this time round was something a little different. Our mission was to create a video (which is really out of my comfort zone) and be as creative as possible. I had a few great idea's but as you can imagine with two young excited boys it was difficult to get them to perform at the level i needed, i put this down to them both being method actors.
Anyhow after changing my idea half a dozen times i finally got the video finished using some videos i had taken over the last few days and some photos from previous missions. So for your enjoyment Bigjigs Toys Play Patrol mission Three:
When we became play patrol agents for Bigjigs Toys one of the wooden toys I really hoped we would be lucky enough to review was the Chunky Alphabet Puzzle as we're teaching Opeie his letters. He's been able to say his alphabet for months but he doesn't understand which letter is which so you can imagine our excitement when we opened our recent mission and found the item inside. We took the Alphabet puzzle with us on our travels yesterday and enlisted the help of an outside agent, auntie Lottie.
I knew that Opeie would like it and its already been played with a lot. I'm really hoping that it will help his understanding of letters over the coming weeks. We've been working on Opeies colours too over the last two weeks so I was pleased to see that Bigjigs Toys had colour coded the wooden blocks to go with the spaces in the alphabet board, on the board they had also included the lower case letters in each slot which I thought was a great touch.
As much as we loved the toy there was one or should I say two issues. Not with the toy on the whole but with the letters 'K' and 'Z', both of these letters only fit one way Round which probably seems like an I significant issue but for a two year old learning his letters via a wooden puzzle it can be quite frustrating when he is expecting each piece to fit. Opeie knew that he had the right letters for the slots but they just wouldn't go in which ended up confusing for him.
Apart from this though the Chunky Alphabet Puzzle is a great toy and I wouldn't let that put me off buying something that I know would benefit Opeie's development. This item is going to become very useful as Opeie is learning and anything that keeps him motivated to learn and entertained at the same time will always be a fantastic toy in our eyes. A definite thumbs up from Gifts From the Pirates.
Play patrol mission 1.2 and we're an agent down, Secret agent Seth is on a sabbatical so the mission will be taken by our mini agent. When i first met Seth he was train mad and had quite a collection of pieces for his wooden track. He still loves it now but it's only been the last month that it's come back out of it's boxes. I didn't think that Opeie would be that interested being the super hero addict that he is but he's been loving it, just goes to show that little boys love trains. They are great for younger children because they are so easy to connect together.
When we opened our package from Bigjigs Toys and saw what was inside Seth got really excited 'wow its a train spinney part, they are my favourite parts'. We had been sent the industrial turntable and we couldn't wait to get building our track. Sadly as i said before Seth wasn't with us when we first played with it but Opeie took full advantage. I love building the train track as its different everytime you build it, very important when keeping your children interested in a toy.
The Industrial Turntable is a great compliment to the other Bigjigs toys items that we own. Its a large piece and has 6 exits coming off it. Opeie loved the sliding stop start sign that changes from green to red. Great for teaching Opeie about when to go and stay (Great for explaining the importance of waiting at traffic lights when were out and about too). What i love most about Bigjigs toys is because of the quality of the items and the timeless designs these are 'forever toys'. When the boys have both outgrown them they will be put in to storage for their children hopefully. Even if that was in 30 years, because of the design they will never look dated. Not all toys stand the test of time but these will make an appearance for many many years to come.
Seth loves getting involved when it comes to food preperation which used to be great because he would stand on a chair next to me hacking at a piece of broccoli with a plastic knife. As you can imagine that would take some time so it kept him occupied giving me the chance to get on with what needed to be done. We've not really been able to do that much when Mrs M is out because Opeie needs supervising as you can imagine being two.
Today our first package came from Bigjigs, inside our first two Play Patrol Missions. The boys were over the moon and what was inside gave me a great chance to get Opeie involved in food preperation. Plus i needed to get the veg ready for tea so after the boys changed in to their secret agent attire we headed outside to view our mission instructions. We had been sent the Cutting Vegetables Set and Opeie couldn't wait to get chopping.
Suprisingly Opeie didn't go for his 'Hulk Smash' approach to everything. Instead he watched lovingly at what Seth was doing and copied him. The fruit and veg are wooden and each piece is connected by velcro so easily cut by children. The boys really enjoyed role playing with these and thankfully there were no Gordon Ramsey style choice words as they played. The only disappointing part of the kit was that the chef's hat didn't fit either of the boys so either they are quite small or the genetics in our house produce children with freakishly large heads???
During play Seth managed to find a clever way around the consumption of his 'five a day', take a slice of each fruit and veg, join them together and create one uber fruit...
The quality of the product is everything you would expect from Bigjigs, sturdy and high quality materials. The colours are great for teaching Opeie and we had fun getting Opeie to count the parts of the carrot, changing it each time while i cut our carrots in to the same amount of pieces. It was great to see that he really felt included in the food preperation.
The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Opeie. We sat there, we two. And i said, "How i wish We had something to do!" Too snowy to go out
And too cold to play ball.
So we sat in the house
We did nothing at all.
So All we could do was to
Sit!
Sit!
Sit!
Sit!
And we did not like it.
Not one little bit
And then on the front door
We heard many knocks.
So loud that we almost
Jumped out of our socks.
We jumped up quickly.
Ran to the door in a rush.
And there stood the postman
With a package for us.
And he said to us,
"Why the sad mouth on that mush."
"I know it is wet
And the sun is not sunny.
But i have a package from Bigjigs
Full of good fun that is funny!"
"Now I know that inside
Is a fun toy you'll find good.
With a strong and sturdy
Classic design made of wood..."
It's another grotty day outside, cold, wet and not very inviting. Also Opeie is still unwell, it's times like this that I'm glad there is so much to do in the house and it helps that we're a creative bunch. Although Opeie loves to paint and stick, for him its all about toys and he loves having something new to investigate. You cant go wrong with wooden toys, they are classic, durable and safe to play with, no need to worry about small parts and the designs are timeless.
This week Opeie's wooden farm house shape sorter from Bigjigs arrived through the post and he was instantly hooked. We've had standard shape sorters before and they helped with teaching Opeie the difference between a square and a circle but I think once a child has crossed that hurdle in their development finding the right hole is no longer challenging and they tend to lose interest. The farmyard sorter takes it to the next level helping Opeie to learn obscure shapes and learn about animals more. This shape sorter really makes him think more.
The colours and design are great and I like how the animals names are on the back of each piece, helping with reading too. Each animal is a different vibrant colour so teaching colours also comes in handy, it's a wooden play set that ticks all the boxes. The only thing I would add to the design is to give each animal a number just to add in counting to play. The animals are a perfect size for little hands and as you would expect from Bigjigs each wooden piece of the set is smooth and beautifully hand painted, no need to worry when leaving your children to play (we all need to nip out to make a cuppa).
Opeies favourite part seems to be the fact that it also doubles as a carry case with a removable roof to easily remove the famyard animals. Opeie spent most of the morning seeing what else would fit through the new exciting animal holes, although trying with all his might it seems that the Incredible Hulk does not fit through a Goose hole (who'd have thought it). The animals have also been seen grazing along side his wooden train tracks today too. Even though Opeie was poorly he still took the animals to our bed to play...
Opeie's had lots of fun playing with them but lets not forget the other little toy lover in our house, although Opeie used it for what it was intended for, Seth found his own way of making the new toy fit his creative needs. Overall making it the versatile toy I hadn't noticed it was when opening it, Thanks Bigjigs.
We are really passionate about wooden toys, as safeplay is always at the forefront of our minds when choosing toys for the boys. The guys over at brickdave.com have written an interesting article about safe toys for inquisitive little hands and minds, you can check out the link HERE!
To find the Bigjigs farmyard shape sorter online or view lots of their other great toys then be sure to go to: http://shop.bigjigstoys.co.uk/
