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Traditional Toys With A Personal Touch From Peekboo Pets
Peekaboo Pets produce a wide range of soft toys designed specially to encourage role play and to give children the tools to create imaginative settings whilst being emerged within a World of make believe. Peekaboo Pets produce a range of unique and individual plush toys which include a personalised poem.
Mums Baby Magazine was sent Buttons the Rabbit, a beautiful cotton plush ‘Peekboo Pet’ which we gave to a toddler tester for review 
purposes. Whilst our toddler seemed rather taken with cuddling this beautiful rabbit, we found that the elder generations present were also very impressed by the simplistic and traditional design implemented by Peekboo Pets.
Peekboo Pets use material varying in a wide range of patterns and styles. However, many of their products tend to make use of simplistic, block and stripe patterns which tend to appeal more so to younger children due to the contrasting colours and shades.
Measuring approximately 43cm x 23cm, Buttons the Rabbit is made from soft cotton material usually used to produce socks. Many toys available on the market these days tend to be mass produced and lack originality whereas Peekboo Pets are completely unique and with the added personalisation, through the form of a poem (printed upon natural card using stylish fonts) Peekboo Pets provide the ideal gift solution for special occasions.
Mums Baby Magazine give Peekboo Pets 9/10. Buttons the Rabbit retails at £16.50 from www.peekaboogifts4kids.co.uk along with a wide range of other plush toys and gifts.
The Ideal Alternative to a Dolls House:The Pin Toy Fire Station & Accessories
Our World is fast paced and over complicated, our children are now exposed to endless interference from modern technology which can leave little time for imaginative play.
It is important that as parents we encourage and take part in imaginative play with our children in order to aid the development of their creativity and problem solving. By offering our children simple toys such as dolls houses to play with, they are able to participate in non restricted, imaginative play in which they can make up their own scenarios, stories and games in a personalised, miniature World.
Manufactured, plastic toys are often made to be over complicated in design and tend to have defined purposes which detract from enabling your little one to personalise their play. When selecting toys to encourage imaginative and creative play try to ensure that they are simple in design, sturdy (to 
withstand heavy handed, excitable toddlers) and large enough to allow contents to be moved around as your little one personalises their preferences for play.
Strive to nurture your child’s ability to engage in creative play by offering your little one your time and support as they play, this will also help to build their confidence and self belief. Try to spend time with your child as they play, listen to what they have to say, observe and try to understand what is happening, give your child plenty of reassurance through positive gestures such as nods and smiles, try talk to your little one and discuss the ideas that they present throughout play.
Dolls Houses are the ideal, simplistic toy for creative, imaginative, role play. Although dolls houses can be used by either gender sadly, many boys tend to miss out on the opportunity to use dolls houses to stimulate their imagination as dolls houses are generally aimed more towards the young female gender stereotype. Mums Baby Magazine found the perfect solution to this problem: The Pin Toy ‘Fire Station’ is a beautiful, simplistic, wooden fire station which offers young girls and boys the chance to get involved in alternative ‘dolls house play’.
The Pin Toy Wooden Fire Station is sturdy and large enough for a range of contents (which are included in the set). The Pin Toy Fire Station is open plan and can be played with from either side, this fire station set is roomy, enabling space for several sets of little hands to get involved in creative play.
The Pin Toy Fire Station can be picked up and moved easily (although it is quite heavy and therefore should only be moved by an adult) using the carry handle featured in the roof of the fire station.
This beautiful fire station features two floors which are connected by a ‘fire mans pole’, an archway entry door on the bottom floor for firemen to come and go and two large ‘flip’ doors for fire engines to exit promptly during an emergency.
A wooden ramp is also included with the Pin Toy Fire Station which can be placed against the emergency doors for fire engines to exit smoothly.
The accessories included with the Pin Toy Fire Station include:
- Table and two chairs
- Computer Desk and Swivel chair (this chair actually turns!)
- Bunk Beds and two red pillows
- Small shelving unit
- Locker (each locker can be opened)
- Satellite Dish which can be placed on the roof of the Fire Station.
Mums Baby Magazine put the Pin Toy Fire Station and Accessories to the test with a toddler that greatly enjoys creative play. Within minutes of presenting our toddler with this item he was emerged in imaginative play. We gave our toddler space to explore the Pin Toy Fire Station and Accessories and were fascinated as we watched him move the contents to his desired location, personalising his play.
We noticed that without characters to represent particular roles (the firemen) our toddler was a little frustrated and therefore we introduced four firemen figures and a fire engine. Although the figures and fire engine that we used weren’t specifically designed to accompany this set, our toddler didn’t seem to notice or mind. The beauty of imaginative play with young children is that they often chose to include items which aren’t necessarily designed to accompany the item in use. Our toddler choose to include his farm set whilst using the Pin Toy Fire Station & Accessories. Soon enough there seemed to be a fire in the barn which needed attending do at once!
Pin Toy have designed and produced firemen characters and a fire engine to accompany the Fire station & Accessories. The Pin Toy Fire Engine and Fire-fighters can be purchased separately from www.toysdirect.com
Our toddler seemed to be mesmerised by the Pin Toy Fire Station & Accessories and has since spent many hours creating endless differing scenarios and stories, building his imagination and problem solving skills.
Mums Baby Magazine give the Pin Toy Fire Station & Accessories 10/10. The Pin Toy Fire Station & Accessories are the ideal simplistic, imaginative play stimulus which enables young children to be creative on a large scale.
Suitable for children three years and over, The Pin Toy Fire Station is a fantastic alternative to a dolls house. This beautiful, naturalistic toy is designed to offer hours of entertaining, creative play for both girls and boys.
The Pin Toy Fire Station and Accessories are available from www.toysdirect.com for £58.54 (including VAT).
Celebrating Fatherhood with 10% off Wooden Work Benches, Happy Fathers Day from Mums Baby Magazine!
Mums Baby Magazine would like to wish all the wonderful Fathers and Granddads a wonderful Fathers Day. We hope that you have some time to relax and reflect upon the joys of Fatherhood.
In order to celebrate this occasion we would like to offer all the Dads 10% our Wooden Work Bench (usually retailing at £60, down to £54!). This is actually the CHEAPEST price you will find online, we are really ‘hammering down those pennies’. This offer will end on 21st June 2011.
The Wooden Work Bench from Guidecraft is newly available in the Mums Baby Magazine Shop and is the ideal toy for Fathers and children.
Shopping is no small thing with the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall
Little ones love to copy their elders, whether it be pretending to do the cleaning, cooking or even the shopping. Role Play is a key tool for developing children’s imagination, creativity and confidence in the World in which we live.
Suitable from four years upwards, The Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall is a beautiful, traditional wooden market stall featuring two crates of fruit and veg, two shopping bags, a chalk board, a till and awning which little ones can put up or down according to their preference. Mums Baby Magazine put the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall to the test with our ‘little shopper’.
Firstly, we would like to point out that although the sizes of this product are clearly identified upon websites when purchasing, the photos of this product seem to make it seem far larger than it actually is. We were surprised by how small the box containing the market stall was and were even more surprised at it’s size once put together.
However, smaller toys have many advantages: the smaller the toy, the less space it takes up (allowing for the space to be used for other things!), smaller toys are also easier to pack up and to use elsewhere. One particular advantage of the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall is that due to it’s compact size, it is ideal for placing upon a table top or for adding to other role play items (such as kitchens). However, one drawback of this particular item is that children cannot really fit behind the counter to ‘serve’ as such as the market stall is a little too small to allow for this. We have taken close up pictures of the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall against an IPhone to highlight it’s actual size. (H17.75 x W15.75”/H45 x W40cm)
The Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall is bright, colourful and robust. The small crates of fruit and display stand can be moved around according to the child’s preference. The till included within this set is actually 100% solid wood with the design of a till painted upon it. Therefore, the till cannot contain money and buttons cannot be pressed. Although, we would like to argue that offering children ‘less’ certainly encourages them to increase the use of their imagination. We found that our ‘little shopper’ was perfectly happy using this till, touching the buttons (which are painted on) and making ‘beep’ sounds for each one.
We were sadly, a little disappointed by the two shopping bags included within the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall, these bags are very small and quite flimsy. Made from paper, these bags are not ideal for little ones as they are easily ripped and damaged. The chalk board included in the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall is very small and when our ‘little shopper’ went to write on the ‘Shop Name’ we found that it is very 
difficult to use chalk upon this board due to the gloss finish.
One particular feature of the Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall which we liked is that children have the ability to lift and move the awning according to their preference.
The Vegetables and Fruit included are made from wood and have felt leaves, these tactile materials are ideal for little ones. These food items needn’t remain within the shop, they can also be used for little ones to cook and serve in a kitchen/ cafe role play scenario. The Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall could also be used to sell other items from around the house, the possibilities are endless!
The Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall is the ideal ‘mini shop’ for toddlers with a little amount of room for play but plenty of imagination. Mums Baby Magazine give the Djeco Daisys Market Stall 7/10.
The Djeco Daisy’s Market Stall is available from www.letterbox.co.uk for only £42 (this is an exceptionally low price to pay in comparison to many other online stores!).
Getting crafty with money!
Money for many is a little tighter than usual with the current ‘credit crunch’. Recycling needn’t mean simply sorting your trash into separate bins for disposal, why not make use of those empty tins, bottles and boxes by making them into something useful which can provide endless hours of fun for your little one.
Here are some ideas for getting crafty and saving some pennies in the long run.
Kitchen Rolls and Toilet Rolls
Save used kitchen and toilet rolls, stick them together to create a super long tube and then allow your little one to sit and decorate this with stickers or paint. Not only does this give you and your child one to one time but it encourages their creativity and demonstrates physically to your child how to turn trash into toys!
Once your tube is complete, select a small ball or match box car to roll down the tube (we used wooden eggs!). Tilt the tube by placing it upon an elevated object such as a table. Heights of the tube can be altered thus increasing or decreasing speed of the rolling object. You could make this even more interesting for your little one and cut holes into the tube so that they can then see the cars/ objects rolling.
Empty Boxes
Cardboard boxes can provide unlimited fun for the imaginative child. A cardboard box could become a car, a boat, a dolls house, a garage, a castle, , a mailbox, a jigsaw, a train, a pair of whacky shoes, a small kitchen hob or even a puppet theatre. Simply use some tape, some paint and some creativity to create something which your child can use. Ensure that you involve your child in the ‘messy work’ as they will love this probably just as much as playing with the end result. We transformed a simple cardboard box and an old tea towel into a colourful puppet theatre by adding paint and some wool on which to hang the curtains.
Empty Bottles
Bottles can be used in allsorts of ways to provide entertainment for your little one. Perhaps you fancy making a ‘lava lamp’ with your little one. Simply fill the bottle with lemonade, the food colouring of your choice and some sultanas/ raisons. Screw the lid on tight and watch as the raisons travel up and down just like a lava lamp would.
Alternatively why not create some bottle characters. Simply decorate your bottle as a person using as many different media types as you fancy. If the end result isn’t perfect then why worry? It was all fun in the long run!
Perhaps you could make something for ‘Mum’’. Why not design a bottle vase? Bottles can be cut and used to create rocket ships, chimneys, paperweights, bird feeding stations, scenes in a bottle…or anything your imagination allows! We found some really good ideas for crafting using bottles here .
Baby Food Jars
Baby Food Jars needn’t be thrown instantly into the recycling, they could easily become an air freshener, a snow globe, a candle holder, a desk tidy, a coin box or perhaps a sand jar (using colourful sands).
Plastic Bags
Although many of us tend to reuse plastic bags within shops, if you find that your bag is no longer in good condition for this purpose then why not turn your bag into a flag or a windsock?
Newspaper
Newspaper has so many uses other than for reading, it is worth keeping a box of used newspapers handy, especially if you have little ones. Firstly newspaper can be used to protect table tops during painting or crafting sessions. Secondly newspaper can be cut and made into outfits, hats and many other accessories.
Newspaper can be shredded and mixed with wallpaper paste and water to create papier-mâché, this can be spread onto surfaces such as balloons or cardboard pieces to create papier-mache masks or scenes which can later be painted once dry.
Rather than regarding your rubbish as just that, consider what it could be and get creative with your little one. Not only will you spend quality time creating items but you will in turn educate your child upon how items can be recycled alternatively, create items which can be used for play which could alternatively cost money and most importantly you and your little ones will have great fun in the process.
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