Orchard Toys Farmyard Friends Review

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I have always been a big fan of Orchard Toys games and so I am really pleased to be getting to introduce Henry to them now. This is his first Orchard Toys game he has had to play and I was very excited to play it with him. 

The game is called Farmyard friends and is all about recognizing farmyard animals and matching. 

As usual, the Orchard Toys game comes in a sturdy box with a colourful picture on the front. I have not yet known an Orchard Toys box fail at keeping a game safely inside.

The game comes with a barn which needs to be pushed together to make it 3d. It also comes with 30 cards which all have animals on them. Some of these have red backs and some have blue backs and some yellow. 

All the animals on the cards are farm yard animals and are ones that are very easily recognized by young children. Henry knew the names of most of the animals on the cards. The animals are all really cute and colourful and very child friendly. 

The 3D barn has a slot at the top which is for the animal cards to be placed into.

There are 2 parents of each animal and a baby animal. And there are many ways that this game can be played. 

Firstly I decided to ask Henry to find the animals, for example, I asked him to find a pig and put it into the box. As soon as he started to recognize the animals, I asked him to then find the other pig, which is a way to start to learn to match. Then I asked him to match the baby to the parents. Each time we played he got to pop the cards into the barn. Which he loved doing. 

The game can be played so then the animals face upwards, or you can make it more challenging and turn the cards over so you can only see the colours. If playing alone then your child can learn to turn a card over at a time, until they match a pair. Or they can play with someone else. 

When playing with someone else, take turns to turn the cards over to make either a pair or a family. 

If you want to make the game even trickier, you can deal out one of the parent animals and these are the ones you have to match to either the other parent, the baby or as a family. 

As well as this game helping your child's memory skills, it also helps their hand and eye coordination when placing the cards into the box. This is something that Henry loves to do. 

To make the game even more fun, you can always make the animal noises as placing them into the barn! 

Henry has just turned 2 and as this game is aimed at 2 plus, he is only just starting to learn how to play games and is currently finding it more fun to find the animal and place it in the barn. I am looking forward to seeing him develop his matching skills through this game.

This game is £9.75 to buy and can be bought on the Orchard Toys website. 

Would your little one enjoy this game?

Tomy Toomies Spin and Hatch Dino Eggs Review

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With Easter coming up, you may be looking for toys that are perfect for alternative Easter gifts. Toomies have a toy with an egg theme that will work brilliantly for exactly this. Introducing Toomies Spin and Hatch Dino Eggs.

 As soon as Henry saw it, I had to get it out for him as he got excited and wanted it straight away. Luckily it's easy to open, and there are no batteries or setting up needed which meant he could start playing straight away.

The set comes with a round egg base with holes for the eggs to sit in. It also comes with a see-through lid. At the top, there is a button that you can press to make the base spin. This is easy to press and can be pressed with the lid on or off. Inside each Egg, it a cute little dinosaur. These dinosaurs stay inside the egg and can't be pulled out. Each dinosaur looks different and are all really bright and colourful. Henry loved that they are dinosaurs and kept going "rarrrww" with them.

The lid to each egg fits on the top of the egg base really easily and can easily be done by a toddler. 
The toy is great for colour-matching the base and lid of the egg together. This helps an early introduction to learning colour names and also matching. This is something I am currently focusing on teaching Henry so I am pleased that I can use it to help him learn colours. 

Henry who is now 2, found it easy to place all the dinosaur eggs into the base. This really helps his fine motor skills. Without the lid on, when you press the button, all the eggs come flying off and scatter around, just like they have hatched out of the Eggs. Henry loved this aspect of the toy, I think because for him this was a fun form of destruction, which he loves doing. 

Another thing I love about this toy is how it can all be tidied away and stored together. Simply place all the eggs inside and pop the plastic lid on top. 

This toy has been played with loads so far and both I and Henry both love it. I think it's a really clever toy that provides lots of fun and has great educational aspects. It is also a good quality toy that is aimed at children 12 months plus. 

This toy is £15.99 and can be bought from places such as Amazon or Argos. 

What would your child enjoy about this toy?

Chicco's 2 in 1 Rocking Dino Review

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When it comes to toys, I love toys that have lots of different ways to aid learning. 

When Chicco offered me their 2 in 1 Rocking Dino, I jumped at the chance to get Henry a new toy that he would love to play with, but that would also help him with his learning through play.

Henry was super excited when he saw the box, and instantly spotted that it had a dinosaur inside and said the word dinosaur. 

When we got it out of the box, he instantly wanted to play with it. 

The first thing he did was give it a good inspection. The dinosaur itself is super cute, and a nice shade of green, it is in the shape of a rocker so when you put it on the floor it can rock from side to side. It also has 3 holes for shapes to go in. These 3 different shapes all also have different colours. Already you have lots of learning aspects here with recognizing shapes and colours. The pieces are easy to slot into the dinosaur and they also push out of the other end. 

The second element to this toy, is the balancing of the shapes on the dinosaur's back. They can be placed on in any order but if they are placed more to one side, the dinosaur tips slightly. This gives a child their first lesson in weight. The learning aspect to this type of play is huge. You get to learn about size, order, and balance, and it really helps with hand coordination and fine motor skills. When all the pieces are on, you can rock the dinosaur and hope they don't fall off, but if they do, this provides a fun opportunity to place them back on. 

The last element of play is stacking the pieces into a tower, which I think was Henry's favourite part as he loves knocking the tower down. Due to the shape, they are really easy to stack on top of each other and Henry managed this really well. 

The quality of this toy is lovely, the plastics are made from recyclable plastic and are part of Chicco's Eco range. I also love the colours of the toy. 

Overall I'm really pleased with this toy, especially as it comes with so many learning aspects. 

You can see more about this toy on the Chicco website.  

Would your child enjoy this toy?