Posts Tagged "imaginative play"
Cybermummy, Lego Duplo and YES, I AM SHORT
It’s that time of year again when bloggers of the mother-persuasion (and a few daddies, too) start to wake up in cold sweats worrying that someone has bought the same outfit as them and whether or not there’s a spelling mistake on their business cards. Yep, folks, it’s Cybermummy 2011. Now, I had a blast last year, and was delighted to have spoken on the main panel, met some amazing people, made some useful contacts, AND managed to only accidentally flash my knickers at a handful of strangers. So although not quite in the almighty hysteria-driven hyper-excited state that most on my Twitter timeline seem to have driven themselves into, I am looking forward to it.
Now, although people seem to recognise me fairly quickly, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that one of the first things that almost every blogger that has met me in ‘real life’ points out is that I am much smaller than they expected. I’m not quite sure how I’m managing to exude this virtual aura of height, but you should probably know, in case you’ll be turning up on Saturday expecting to see me towering elegantly over other delegates, that I am a short-arse. I’m 5′ 2″ and fall over in heels so will be in flats, so perhaps look about a foot lower than you’re expecting and towards the back/cake and there you will probably find me. Please come and say hello. I’m quite nice.
This year I’m attending thanks to the lovely people at Lego Duplo, who are paying for my ticket, travel and accommodation, along with other Lego Duplo ‘Experts’ who are lucky enough to receive occasional goodies from Duplo for our kids.
Read MoreName That Film
Any of you that know my boy Kai will know that he is big on pretending, with an imagination as big as the moon. Yesterday alone saw him being a cat for much of the morning, then putting out pretend fires, then unable to leave the sofa for fear of having his feet bitten by crocodiles.
His current favourite thing when playing is to re-enact his favourite scenes from films and TV shows. Trains dangle off sofa-cliffs, as he bellows “POP-POP (Thomas), NOOO!”, or I come into the room to find him sword fighting with one of his drum sticks as he battles Captain Hook.
So, can you guess what film and scene Kai is demonstrating below?
On bin men bothering and a whole lot of WOW
If you happened to be at our house on a Wednesday morning, you would be lucky enough to witness a now familiar part of our routine and an unmatched highlight of Kai’s week. For Wednesday, ladies and gentleman, is BIN DAY.
Kai’s ears pick up the slightest sound of their approach, sometimes from two or three streets away and with an audible gasp, will run to get his little chair from the other room to assume The Position at the front door. Crouched low, peering through the letterbox, Kai waits like the most dedicated twitcher in a hide, until finally the lorry reaches our house, waits until the bin men have disembarked and are JUST by our front door and shouts, either “Eh-oh!” if he’s feeling friendly, “Boo” or, my personal favourite, “RAAAWWWR!”. Now, to start with, this was brilliant as the poor bin men never saw it coming, and watching a grown, burly waste-disposal profession jump half-clean out of his overalls was always a good start to any day. But after a while, of course, they’ve become well used to their little Wednesday Watcher – the friendlier ones now at least feign surprise and give him a little wave…
Anyway, now I’ve set the scene you will finally begin to appreciate something of the excitement when I received an email from Tanya at WOW Toys. Tanya is a reader of my blog and just happens to be the MD’s wife, and after cleverly spotting one of their products in some photos I took a while back, offered to send some more out for Kai for us to review, more specifically a TOY BIN LORRY, (well, recycling truck!) by the name of Flip ‘n’ Tip Fred. Oh YES!
Now, we’re a big fan of WOW toys in this house, with the Robin’s Medical Rescue ambulance in the range being one of Kai’s very favourites, and the arrival of Flip n’ Tip Fred, as a well as Ronnie the space rocket and Harry Copter’s Animal Rescue helicopter went down an absolute storm here, in fact, when I first opened the big box I didn’t hear another peep out of Kai for the next two hours (total parenting WIN there! I got to drink a whole cup of tea! And knit!)
WOW toys are colourful, chunky, interesting and unique, perfect for older babies up to pre-schoolers and beyond, beginning as toys with buttons to press and doors to open for curious little ones, growing into role-play and small-world imaginative toys for older children. My favourite aspect has always been that they require no batteries, running on friction motors, and are really built to last – after 18 months Kai’s ambulance still looks like new despite playing with it almost every day.
Each toy comes with a really cool set of unique features and surprises. With Flip ‘n’ Tip Fred, Kai has literally played for hours making the little people load the recycling bins into the tip-able buckets and emptying them out the clicking door. Ronnie the rocket comes with a brilliant pull-cord countdown, which displays a countdown from 5 to 0 as it vibrates ready for take-off (we especially like the sandwiches on Major Tom’s control panel in the flip-open cockpit). Kai’s had a lot of play-value out of the Animal Rescue helicopter too – it comes with three animals that the helicopter can pick up magnetically before zooming off as you squeeze the motorised trigger to spin the rotor blades, before turning the self-light to deactivate the magnets and deliver the animals to their destination (usually from a great height if you’re Kai).
I can honestly say that Kai has played with these toys every single day since they arrived and I’m confident that these are going to remain firm favourites for a good while to come. I’m hugely grateful for Tanya getting in touch, thanks for making a little boy very happy indeed.
To find out more about WOW toys, each one featuring a great little video of the toys in action, and to find stockists online and in your area, check out the website, and don’t forget to ‘like’ on Facebook to stay up-to-date with new products and competitions.
Thanks for reading.
Writing Workshop: Rocket Man
He crouches low, with hands poised, counting down numbers in his head that he doesn’t yet know. Pursed lips start the rumble, louder louder. Until, it’s time. And pointed fingers lead the way to blast off, up and up, with feet following to shoot their way around the room to land on Planet Sofa or Meteorite Mum for brief refuelling, until it’s time to fly again.
He’s a Rocket Man,
no, a pirate…
…climbing his was to the top of his crow’s nest chair to stand with eyes curled round an invisible telescope, reporting back to the captain that there’s a DRAGON on the horizon, the captain who stands looking on with arms crossed and a rue smile at her ignored orders to sit and eat your dinner please. But there’s no time for that when monsters lurk,
cause he’s a Rocket Man,
no, a train…
…chuffing his way along lines in the pavements with locomotive arms circling round and round, picking up speed round corners and stopping for the red man signal with a high whistle, before green green means go go and we’re off again, head down, with his driver frantically steering him out the path of approaching freight-train mobility scooters and pushchairs. But he can’t stop, he has places to be,
cause he’s a Rocket Man,
no, a ROBOT…
… stiff arms and legs marching with squeaks and peeps and whistles loud. Until, of course, his power runs out and he slowly folds himself down, arms hanging limp, in need of an engineer to replace batteries and wind the crank on his back but who will make him wait, despite whispered robot mum mum mum until she’s finished this row and put her knitting needles down with a smile, wondering what she will find next in her living room – racing car, monster, postman, shop keeper, lion, helicopter…
cause he’s a Rocket Man,
stars in his eyes and the whole world in his sights.
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Now it’s your turn. What song or lyric did you use to inspire your writing this week?
Leave your name and the URL to your post in the MckLinky below (the URL should be to your post not just to your blog) If you have the time it would be great if you could try and read and comment on at least two other entries.
If you haven’t had chance to respond yet, then you’ve still got till Sunday to enter your link! Or just wait till next week, when there’ll be five brand new prompts to get you thinking.
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