We love Galt here! We recently reviewed Ants in Your Pants - a brilliant game that Isla loves playing. At the same time we also got some great pre-school early activities books. We have only just started looking at these as I felt that she was ready for them as she has a bigger attention span and she also seems to like doing 'homework' - we'll see if she's still saying this age 13.....
We have three of them, 'Counting', 'Alphabet' and 'Colour, Shapes and Sizes'. We've started on the 'colours, shapes and sizes' one and I've been so pleased with how good she is at it and how in to it she gets. It has tasks where you do matching, others where you spot differences. There are stickers (I don't know any child that doesn't like stickers!) to find and stick in the correct place and other bits where they can colour in freestyle or where they have to copy exactly as it is in the book. We work on it together and she totally dictates when she's had enough, I'm not going to make her sit for an hour ultimately not enjoying it - I want her to enjoy learning and these books do make it FUN!
The books are so clear and on the inside covers they have great guidance for parents on how to use them. As well as being a learning tool, creativity is also encouraged, make sure you've got a box of crayons or the dreaded felt tips so that they can colour in where required. I've found that these books help to give Isla and I some one to one time that Noah isn't involved in, she loves that as we can talk uninterrupted.
At £2.99 each I think Galt Activity books are really good value as there are a couple of hours activities in them - not just the activities but the talking that they can also instigate - and boy Isla can talk! Check them out for your pre-schooler!
We were sent 3 Galt Early Activites books to try out free of charge
The lovely people at Galt Toys sent us a new game this week, Ant in your Pants and it has been played at least 7 or 8 times today! Wednesday is my day to work from home in the morning until lunchtime so most of the time my mum comes over and looks after Isla while Noah is at nursery. They have some really lovely one on one time together and while I'm working I love being able to hear what they're getting up to downstairs. I was really looking forward to Isla playing this game and thought this morning was the perfect time for it to get trialed. Mum was up for it and so I heard many happy games of Ants in Your Pants this morning!
The game is really simple but Isla loved it. There are lots of pairs of different coloured pants and a dice with corresponding colours on it. On the other side of the 'pant' cards there are ants - differing numbers of them and then there are also a few cards with Ant Eaters on them. To win you have to have the highest number of ants. BUT if you get an Ant Eater card then you wipe out your ants and have to start again. Mum said that Isla didn't like the Ant Eaters and she was trying to cheat, refusing to take the Ant Eater card if she chose it! When we played it later she was really funny, making the Ant Eater eat the ants, doing the sound effects. I took a couple of videos of our game, so here you can see it in action.
There are a few things I like about this game, there's the colour matching with the dice and the colour of the pants. There's also the opportunity to count up how many ants you have at the end of it. It's also teaching fair play, you have to accept the pitfall of getting an Ant Eater card, it can turn your fortune in the game at any moment.
It's such a simple game but I can see that it will get played loads. It's not bulky either so it can go over to the grandparents and it will also come in really handy when we go on holiday to Sand Le Mere! We give this game a big thumbs up.
We were sent this game free of charge in exchange for our opinion which I've given honestly.
We were recently sent a Lion Peepo Puppet by Galt Toys to try out. It's a really cute push-up puppet that you can play peepo with by pushing the soft pole up and down to reveal and hide the lion inside. He's really bright and colourful and the puppet contains a jingle bell and crinkle.
The day we got it in the post I waited until Isla had woken up from her afternoon nap to get it out and surprise her with something new. Sometimes she takes a little while to warm up from waking from a nap and so I thought this would help to get some smiles and it did. She was giggling away as we made the lion disappear and appear. She had a go at doing it herself as well and it was really good fun.
There were also puppets at Gymboree when we used to go to her weekly class there too. As we have another baby on the way I'm keen to keep up the tradition and I think that the Peepo Puppet will be brilliant as well for young babies and this time around Big Sister can also do some of the puppeteering for her baby brother! This puppet will really appeal to young babies as it's lovely and bright, jingles and makes crinkley noises. These toys help to encourage little ones to touch, explore, build and play.
The Galt Toys website is excellent because as well as having the entire range of their brilliant toys on there, it also has a great Activity Zone Page, giving ideas of creative and crafty things to do with the kids and it has games kids can play on the computer.
The Peepo Puppets come either as a Lion, Dog or Cow and they retail at £7.99
In order to review this toy we were sent a Peepo Puppet by Galt Toys.
