Spirograph Upgraded (ELC Spiral Art)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	ELC Spiral Art
Date:	11/05/07 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps children's co-ordination and makes lovely patterns

Disadvantages: Can be a bit fiddly to put together

***Background***

My son loves anything to do with arts and crafts so we had been keeping an eye out for anything that fitted the bill for his 5th birthday. Early Learning Centre have many shops throughout the UK and are well known for their ideas that all toys should have a learning factor to them, whether it be stirring a child’s imagination, learning about words, numbers or colours, or getting artistic. Their toys are well made and their staff have always been very knowledgeable when I’ve been unsure about a product.

As well as their shops on the high street, they have also got an online store available too. Delivery is a bit steep though at £4.95 so you may prefer to go to a shop if you can get to one close by.

***The Age Factor***

This product is aimed at children who are aged between 3 and 8 although I would say that some of the wheels would be a bit tricky for a unaided 3 year old and that some older children than 8 would probably still enjoy designing things with this.

The good thing is that it is equally appealing for girls and boys at the early stages although I suspect that girls will play with it for longer than boys will when they get a bit older.

***The Product***

Spiral Art is advertised as being a product that can help children create bright and colourful masterpieces in minutes. It encourages both a child’s imagination and creativity.

I used to love Spirograph as a child and played with it for hours, making hundreds different patterns by combining different wheels and shapes. The one that I had needed to have the background bit pinned down so you could rotate the inner wheel round with your pen or pencil but this brightly coloured version is a little bit different.

It works by you putting the paper down first and then placing the background frame on to the paper. A larger rectangular shaped holder then keeps this frame in place. There is no need for any pins etc as the holder has foam pads on it to stop the paper moving.

You can then choose to create patterns from a selection of wheels and this works by slotting the wheel into a starting position and working it round the teeth on the background frame until the picture is complete. Without pictures, this is a little bit difficult to explain but it rotates round and round the background for quite some time until the final image comes together. Each wheel has a different number of teeth and differently positioned holes so that they can make a variety of patterns by placing the pen through a different hole each time.

***What’s In The Box?***

Instruction Leaflet

4 Felt Tip Pens – one orange, one blue, one green and one red.

Paper – 20 sheets of white A4

The holder itself is yellow and green with a slot at the bottom to hold a pen in. It has a rectangular inner border and can be used on it’s own to create a border patterned effect.

A pink frame with an irregular inner frame that makes a butterfly shaped border. This also has 2 stencil shapes of a zigzag and a smile shape.

The red frame is in 2 halves. These can be fitted together to give you a circular shaped pattern. It also has lots of stencil shapes in the outer area such as circles, hexagons and hearts as well as stars and moons.

The orange frame is also in 2 halves and these can be fitted together to make an oval pattern. It also has stencils with a spiral, a cloud, a fish and a brick pattern on it.

Half the red frame and half the orange frame can also be fitted together to make an egg shaped design. This is especially good for all those Easter decorations that your child might like to make at that time of year.

Finally there are 6 wheels or cogs. The 4 orange cogs are completely round, whilst the red one is oval shaped and the pink one is square shaped. They can all be used with each border with only a couple of exceptions. The oval one cannot be used on the green and yellow holder and the largest orange wheel cannot be used on the holder or on the butterfly shaped frame. This is due to the shape and size of the cogs, as the teeth do not connect properly.

***The Test***

My son was really excitable when he saw this, even though he wasn’t quite sure how to work it to start with. As soon as he saw patterns being made on the colourful box and pens, he instantly took an interest.

Getting the paper out I asked him which frame he would like to try first and he chose the 2 red circle halves. I think this was because of all the stencil shapes on them. There are letters on each frame and to make sure that the holder fits on properly, these must be facing the right way. The red frame is made up of letters B1 and B2. Putting them on the paper was a little bit tricky at first as they do not actually slot into each other but instead just sit together at 2 small points at the top and bottom of them. Again without pictures this is a bit difficult to explain. With a bit of jiggling and patience though we had the holder in place and my son had the pen in hand.

He started off with the stencil shapes. He’s done a little bit of stencilling at nursery in the past so he knew the principals of it all. It wasn’t long before he had lots of different coloured stars and flower shapes all round a border area. He then wanted to try out the wheels and picked one of the medium sized round ones. He found it quite difficult to keep the pen in the same hole as well as moving the wheel round the teeth and did need quite a bit of help to start with. He tried it with a pencil and found this was slightly easier but I actually think that a ball point or gel pen is better still as the pencil did slip a couple of times too. By using one of those you also get a coloured background without it being too thick so my son can then colour in the rest of the picture more easily.

Needless to say, it’s practise that makes perfect with a toy like this and practising is something he loves to do, so we now have lots of spiral patterns all over the house.

His favourite shape seems to be the pink one that makes a butterfly wing pattern. He then likes to draw the body of the butterfly in the middle and then adds on the antennae at the head. The beauty of using a gel pen is that you can do the edging one colour and then if you want to use any of the stencilled shapes you can choose a different colour for those.

***My Thoughts***

I am really pleased with this purchase. My son really enjoys playing with it and shows no signs of boredom. It is also something he will sit at for at least half an hour at a time so it’s not just a case of getting it out for 10 minutes before putting it away again. It is easy to take out and to tidy up and everything fits well into the sturdy box that it comes in.

This product is a little bit difficult for the younger child and I would say that for full use of the wheels that your child should be at least 4 and a half. My son has managed to get the hang of it now but he did need a bit of help to start with and a lot of patience and encouragement too. He got a bit frustrated to start with if the wheel moved out of the teeth, as it is difficult to line it up again.

It seems to be quite a sturdy toy although again younger children might need help to set it up so that the frames and wheels don’t get broken. They all come in their own plastic bags so you can easily keep track of everything.

***Price and Availability***

We got this product as part of a special offer from Early Learning Centre. It is priced at £8 on it’s own but could be bought along with Twirl and Paint for only £10.

Summary: Great reminder of another toy from the past.