Where has our children's imagination gone? Bring it back with these! (The First Years Stack'em Up Cups)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	The First Years Stack'em Up Cups
Date:	12/12/08 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything about them.

Disadvantages: Nothing! They are amazing!

Us adults spend time wondering why the children of this generation no longer play using their imagine and I do believe this is partly because of the toys they are given to play with.

I am a real fan of toys that encourage your child to use their imagination. So many toys these days have one function or the idea is that you press buttons and it talks or pretty lights flash. These are all well and good and I know they do help your child to learn but I still think a big box of building bricks or Duplo are much better because it encourages your child to think about what to do with them and there are so many things.

Last christmas I bought my son a set of these and my mum bought him the exact same ones from Morrisons. They cost me £3.99 and my son loved them and he even plays with them now a year later.

The ones he has are a set of twelve that fit inside each other and are made of sturdy plastic. They are all a different colour and on the bottom of each cup is an animal.

There are so many things that you can do with these cups and my son has even taught me a few different ways in which to use them.

Stacking.
Noah really enjoys building tall towers with these (hence the name 'stack em up cups'. He spends ages just building them up and knocking them down again. Not only is this so much fun but it also encourages a child to look at sizes. They learn to realise which is the biggest and so on. Because my son has done this exercise so many times he knows exactly which colour comes next, which takes me on to my next point.

Colours
Each of the pots are a different colour so Noah and I play a game called 'Fetch'. It has nothing to do with a dog although you could say Noah is the dog in this game. It's very simple! I say 'Fetch me the blue cup' and he tries to figure out which one is the blue one and gives it to me. We do this with all the colours but he isn't two yet so he only knows the colour blue at the moment. I'm sure he'll know all of the colours of the rainbow before long though:)

Bath time
Noah has a set of thes to play with in the water. He spends ages tipping and pouring (and drinking sometimes!) the water into each cup and he sometimes lines them up on the side of the bath which I don't encourage him to do because we end up with wet floors.

Sand
These are great for using in the sandpit. oah loves filling them up and making sand castles with them and again he likes tipping and pouring with them.

Cars
Noah is a huge lover of cars. He has tonnes of them and whenever we are in a shop he will always want another one. My hubby came home with some really cute tiny cars the other day. They fit Noah's hand perfectly. I walked into the dining room the other day and inside every pot was a car. He only had six of the tiny cars so he finished off using some of the die cast ones he had. This looked really boring to me but it kept him entertained for ages. Taking the cars out then lining up the pots and putting them back in again.

Snacks
These pots are not only great for playing with but I use them for Noah's snacks. The smaller ones are great for raisins and sometimes I give him cereal to snack on. The bigger ones are ideal for big chunks of banana and apple.

As you can see these pots are so versatile and I can garantee that you child will spend ages playing with them. It is one of the cheapest toys Noah has and I'm sure it's the one he has got the most value out of. Go and pick up a pack for your little baba!

Summary: A cheap versatile toy that I would recommend everyone buying for there child