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ELC Magnetic Letters
by loulou22
Early Learning Centre Magnetic Letters
When my brother started school my mum decided to purchase some magnetic letters for the fridge to not only contribute to the ever growing collection of fridge magnets but also to help him when he was learning to spell.
My mum decided to buy him the Early Learning Centre ... Magnetic Letters. She decided to buy both the upper case and lower case versions of the letters. Upper and lower case letters are sold seperately to each other.
The Early Learning Centre Magnetic Letters come in a plastic round tub with a screw on lid. Due to the tub being round there are no sharp corners meaning your child can handle it safely.
The lid to the tub is really easy to unscrew and could possibly be undone by little hands so due to the letters being only around 1 inch in size and the magnet parts of them only being around 1 cm I would advise you to supervise younger children playing with the letters.
I think the size of the letters is ideal as they are easy for little hands to grab hold of and they are large enough to make them difficult to swallow, I would say impossible but I wouldn't put anything past children! So far, none of our magnetic letters have lost any of their magnets and we do check them regularly.
Each tub contains a total of 68 letters. There is at least 2 of each letter and more of the vowels. This is good as we only need one tub to be able to spell most words. The letters in the tubs are a multitude of bright colours, mainly shades of red, orange, blue, green and yellow.
So, the use of our magnetic letters...
Upon arriving home from work one day to discover a few letters stuck to the fridge to spell 'JAMES' and 'MUM' I took it upon myself to raid the cupboards to find where my mum had hidden the rest of the letters. Eventually I found them in their round plastic tub hiding cleverly behind a couple of boxes of cereal...
"Nice hiding place mum... but I know you well!"
I then proceeded to unscrew the lid of the tub and happily empty the contents onto the work surface. Shifting through the letters I eventually managed to make 'LOUISE' and took great pleasure in placing my name above theirs!
Since that day both the upper case and lower case letters have been emptied out of their tubs and the fridge now looks like a bowl of alphabet spaghetti! When James was learning smaller words at school I would often come home to read 'DOG' 'BOOK' 'CAT' and various attempts at spelling 'JAMES'
James is now 9 and can spell his name, he generally doesn't use the letters anymore and they have instead become a source of amusement for myself and my friends as well as being used by my mum when she cannot find a pen to add things to her shopping list!
The guidance age for the Early Learning Centre Magnetic Letters is 3+. I would agree with this age, but only under supervision just in case a magnet does come out for some reason. As I said earlier, this has not happened to us but you never can be too careful!
I don't know how much my mum paid for these letters around 4 years ago but they are currently on the Early Learning website for £6 per tub. I think this is a good price for the amount of letters you get and the amount of fun that can be had from them.
I would recommend the Early Learning Centre Magnetic Letters as they have helped my brother with his spelling and they have been fun for him along the way. They were good when he was younger as he could learn to spell words while he was still learning his letter formation. So, overall a great purchase by my mum and a recommendation from me.
Thanks for reading! :)
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Tangle Creations Jr Textured
by azana
If you've ever idly doodled or tapped a pen whilst trying to concentrate on something else then you know how it can help focus your mind. That's the idea behind this tangle jr, a fiddle toy, which is designed to be used by children or adults to help them concentrate or to distract from more negative behaviours, or on a basic level just ... to play with. I bought a tangler for £4.35 a few months ago when I wanted to distract one of my children from pulling on, and pulling out her own hair when anxious or distracted. This kind of toy can also be used by children who have autism or ADHD and is apparently also given out in packs to those trying to stop smoking. The tangle jr is more than just another toy it's instant distraction for the brain and total occupation for restless hands.
What's in the Box?
The actual teaser I have is made up of orange, blue, green and clear plastic- it's latex and lead free. The Tangle is available in lots of different finishes and sizes, ours has some pieces that are smooth and others that are lumpy for lots of tactile stimulation, you can also buy tanglers in hairy, glow in the dark, or shiny finishes and larger sizes. The tangle jr is made up of 18 links which are all 2cm long and a 90 degree curved angle and is just the right size to fit into a bag or pocket - when coiled up it's only about 5cm long. All the pieces of the Tangle jr all fit together and pivot so what you get is a curved, wavy circle that can turn in on itself and be manipulated into various different shapes and curves. There's no beginning or end to the toy - it's easier to understand by picking it up than trying to explain but basically the tangler jr is a toy that is just made to be fiddled with. As soon as you pick it up it's pretty hard to put down, you end up working out how to coil it up or make different shapes - within a couple of minutes of owning it my daughter had worked out how to shape it into glasses - the great thing about this toy is that it's simple and intuitive in equal measures.
Any Good in Practice?
As a distraction aid, in my experience this toy works well. For my daughter it seems to be a real calming item. As the links can be unclipped she often will clip it onto a belt hook for fiddling with in idle moments and she also likes taking it apart and reassembling it in different colour variations or making smaller links with it. The fact that it can be taken apart does mean it's not really suitable for under 3's. It's not a toy that makes any noise or which is complex at all - it is well made for what it is and the plastic seems to be very solid as it's been assembled and taken apart many times, and fiddled with a fair amount with no visible damage so far and, surprisingly no lost links.
Recommend?
I think that the tangler, which I suppose is part puzzle, part game and mainly just unputdownable whoever you are, is an excellent item. We find that my daughter will go through phases of using it and then it may lie unused for days. It's quite a good thing to have ready when we want her to switch off and relax - we plan to buy one for our other daughter to see if it will reduce her thumb sucking. Although neither of my children particularly need this item at school I have also seen it used by a child of secondary school age to help them focus, to good effect - it's quite a discrete and non babyish looking item that could be useful to anyone needing focus or distraction, whatever their age.
Like all the best toys this item is simple, addictive and most of all great fun - highly recommended whatever your age and needs, every home should have one!
For more details here: www.tanglecreations.com
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ELC Jingle Bells
by kama0529
My little munchkin, who is now three years old, is at that stage where he's wanting to express himself as loudly as possible. We bought him a number of musical instruments (the toy kind!) so that he could express himself in that way rather than screaming around the house.....and while I think he's benefitted from having the instruments, ... he hasn't stopped screaming around the house. So now we have his voice as well as his melodic musical tones!
Among the instruments we bought him were two ELC jungle bells which cost me £3.00 each. I didn't feel that £3.00 was a bad price, especially as the ELC tend to make really high quality products, but it was probably slightly more than I would usually have guessed from the ELC. They come in a variety of colours, and we have a blue and a red one which were the colours that he opted for. They essentially are three bells (bigger versions of the kind of bells you see on a cat collar) that are then attached to a handle and so you shake them and they make a jungle sound.
The handle is made of plastic and is bulky enough and lightweight enough for a small child to grip onto. It doesn't take a lot of dexterity to be able to hold onto the handle and shake it about and so I would imagine that most children would deal with this, although the recommendation is to not give this to kids under 36 months (although supervised I couldn't see a problem). The bells are well attached and no matter how much abuse that is inflicted upon the instrument they always seem to stay in one piece. There are no sharp bits not the Jingle Bells and so unless they hit each other with them I can't see how they could inflict any damage!
The sound is okay.....not too irritating and not to loud, but loud enough to make a child feel heard. They are also good just for encouraging musicality and teaching a child about rhythm and different sounds. I do recommend them but I think they need to be bought in conjunction with some other instruments. It's a shame that the ELC hasn't done a musical instrument pack where you could buy several instruments that complement each other at a reduced price.
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