| Product: |
Toybox |
| Date: |
26/05/01 (443 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Lots to see and do
Disadvantages: Can't see any
My son is nearly 3 years old, for the past 3 or 4 months he's been drawn to the children's magazines in the shops, OK what initially draws him in is the free gift on the front cover, but lately he's got a bit more discerning!!
Toybox is a BBC magazine, therefore it has all the BBC favourites in it, such as: Tweenies, Bill & Ben, Teletubbies, Bob the Builder, El Nombre (who?!), Playdays, 64 Zoo Lane, Noddy, William's Wish Wellingtons, Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and more. So there should be plenty that your child will recognise and love.
STORIES
In the May edition there are stories on the Tweenies, Fireman Sam, Postman Pat and Anglemouse. The Tweenies and Postman Pat stories have more writing than pictures and the Fireman Sam and Anglemouse have more pictures with less text.
COMPETITIONS
There's a chance to win some Bill & Ben books by filling in some missing letters to make up a word.
ACTIVITIES
There's a sort of mini-crossword based on Bob the Builder. There's pictures of certain characters/object and each has a number beside them. You get your child to name the character/object and then write that word into the correct place. The answers are down the bottom of the page along with some brief instructions to help you help your child.
There's a page to colour in the Teletubbies.
There's a find the shape picture, to help your child recognise circles, squares etc.
There's a Bill & Ben game, where you can throw a dice to move along the numbered pots.
There's a pizza recipe to make.
There's putting words to pictures game, with four pictures with a sentence underneath with a missing word. There are four words to choose from at the bottom of the page.
There's a spot the difference.
There's a rhyming game which has pictures such as Bee and Tree. Your child has to draw a line between the wo
rds that rhyme.
Then, of course, there's the letter's page where your little darling can send in a picture of their favorite character, for which they get a little prize if their picture is shown.
What I like about this magazine is that there's so much variety. Not only with the characters contained in it, but the amount of things to do. It's not just all stories, there's plenty of things to get your child's brain working. All the activities have little instructions at the bottom which I think is a really good idea, i.e. on the Find the Shape the instructions are:
"This puzzle requires children to focus on the small detail involved in the picture. Encourage them to point to other shapes that they can see in the picture. You can extend the activity by prompting older children to think of everyday things which are similar in shape to those found here, for example, round, square etc."
I know that most of us parents could work out what to do with the activities in the first place, but it does help you understand what the child is learning from what particular activity they're doing.
Toybox is available monthly for a cost of £1.10, which includes a free gift. This month's free gift was a little paint pallette and brush.
Summary:
|
|
