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ELC Foam Tennis Balls
by pmcds
Our eldest son is heavily into his racket sports. At 9, he does tennis, badminton and table tennis. However, tennis is by far and away the leader of these three for him. His 19 month old brother is copying everything he does, and he's quick to pick up a racket and start swinging at some tennis balls, and he's also keen to pick tennis ... balls up and start lobbing them everywhere. He has a good arm already!
So we looked at ways of encouraging this without causing risk of damage or injury, and looked around for some soft play balls. These ones seemed ideal, and we've always rated Early Learning Centre products very highly. This was no exception, and at £2 it was hardly going to break the bank.
The balls come in a pack of three different coloured balls, very similar in size to tennis balls. They're squeezy balls and so are easy to grip for little ones who don't quite get gravity and how a soft hands approach can help catch and hold balls. The three balls are red, yellow and blue, and they're highly entertaining, as most things are at that age!
We can spend plenty of time sitting on the floor with our youngest and passing these back and forth, but ultimately his attention span and comprehension aren't as good as our eldest's, so we appreciate it's going to be little and often when it comes to planned constructive games. The best way to enjoy these is in free play, where we take everything else out of the travel cot we have set up in the front room and just leave him in there with the three balls. This often results in a huge amount of fun as he tries to throw the balls out without us being able to catch them. It's teaching him great hand eye coordination and if he does throw one which flies at a bit of a different angle or hits one of us somewhere other than our hands, it doesn't hurt.
This is certainly not a game we'd play with proper tennis balls, although you can get hold of balls for junior players such as mini reds which are a lot squidgier. They're just not as ideal as these little foam balls are. We've found his confidence with tennis ball sized balls is growing rapidly, and he also has a small plastic racket that he plays floor tennis with alongside these balls. Most tennis coaches will tell you it's good for them to practice hitting the ball along the floor as this encourages the groundstroke motion that they'll need to develop later on, so this is ideal for them.
The only downside really with these is that they are much easier to destroy than real tennis balls. The particular worry with this is that if a child bites a tennis ball nothing much will happen, but it's significantly easier to take off a chunk of one of these balls with a bite. As long as you encourage them to play with them and they don't get bored and start wondering if they taste nice then you shouldn't have any problems. Of course, this is easier said than done and we have a number of bites taken out of these balls.
They're better quality than a lot of foam balls. They're a more durable type of foam, as if the material used is better bound to itself. With other foam balls you can sometimes pinch them to pick a bit off, but with these that's not as easy. I've tried it just to test how sturdy they are, and was reassured that had we opted for cheaper more substandard balls then we'd have been looking at bits of them strewn all over the place and not a clue that they once formed a tennis ball.
The other thing this can do is help with colours. If they're engaged with playing with these tennis balls, then it's ideal to be able to try to get them to isolate the right one when you ask for it. This of course will take some doing as they learn the colours, and it hasn't really worked with our 19 month old, but these are likely to last long enough for him to grasp the concept of colours and this will be another game we can play with him.
So, these balls are highly recommended. Quality design from ELC as always, and much more durable than other foam balls. They provide great fun, are great for developing hand eye coordination, and can also help with learning colours. Just be aware that they can (and probably will) be bitten. Thumbs up.
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Toy Story 3 Wheel Scooter
by novagirl291
When my daughter was younger, she craved a scooter. I found an offer where I could purchase 2 scooters for £20 so I bought her Waybuloo one and then this Toy Story Bubble Scooter for when my newborn son would be able to use it. Oh yes, I plan that far in advance sometimes!
Chunky, as he is fondly known in my house, turned 3 ... in January so I got the box from the loft and we began to assemble the scooter. It was easy to put together and I insisted that the instructions be followed as this one incorporates a bubble container on the back of the scooter. This needs 3 AA batteries which weren't included. It was soon ready for a test scoot as the stickers are already added to the plastic boards and metal frame. The front plaque
The 3 wheel design means it is ideal for younger children as they can concentrate on the action of "scootering" rather than having to balance as well. The grips on the handle bars are easy for the child to hold and the
In my opinion, bubbles are fun even on their own so when added with a scooter too I thought that both my children would love this. I wasn't wrong. The machine has an on/off switch that is easy for the child themselves to use. This is obviously an advantage in some ways but then they can't always hear the motor making strange noises when the mixture runs out. We used genuine bubble mixture rather than adding a bit of Fairy liquid to water and even then it produces a slight foam to start off with followed by a stream of small bubbles when the child scoots.
I was extremely pleased with this purchase until today. Chunky was taking part in a Sponsored Scoot to raise funds for his pre-school. Picture the scene. 25 under 4 year olds and then my son's back axle decides to chuck one of his wheels off. On closer inspection, the nuts that hold the wheels onto the axle seem to come undone extremely easily so even though my son had used it for a few weeks at home, I hadn't even thought to check. I know, I know, naughty Mummy should have given it an MOT before the event. On a plus note, the wheels are made of very stong plastic that when it fell off, it didn't crack or break.
If you do purchase this scooter, I would really recommend that you keep an eye on that as it was put together correctly. It has now been mended and is working fine again but I shall certainly be looking at the thread on that axle each time he uses it.
Like most parents or carers, you end up carrying whatever toy they have opted to take out with them. I didn't mind carrying this as it isn't too heavy at 2.9kg.
This will possibly last Chunky until the age of about 5 but most other children until 6years of age.
An average purchase and would recommend if you can pick one up cheaply.
(Also appears on ciao)
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