**This is a review of items received from Galt Toys. No compensation was given to write this review. All opinions are my own**
Baby J was so excited when a big box came in the mail for her. She did not know but there were toys inside that were designed to help
her learn developmental skills while playing. My first thought was “how do you encourage learning through playing”? Isn’t all playing learning? I thought it was interesting that I had instructions that came with the toys on HOW to play with them. I have raised a son so of course like any experienced parent, I thought I knew it all when it came to playing. But these toys teach a parent how to play efficiently with your child and for my daughter, I could use any help I could get. She is a firecracker and is very independent but I wanted the toys to be used in a beneficial way. I first let her just have at it and experience the toys while I read the play guide booklets that accompanied them. It was interesting to see that what looked like such simple toys, really had benefits to develop my little Bean’s cognitive and imaginative skills. Her is a synopsis of our experience with the toys and what they are designed to do:
Song Bird-One of seven soft toys in the Dr. Miriam line, the Song Bird was the first toy Jicelle played with. It has taken her some time, but she is able to now push on the tail to make it squeak. It’s belly tweets, which Jicelle now mimics (one of the things the toy should teach according to the play guide). The toy is designed to develop the concept of a bird, and memorize the bird’s features. It also helps to teach toddlers to eventually name the parts of the bird (we are still working on that part).
First Farmyard Puzzle-One of seven hard toys, Baby J gets very frustrated with this one but we are progressing. She thinks it is very funny when I make the animal sounds. Since the pieces are hard, I have to make sure to duck and dodge when she decides she is going to throw or slam the pieces. Just like the song bird, it teaches concepts of what the animals are as well as memorizing the different parts and sounds. Naming, recognition and hand eye coordination are also part of the learning points of this toy. Jicelle is very tiny still and does not have the hand-eye coordination to put the pieces back in the puzzle so she grunts and hands them to me to put them back in their proper places. This one will definitely take a little more work.
Lastly are the Stacking cups-One of seven plastic toys, these have been the most fun for us. We have been playing with these just about
everyday. There are constantly plastic cups all over the playroom floor. Jicelles’ big brother has even taking a liking to them when playing with her. She has so much fun figuring out which size goes next when she nests them or stacks them. There is even a little flower that goes on top when they are stacked. This toy teaches baby the concepts of big, tall high, low, etc. It also teaches about memory with naming colors and remembering which ones are what colors. It has definitely helped with her dexterity as she is almost able to stack them without knocking them over. These will continue to be a favorite.
Galt toys is a UK based toy company established by James Galt over 175 years ago.They sell toys that cater to ages 0-10 years. They have even won some awards for their Playnest and Tiny Trike lines. Their line of 21 toys developed by Dr. Miriam Stoppard is aimed at teaching to learn while playing. More information can be found at their website: http://www.galttoys.com
Thank you Galt Toys for providing us with the opportunity to check out some of your fun products!
