Present buying is now in full swing

Time for choosing and wrapping

And the anticipation of giving

Esther and William are at a funny age and stage for presents

They change their mind so often about what they would like Father Christmas to bring

One thing that I love doing is stuffing their stockings

In fact they have two each

A small one that they hang at the foot of their bed

And a larger one that hangs by the fire

Beside Rudolph’s carrot

And Santa’s mince pie

In their stockings they will find all sorts of things

Funny things

Useful things

Edible things

Educational things

For educational Christmas presents I love to browse TTS

But I have also been recently made aware of Science 4 You

Have you?

Science For You Toys sent us a selection of their products to review

Some alphabet cubes

First Words in English card game

and some Crazy Jelly (which is really very cool!)

Crazy Jelly comes in two varieties, Colour Change and Glow in the Dark

The tubs of Crazy Jelly would make great stocking fillers this Christmas. The jelly is shiny and smooth. It feels firm and yet is malleable. Esther and William could pull it and mould it, stretch it and squidge it. It is a wonderful sensory substance and as it warms in your hands it changes colour which is magical for little children.

The jelly does not make a mess and it is something you can keep in your bag to occupy little hands in a restaurant or on a plane or train.

The Glow in the Dark jelly is also great fun. It needs to be charged by a light source before played with in darkness. We used this on bonfire night when we were waiting for our village fireworks to start and Esther and William loved it. Playing in the dark is always exciting but having this fantastic stuff to squelch and squerch and model with was wonderful wonderful fun.

Science 4 You Toys also sent us some alphabet cubes to review. At £6.99 these bright plastic letter blocks would make a great stocking filler. Because they are plastic they are perfect to use in messy and sensory play activities. I plan to use them lots and lots with Esther and William now that they are coming home from school for home learning most afternoons.

The cubes are great for phonics activities, spelling out cvc words, blending and segmenting chunks of sound to make real and nonsense words. Esther and William love to laugh at each other as they create and sound out silly words.

They can also be used for building towers and walls.

They can be used for learning the alphabet and for sorting activities using alphabetical order.

A lovely complimentary activity is Science 4 You’s word and picture cards. These cards are perfect for matching simple words to pictures. The set costs £6.99 and would fit nicely in a little person’s stocking.

Esther and William love to play snap with these cards. They also love to play memory games.

Most of all they love to lay out all the picture cards on the playroom floor and then race to match up words to the correct pictures.

This is great because it exercises their body as well as their brain.

These cards are great for learning to read and spell some common English words. My heart swells when I see Esther and William sounding out new words with their recently acquired phonics skills.

Science 4 You Toys has a lovely range of educational toys and activities to keep little minds busy this Christmas.

We love the look of these Slippery Slugs and this 3D Colours Factory.

What would you or your little one choose?

Bea’s favourite is definitely the cubes!

We were sent alphabet cubes, word cards and crazy jelly for the purpose of this review