We are a family on the go
And wherever we go the children like to play
William will often take trains
Esther fairies and ponies
It is nice when we go out
Or go away
To have something new to discover
And play
I like to buy surprises for the children
That link to the places that we go
When we went Coombe Mill
Back in April 2015
I took both Esther and William
A new toy in a tin
From the rather fabulous The Wooden Play Den
Esther had a farm
And William a fishing port
I have to be honest
William has shown no interest in either set
But Esther adores them both
And I think that
and
Are perfectly portable travel toys
Totally topical for farm visits
Or trips to the sea
These miniature sets are perfect for small world play
Super for storytelling
And make great gifts for family and friends
For any children aged 4 and over
The intricacy and delicacy of the sets
Definitely appeals more to Esther than to William
She loves to arrange the sets
She acts out stories
Bringing the scenes to life
We have also used the pieces as stencils
For drawing around, labelling and colouring
These toys in a tin offer
Lots of potential for imaginative and creative play
As do many of the toys available from The Wooden Play Den
When we were at Coombe Mill
Esther used to use the farm set
To act out her own version of The Feed Run
She loved setting out all the pieces
And acting out in this mini play world
The things that we had done on the farm each day
We have also used the set to act out some of our favourite farm stories
And to accompany some of our best loved rhymes and songs
These complete scenes in tins are also great accessories
For making animated films
Which we love to do using Zu3D on the iPad
The wooden pieces are beautifully made
And painted beautifully with lots of little details
They are great for budding photographers
To arrange and capture on film
We love to talk about together
We always talk about naughty seagulls
In Mousehole and Polperrro
We have encountered greedy gulls
Trying to pinch our picnics
And we also know them from the stories of
The Lighthouse Keeper
I think there are ways to engage William with these toys
Using train track to connect the farm to the port
Talking about transporting goods to and fro by train
Linking the tins to stories and sharing the books together
Adding the sets to a messy or sensory small world experience
But he certainly has not got as much from the sets as Esther thus far
Esther is much more still and focused than William
She will find a quiet corner to set up and play
And then she will immerse herself in her imaginary world
These beautiful wooden toys in tins
Are perfect for traditional imaginative
Small world play
And the tins make them perfect for taking away
On holiday or to the homes of family and friends
They are also great for restaurants as along with the wooden pieces
The tin contains a play mat
Which means that the noise from the wooden set is softened by the felt
A lovely toy for travelling
A perfect present
One to set imaginations spinning
And to encourage real life role play
Home or away
We were sent Farm in a Tin and Fishing Port in a Tin for the purpose of this review
I love the look of the fishing boat one, nice to see something a bit different 🙂