Confessions of a Online Shopping Addict - Part 4!
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If you are still looking for activities to occupy your toddler during this holiday, like I am, here are some more ideas to help keep them busy and stimulated.
My daughter loves threading, we had the Topbright Threading set found on Amazon here https://amzn.to/3fSWGVj .This is a great kit as the strings are long which makes the threading more complicated and fun. It's also a great kit as the colours are strong and vibrant, the paintwork and finish is excellent, it helps to teach about colours, numbers and shapes. In addition to this, it contains some sensory beads, there is squeaky caterpillar head and a clicking flower. The sensory beads are quite unique to this brand and are a great idea to make threading more sensory and fun. The kit is quite versatile, as well as threading and being educational you can also use the beads for building towers.
Recently I had been looking to purchase some more threading kits that were educational and fun. After reading many reviews, weighing up the costs and looking at what each kit offered, I decided on the Tacobear Animal Threading Kit which you can find here https://amzn.to/3jFsheg. The Tacobear Kit is amazing, each bead is beautiful, colourful and in perfect working order. This set teaches about different animal groups, and you can also build with the beads as they balance on top of each other, although this is quite challenging. I never get very far with building as my daughter enjoys kicking them over! The only downside to the kit is the thread is not as long as the Topbright Thread, but that can be easily rectified by using the Topbright thread.
I also chose the Jacques of London Animal, Letter and Number Threading Set which is located @ https://amzn.to/3lPKFUa. Jacques is an established brand, so I was very disappointed to find such poor workmanship, for example, holes were not cut out, the paintwork was patchy, bits fell off the beads, some of the holes were rough and some of the holes were very tight which meant that my toddler could not push the thread through the bead and got very upset about this. I only just about managed to push the thread through! I picked this set to help teach the alphabet, but when the letters are on the thread, they are upside down, back to front etc as the holes are in very bizarre places, which isn't going to help to teach the alphabet. This could have easily been made so much better. You do get a lot in this kit, but the poor workmanship really lets it down. However, it can still be useful.
The added bonus of these threading kits are that they also help develop focus, concentration and fine motor skills and they are ideal for quiet time either during the day for a rest or before bedtime.
My daughter loves the Tacobear Threading set. She plays with this a lot.
As well as her love of threading, she loves her sticker books. As a fan of 'Hey Duggee' and 'Peppa Pig,' I recently bought her two humongous sticker books to keep her occupied on a recent meal out. She hasn't really had sticker books before now, but she absolutely loves these books. They are beautiful, they have great activities and plenty of spare stickers for you to play with. They certainly keep her occupied although the stickers are quite fiddly to get off the page, so she does need help with this. These are also great for quiet time, for developing focus and concentration and they are also educational as they have a range of educational activities. If you are a 'Duggee' fan, you can even earn badges for some tasks which is cute.
I hope this post has been helpful and interesting. Now I need to think of presents to buy my daughter for her third birthday next month. I need to reign myself in! She has changed so much recently that presents we had chosen are no longer appropriate, so it's back to the drawing board. We want something that is fun and something that is going to be educational, but I also want to get her a special keepsake. I would love to get her a "wow" present too, but I am currently uninspired. So my next affiliation post, will probably be about this. I am currently enjoying planning her dinosaur party. The food is sorted, so I am just working on the decorations. I love party planning! Again, I must try and reign myself in especially if I want to avoid a divorce. If you have any products that are entertaining and educational please share these at the bottom of this post, or on our Facebook or Insta group @theveganmummadiaries.