Thursday 7 October 2010

More than Play- Step Start Walk 'N Ride, Playskool Review



ZOOOOOOOOM!
 Your child will love zipping around on his Step Start Walk ’N Ride. With bright colors and fun accessories to pull, twist, spin and roll, this colorful toy provides multiple ways to teach and entertain your child. Best of all, it’s two toys in one! Once your child masters walking and pushing the Step Start Walk ’n Ride, it transforms into a fun riding toy. He can pretend he’s just like mom and dad, driving along in his own car! This toy also encourages important developmental skills, including spatial awareness, fundamental movement skills and more!


When Playskool contacted me recently to review their Step Start Walk 'N Ride, I didn't hesitate to accept.

Che's first birthday is later this month, so this is the perfect product to help him with his next milestone. Walking.

The Step Start Walk 'N Ride is easy to put together. Ten minutes after opening the box, we had the finished product!

The bright colours instantly attracted the attention of my little man and he army crawled like Action Man to his new toy. He focused on the rattle roller and the little spinning 'windmill ball'.



Forming a ride on 'car', Che loved sitting on it and enjoyed going for little rides around the living room. This was of course, before Bailey decided that she just had to have a turn for herself as Che seemed to be having far too much fun!



Once I had wrestled the Step Start Walk 'N Ride off of the 3 year old, I converted it into the walker.
This really is the simplest thing to do, you just pull a sliding lever and lift the seat of the car up, the handle clicks into place forming a sturdy walking aide. To form the ride on car again you simply pull the very same sliding lever and push the handle up and click into place again.

Che has decided that he isn't quite ready for the walking stage as yet and although (when I was holding the Walk 'N Ride) he loved standing holding on to it, he hasn't developed the skill of moving his legs. Favouring to push the walker with feet firmly fixed to the same spot, Che decided to try a new kind of maneuver which involved quite a bit of nose diving.



Bailey, however, has decided that Ashley's Winnie (the Pooh) fits quite nicely into the 'boot' of the car and she can take him for a ride or (when in walker mode) push him about like he's in a baby pram!

The Step Start Walk 'N Ride is smaller then I expected. Having said that, I find this a huge plus point. I have four children and each have their own toys and bits and bobs around the house so having something that is more compact then other similar products on the market is great for people struggling to find a spare bit of carpet. When in 'car' mode, it fits very neatly under Che's highchair!

Overall, I like this product and Che and Bailey seem to be entertained for hours by it. I like that it is a 'two-in-one' product and the design, although simple is perfect for exploring children and their busy mums (there's no faffing about with instructions trying to work out how to convert it)

This Walk 'N Ride also promotes the following (taken from Playskool's website)
Fundamental Movement Skills
Balance
As if this wasn't good enough, the lovely people at Playskool have generously given me a link to a whopping 50% off of their products until the 21st October!

So if you are off out looking for birthday or even early bird Christmas presents for your family and friends, don't forget to click the link below!

(Please read the T&C's)

Sunday 3 October 2010

The Big Zing!



ZingZillas is a music show set on a tropical island where everyone joins in to create ZingZilla music magic. With musical influences spanning the globe from rock to soul, jazz to samba, big band to orchestra, ZingZillas will get its young listeners jumping, swaying and trilling to music from the world over.Zak, Tang, Panzee and Drum are music sensation ZingZillas. On their island paradise, this band of primate friends live to play fantastic music. With the help of their mentor, music guru DJ Loose, they create their unique ZingZilla sound just in time for their daily performance, The Big Zing.As well as these regular island dwellers, the island is visited in every episode by a different musical guest. The ZingZillas always discover their musical guests in a lush jungle glade which pulsates with music. They take inspiration from the guests and incorporate them and their sounds into The Big Zing.


I have to admit that ZingZillas is a very new prospect for my household. Favouring Nick Jr and Playhouse Disney to Cbeebies, the children have only just discovered this lively show. And they absolutely love it!

The 3 year old, on a recent trip to Toys r Us decided to purchase a ZingZillas jigsaw puzzle with her birthday money, so when I was asked to review their new album I knew that I would be making someone very happy!

As soon as I opened the package and pulled out the CD, uniquely called 'ZingZillas -The Album' Bailey's little eyes lit up and she told me in no uncertain terms that before anything else happened this CD must be played!

With the ever catchy 'ZingZillas Theme' being the number one track, we were off to a flying start. Che instantly stopped playing with his building blocks and started nodding his head along to the music. Bailey was beyond herself and clearly couldn't contain her excitement. She was racing around the living room, jumping up and down, and shaking her little butt like crazy! (stupidly cute!)

As we listened to each of the songs in turn, several times in a row, "coz they might disappear by magic, Mumma" I have to admit that even I started to join in with my crazed toddler!

When the older girls returned home from school, they too loved this album and repeatedly asked for it to be played while all four of the children boogied away happily.

From a parent's perspective, I was amazed by how many songs are included on this disc (26 tracks).
I was also pleasantly surprised (having never actually watched a full episode of the programme) by how educational some of the songs were (Track, 13 'Litter, Litter, Litter', for example).

This album is current and very culturally diverse, including bhangra, rock, opera. scat, and flamenco, which really appeals to me being a big music lover. The children love the fact that all the songs have different sounds, which isn't the case with other children's show albums.

We've had the ZingZillas album now for almost a week and none of the children (and much more importantly, me!) haven't tired of it. Bailey in particular comes down each morning, heads for the CD player and tells me to "put the monkey music on, Mumma".

So a very big thumbs up from my four little helpers, and a definite favourite all round.
I have not been left pulling my hair out or searching for the ear plugs, so as kids albums go, this one hits the number one spot.

ZingZillas - The Album, is out Monday 4th October 2010.