Noah is a fan of sensory play, and I try to give him a variety of sensory bins to play with, whenever possible. (What are sensory bins, you ask? Check out this post to see the sensory bins that I’ve made for Noah!) However, I must confess that I resisted giving him playdough for a really long time. Initially, I tried making my own playdough for him, because I didn’t like the smell of commercial ones, but after two not-very-successful batches of homemade playdough, I caved and bought him the commercial ones.
When Noah was younger, I was afraid that he would try to eat the playdough, which was also one of the reasons why I tried making my own. I followed supposedly fail-proof recipes that I found online, but somehow, the dough didn’t seem very nice to play with. Anyway, now that he’s older, I’m not worried that he’ll eat the playdough, but I still don’t like letting him play with playdough that often, as he makes such a huge mess each time! Even though I give him a mat to contain the mess, tiny bits of the playdough will somehow end up all over the table, chair, and floor. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help nagging reminding him to be careful when he plays with the playdough, which I guess kinda defeats the purpose of letting him play.
When I saw that Tickle Your Senses had homemade playdough, I was intrigued. The playdough is made with food-grade ingredients, is taste-safe for the young, totally non-toxic, smells great (if you get the ones scented with essential oils), and is customisable based on colours you like. Sounded pretty good already, and I decided to try it because it supposedly doesn’t flake off into bits easily. That’s probably the main thing that mums of preschoolers care about, since the kids are old enough to know that they shouldn’t be eating the playdough.
I spent some time trying to decide which Playdough Kit to get for Noah, because everything looked so adorable! In the end, I decided on the Vehicles Playdough Kit, since he loves vehicles of all sorts.
Vehicles Playdough Kit
“What’s inside the box, mummy?”
He couldn’t wait to start playing!
Using the cutters
He liked making patterns with the roller
So did the playdough crumble into little pieces easily? Nope. The texture of the playdough seems different from the commercial one’s, and there definitely wasn’t the weird, sickly-sweet smell. Noah had a lot of fun rolling the playdough, squishing it flat with his hands, and using the cutters to cut different vehicles out from the playdough. I suggested using the roller to make “roads” on the playdough, but he was more interested in making patterns and cutting the playdough into pieces, so I let him be. After all, it’s about how he wants to play with it, isn’t it?
I purchased a Body Parts Set because it looked really cute, and I thought it would provide a bit of variety, since he usually only plays with cutters and rollers. The Body Parts Set includes an extruder, which Noah was fascinated with, since he hasn’t played with one before. Once I showed him how to use it, he kept insisting on “making more hair” for the “funny monster” that he was busy creating! He had a field day trying to decide which features to give the “funny monster”, and giggled away as he tried the different body parts on it.
Body Parts Set
Making his “funny monster”
Playing with the extruder
With his “funny monster”
The haze has been keeping us indoors quite a bit, and on one such day, Noah requested for some water play. I previously bought some water beads from Daiso for him to play with, but a friend told me that it might be better to use non-toxic water beads instead, so I was glad to see that the water beads provided by Tickle Your Senses are non-toxic, biodegradable, and firm-textured. Noah loves squishing the water beads with his hands and fingers, so I appreciated the firm-textured bit more, as that would mean that they weren’t as easily destroyed as the ones from Daiso.
I chose the Yellow Vehicles Waterbeads Kit from their selection of 11 kits, and it came with a container of pre-soaked water beads, for instant fun. There’s also a small packet of unsoaked beads, so that we can watch them grow, but we haven’t tried that out yet, because the jar of pre-soaked water beads has been keeping Noah sufficiently entertained. I’m saving the pack of unsoaked beads for the upcoming school holidays!
Yellow Vehicles Waterbeads Kit
Unsoaked water beads and instructions
I really liked the scoop and strainer that came with the kit, as they are bigger than the ones I bought from Daiso, and seem to be of sturdier quality. Noah was really busy scooping and pouring the water beads with them! That was before he decided that it would be more fun to use his hands to play with the water beads, of course. I gave him a small bucket and cup, to let him practise pouring the beads into a smaller container, and that kept him occupied for quite a while. When he was done with that, he started filling up the water squirters, and playing with them, so I think this water beads kit is really a great way to keep children occupied!
Scooping and Pouring
Exploring the water beads with his hands
Driving the water squirters around
Zoom…
“Quick, we need to put out the fire!”
Needless to say, he was all wet after playing with this water beads kit, but he was soooo happy! Water play is lots of fun, and because I park him in the bathroom for it, there’s very little mess to deal with. I usually bathe him after he’s done with his water play sessions, so cleaning up is rather effortless. I did notice that the water beads expanded even more after being soaked in the water, so you might want to get a larger container to store them after each session. I got mine from Daiso, and the tray that Noah uses to play with the water beads is from Ikea.
The school holidays are around the corner, and I foresee us playing with both the playdough and water beads kits a lot more during the break! If you’re looking for Christmas gifts, do take a look at the Christmas Playkits lovingly prepared by the Tickle Your Senses team. They’ve just launched their pre-orders for the ‘Build-A-Snowman’ Playdough Kit, which comes with a nice range of 28 pieces of accessories, as well as the Christmas Duckies Waterbeads kit, in the Christmas season’s colors of vibrant red and green.
Pre-orders will close by 29th November 2015, and the Christmas kits can be delivered on either the 1st or 3rd week of December, depending on when your Christmas parties are held. You can also key in the special code “ticklemesanta” in the Comments Box on the Tickle Your Senses website, to get a FREE 3-piece accessories set for every two Christmas kits purchased, when you pre-order the Christmas kits.
Happy shopping!
SPECIAL GIVEAWAY FOR READERS OF GROWING WITH THE TANS
The lovely mums from Tickle Your Senses are giving away two sensory play kits (one playdough kit and one waterbeads kit) to two lucky readers of Growing with the Tans! To enter, please complete the rafflecopter widget below. Terms and conditions apply.
Terms and Conditions: This giveaway will end on Thursday, 19th November 2015, at 2359h, and is open to Singapore residents only. The winner will be contacted via the particulars provided when entering this giveaway, and will have 24 hours to respond, failing which a new winner will be selected. All incomplete entries will be disqualified, and all entries will be verified before the winner is announced. To be fair to our sponsor, please note that all fake Facebook accounts (accounts set up purely to take part in contests, with no or very few real friends), will be disqualified. This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
*Disclaimer: We received the Vehicles Playdough Kit and Yellow Vehicles Waterbeads Kit for the purpose of this review. I purchased the Body Parts set because it looked really fun too! All photos and opinions are, as always, our own.
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