Christmas always gives me a good excuse to look for new toys for the kids and you know how I’m always looking for toys which offer open-ended play because such toys are remarkably versatile, allow plenty of room for creativity and imagination and are value for money. This festive season, I found just what I was looking for – the Bilibo, the Bilibo Game Box and Pluï – The Rainball™. These three toys have different uses and offer children fun both indoors and outdoors, waterplay included(!), and we can work on both gross and fine motor skills.

When the toys arrived, the packaging was ripped apart in no time. We decided to start off by just introducing the Bilibo and the mini Bilibos for the night and already someone was screaming in excitement! –

The first question I got from my girl about the Bilibo was, “Mummy, what is this?”, followed by “so what do I do with this?”. She quickly found her answer to the second question –

This post is going to be so filled with pictures of fun because there’s so much I can do with these toys and the kids look so cute in every shot. You’ll indulge me while the pictures do the explanation of how to play with the toys, right?

We passed the mini Bilibos to litte boy to see what he’d do with them. Instinctively, he started stacking –

Daddy started to teach them to spin the mini bilibos – now let’s guess which mini bilibo stops spinning first! –

Having a go at spinning the mini bilibos with much success!:

Back to the question – so what is this toy supposed to be? Well, my girl found some answers that night on her own.

You can stand and balance on it –

Sit on it like a stool –

Put it over the head and she’s an alien –

  And she loved this best – pretending to be a turtle 🙂

Spot the odd one out –

Pretending that it’s raining and seeking shelter –

Lounging in her ‘hammock’ –

And of course the mini Bilibo serves as a hat for her –

And the mini Bilibo can be transformed to a ‘mask’! –

But my little Man has his own ideas (as usual!) about how to play with the mini Bilibo –

Then we took turns to slot the mini Bilibos into the Bilibo! So much fun! Retrieving a mini Bilibo from under the Bilibo –

What else did we do with these marvelous toys?

We sorted our beanbag turtles according to the colours with a twist – it was quite fun to try to take aim and throw a turtle into the mini Bilibo (great for gross motor skills and estimation).

The mini Bilibos doubled up as pots and bowls in the kids’ play kitchen –

And it was time to let the kids play with the Bilibo game box which the mini Bilibos came with. We had kept the small parts for the next day’s exploration, and here’s what we did with them!

Apart from the 6 mini Bilibos, the Bilibo game box comes with a total of 36 coloured discs, 6 of each colour (similar to the mini Bilibos). The first thing we did? Well, we just had to sort them, it was just too instinctive –

We sorted and then we slotted! My little girl decided that she’d slot the discs into the Bilibo. Make way, make way! Postlady’s delivering ‘letters’!

She stuck a stick through the discs –

And since she started on the stringing bit, I made her a safe ‘needle’ to practise threading. She was feeling lazy so she only threaded through one of the two holes in the discs.

You can practise fine motor skills with this one, make a necklace as an end product, get the kid to practise logical reasoning for sequencing discs (e.g. blue-red-yellow-blue-?-yellow) etc.

We counted and placed the correct number of discs on the paper plates (1-1 correspondence) –

Getting the discs out from the pixel dice proved to be quite a challenge for my girl but it’s good for practising those finger muscles. For awhile, discs were flying about the house as she couldn’t control the amount of strength she applied and just flicked them out of the dice. It was quite a sight and really hilarious! In the end she preferred slotting them back into the dice though. 🙂

And I just couldn’t resist coming up with a game using the pixel dice! You can do anything with this dice. We like silly games which incorporate practising some skills so here’s our list! Roll the dice and just play!:

What do you do when you’re done playing? Simply keep the discs and the pixel dice into this handy little bag! Little man demonstrating how it’s done (without doing a good job of the keeping bit) –

We brought our Bilibos outdoors during our recent staycation and had a blast with them!

At the pool

 

At the Beach:

 

You can, by now, tell that these Bilibos, whether big or small, are extremely versatile and can be enjoyed indoors and outdoors!

Pluï – The Rainball™

Now which kid doesn’t like waterplay?? My kids love waterplay and this water toy with a touch of physics really appealed to them (and their daddy who’s a college Physics teacher)!

To fill the Pluï up with water, simply immerse it in a small bucket of water. Air bubbles will rush out from the top hole, making cute sounds that really amused my kids. Now take it out from the water and the water inside will start trickling out from the many holes below. But, something magical happens when you place your finger on the top hole – the water stops trickling from below! Why so? Now here’s the explanation from Mr. Physics at home: when the water trickles out from the holes below, something (air) has to go in to fill up the space, so can you guess what will happen when you prevent air from going in by sealing the top hole with your finger? 🙂

Now here’s the BEST part!:

Stand a chance to win Bloom & Grow’s exclusive Standard Bilibo just by telling us in one sentence why you would like to win this item worth $44.90. Send in your details in the following format to  ruth@tickledmedia.com:

1. Full Name

2. Residential Address

3. Email

4. Contact Number

5. Tell us in one sentence why would you like to win a Standard Bilibo worth $44.90

6. Promo Code : simplymommie.com

Remember, commenting on this blog post does not get you a chance of winning for this giveaway. You need to send in your particulars in the above format to  ruth@tickledmedia.com. 🙂

Giveaway ends 31 December 2012 and is open only to those residing in Singapore.

The products are available at the following stores:

1)    Motherswork
2)    Baby Online
3)    NicheBabies

Disclosure: This is an advertorial. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.