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Why are Blippi Toys popular?!

With millions of followers and millions of views, Blippi is one of the main forms of educational entertainment for kids on YouTube these days.

If you have been wondering what the best Blippi toys Australia has to offer are that is what I am here to share with you today.

As a parent, I have watched more than my fair share of Blippi videos with the kids and I can see the appeal. They are bright, funny and most of them do have some kind of message or educational value too.

So, as much as these videos and songs may drive you nuts at least you know your kids are learning a thing or two when they have been glued to the YouTube Blippi channel for 986394 hours straight!

Blippi Gift Ideas For Your Kids

There are many great Blippi toys out there, but I wanted to share with you a few that my kids have played around with and had fun with while doing so.

These are part of the science kit range from Blippi and they are a great way for children to take an interest in science at an early age and this is all thanks to you the YouTube Blippi channel! Who would have thought it?

All of the products that we are looking at today are suitable for children ages 3 and up.

Blippi My First Science Kit - Five Senses:

The first one I want to talk about is one that my son had a great time with and that is the Blippi My First Science Kit - Five Senses.

As the name suggests, this Blippi science kit is all about kids embracing and learning about their five main senses. It comes with a variety of fun little science experiments that children can partake in with their parents and become more “aware” of their various senses.

This is something that you can have fun doing with your child and it is also really cool to see them taking an interest in science as a result of this. It is easy to see why this is one of the most popular Blippi toys Australia has to offer.

Blippi My First Science Kit - Kitchen Fun:

The Blippi My First Science Kit - Kitchen Fun is going to bring a little bit of Blippi science kit fun to the kitchen.

With this children are able to have a lot of fun playing around in the kitchen. While discovering how magic sprinkles on ice cream are made and making food that fizzes and pops is sure to put a smile on their face.

One thing this set does great is that it teaches children the science behind how this stuff works. It is very similar to the way that the YouTube Blippi channel teaches kids various educational topics.

Blippi - My First Science Kit - Sink or Float:

Last, but by no means least we have this fantastic Blippi - My First Science Kit - Sink or Float.

With this children are going to be able to partake in a whole bunch of science experiments that are all about if an object can float or sink.

It is really fun to see children complete the various experiments that this Blippi science kit has, but even more awesome is seeing children start to wonder about other things in the house and if they can sink or float.

If they start running for the cat or your phone, you may want to reign it in a bit. However, there is no denying that this is one of the most fun Blippi toys Australia has for sale right now.

Blippi toys are perfect ways to entertain your child! 

As you can see the YouTube Blippi channel is not just about making catching songs for kids and driving their parents insane!

The reason that so many parents are more than happy for their children to be fans of Blippi is that the content he puts out actually has a lot of educational value to it.

They can have fun watching the videos and then thanks to the Blippi science kit range, children can then have even more fun by becoming little scientists as they learn while having fun.

Why is Sensory Play good for your child?

Sensory toys for kids were not even a thing I was aware of before I became a parent!

When I found out about the company Sense & Grow and their selection of sensory toys for kids such as their pop tubes I became fascinated about sensory toys, how they worked, why they worked, and their benefits.

There are many great toys that will stimulate your kid's senses on the site, but today we are showcasing a few of them, but before that, let’s take a little look at why these are so good for children.

The Benefits Of Sensory Play

Before we start talking about sensory toys, let’s look at what sensory play is.

Sensory play is when one (or more than one) of a child’s senses are engaged while they are playing. Like swinging a pop tube around and “hearing” the sound or if the pop tube is textured, feeling the different textures.

While their senses are engaged as they are playing, children will also be working on many key skills.

Their problem solving skills can get a good workout, they can learn about sharing and playing with others, they can learn to be more independent and play on their own.

These are just a few examples of the benefits that can come from sensory play.

Sense & Grow Sensory Toys Collection

When it comes to sensory toys for kids, Sense & Grow are one of the best around.

I have played with (well my daughter and my nephew) all of these and I wanted to share my thoughts on each one so you can see which one (or perhaps more?) of these Sense & Grow toys is right for your child.

Sensory Stretch Pop Tubes:

These Sensory Stretch Pop Tubes are one of the best sensory toys around.

This set comes with six stretch pop tubes that are all different bright colours which stimulates their sight and can spark their imagination too.

These can be stretched and they have a nice textured feel to them too. Best of all, kids are going to have a lot of fun swinging these around and making fun music and sounds with them.

These are suitable for children aged 18 months and up.

Textured Dough Rollers:

I can tell you firsthand that all kids will love this Textured Dough Rollers set! This is suitable for children ages 18 months and up, but even my son who is 6 had fun playing with these with his sister.

Anyway, this is a great example of why sensory toys for kids are so great. This set comes with three pots of child safe dough that they can shape and make all kinds of things with.

The feel of the dough and the different scents are going to really stimulate them! It also comes with three different balls and each ball has a different texture to it and they can use these to roll the dough and make different patterns. They are going to have a lot of fun with this!

Dual Liquid Timer:

The Dual Liquid Timer is one of the more interesting sensory toys. While it may lack the kind of “manic” and wild play that you can get with pop tubes, this is still a very hands-on example of great sensory toys.

This has a set of hearts that are filled with bright blue and pink liquid. Children are going to be able to flip this over and over again and watch the liquid ooze and fill up the other side.

It is pretty interesting to watch a child be mesmerised by something like this.

Sense & Grow have been very clever here as it may look like they are just flipping it up and down, but they are working on their fine motor skills and their other senses like sight and touch are getting stimulated as well.

This is suitable for ages 3 and up.

Sand Dig Ups:

For slightly older children (ages 6 and up) we have this fantastic Sand Dig Up set.

What we have here is one of the more fun sensory toys for kids. This comes with three different shaped sandpits and three different colours of sand as well. That right there is giving them some fantastic visual stimulation.

However, children also have to use the included little digger to scoop out the sand and find the special hidden treat in each sandpit.

Each of these hidden surprises is another fun sensory toy for them to play with. This is the kind of gift that is really cool as children are getting some great benefits from it, but they feel like they are just playing!

Fidget Suitcase:

The Sense & Grow Fidget Suitcase is a fantastic set that is jam packed with sensory toys for children to have fun with.

This is aimed at children ages 6 and up and it is very impressive what Sense & grows has managed to put in here.

Apart from taste, all of the senses are getting a good workout here. We have 3 pop tubes that are included, water beads that come with a stress ball, a squishy toy, squishy poms, and more.

It can all be stored handily in the “suitcase” and it is a lot of fun to watch your child take this Fidget Suitcase and just start pulling different things out, playing with them, and really examining what each thing is and what it can do.

This is suitable for children ages 6 and up.

As you can see, there is a great range of sensory toys from the good folks at Sense & Grow, and as a parent myself, I can honestly tell you that children will have hours of fun with any of these sets.

From playing with a noisy pop tube and making crazy sounds to playing with some textured and scented dough and realising that different things have a different feel to them. It is very cool to see a child start to engage with their senses to experience the world around them.

4 Benefits Of Colouring For Kids

Today we are looking at this super colouring range of art and colouring books. As a kid, I would spend hours with my colouring books, heck, even as an adult I enjoy colouring in.

My kids love to colour too and that is what drew me to this series of colouring books. If some of you guys are saying to the screen “kids still like colouring books?”

I also want to tell you a few of the benefits that come from giving a child a colouring book, some pens or crayons, and letting them get to it.

The Benefits Of Colouring For Kids

Here are just a few of the colouring benefits for kids that come from them spending some quality time with these Super Colouring (or any colouring book really) books.

Handling The Pencil: One of the most important skills a child needs to learn is how to hold and handle a pencil properly.

Colouring books serve as a fun way for a child to spend some real quality time with a pen or pencil. If they already are familiar with the right way to hold a pen or pencil before they start school, they have a good head start.

A Creative Boost: Colouring in is a great deal of fun and chances are if they are colouring in a picture of Spider-Man or Belle, they will want them to look the same way that they do on TV and that is great.

However, with a colouring book like Super Colouring Fun: Awesome Dinosaurs, children can get really creative and have fun coming up with their own version of what colours they think they should be.

Colouring books really do serve as an early way for a child to showcase their creative side.

A Physical And Cognitive Workout: Developing solid hand-eye coordination from a young age is a great thing for a child to do. Colouring is actually a good way for a child to be able to do that.

Also, holding a pencil for a while can be pretty tiring for a child, especially if they have not really done it much before they go to school. By colouring, they are going to get much more used to holding a pencil and develop their hand so it does not get as tired quite so easily.

Although I am pretty sure their hand will get tired and sore from doing math much quicker than if they were colouring a picture of Chase and Rubble from Paw Patrol!

Following The Rules: Ok, so following the rules does not exactly sound exciting, but there are rules with a colouring book.

Sure, at first, they will probably be out of the lines and all over the place. However, you can teach a child to try and stay in the lines the best they can and that kind of “lesson” can then be applied to other things in life too.

The Super Colouring Fun Collection

So far there are four awesome books in the Super Colouring Fun collection and we are going to look at them all here. I can tell you firsthand that my kids had a fantastic time with all four of these books.

Today we are looking at this super colouring range of art and colouring books.

As a kid, I would spend hours with my colouring books, heck, even as an adult I enjoy colouring in. My kids love to colour too and that is what drew me to this series of colouring books.

If some of you guys are saying to the screen “kids still like colouring books?” I also want to tell you a few of the benefits that come from giving a child a colouring book, some pens or crayons, and letting them get to it.

Super Colouring Fun: Rainbow Unicorns:

What kid doesn’t love unicorns? The Super Colouring Fun: Rainbow Unicorns is something kids are going to have a great time with.

The book is packed with page after page of cute, fun, and sassy looking unicorns that children are going to have a whole lot of fun colouring.

What makes the Super Colouring Fun series so great is that each page also has writing for children to read as well.

In the case of this book, each page has a bit of narration telling kids what is going in in the image. As well as colouring in, they are also getting a bit of reading practice here too.

Super Colouring Fun: Awesome Dinosaurs:

Awesome dinosaurs, more like “ROARsome” Dinosaurs… am I right?

Dinosaurs are something that will never go out of style no matter if they are still into Barny or if they have graduated to Jurassic Park, kids love dinosaurs. This book is packed with all kinds of dinosaurs from a ferocious t-rex to a more laid back stegosaurus.

The Super Colouring Fun: Awesome Dinosaurs book does not just have lots of epic dinosaur scenes for children to colour. It also has some interesting dinosaur facts on each page as well.

Super Colouring Fun: Pesky Pirates:

Ahoy mateys, ye be on the right track if ye young uns want some pirate booty to colour in! I am fully aware of how cringy that was, my eldest “lovingly” likes to inform me of my cringe factor on a daily basis.

The Super Colouring Fun: Pesky Pirates is a very fun colouring book in the Super Colouring Fun range. Each page is filled with pirate fun! Children will get to colour the sails of an epic pirate ship that is roaming the high seas!

They can even colour the water so it makes a big splash when one of the pirates has to walk the plank for being a real peg legged scaly wag!

Super Colouring Fun: Sparkly Fairies:

Last, but by no means least we have this “magical” Super Colouring Fun: Sparkly Fairies book.

From fairy wings, magic wands, spells, and magical unicorns, this colouring book has all the things that kids love about the world of fairies, pixies, and more.

Each page is filled with a fun fantasy scene that features fairies having fun in the woods, playing, flying, performing spells, and just living their best fairy lives.

Like the rest of the books in the Super Colouring Fun range, this one also features a bit of text on each page. Sometimes, it tells children what is happening in the scene and others it gives children an idea or two of how to colour the image.

Not only do all four of the books that currently make up the Super Colouring Fun series offer page after page of colouring fun. These are also nice and cheap too so they make for a great, but low-cost gift for a child too!

SmartLab Mixes Science And Fun!

Today I am going to be singing the praises of Smart Lab who make some of the best science themed sets you can buy in Australia right now.

It started when my sister bought my son the SmartLab Squishy Human Body set for his birthday.  I had heard of SmartLab before, but this was the first time that we had one of their products in our house! The day after his birthday, we decided to give it a try and it was fantastic!

That is why I want to share some thoughts on the SmartLab Squishy Human Body set and some of their other popular sets.

SmartLab are all about the principles of STEM and STEAM learning which ensures that children truly take on board the fun new things and skills they are learning.

Squishy And Gross Action With The Human Body

The human body is gross and fascinating all at the same time and that is what the SmartLab Squishy Human Body set is all about.

From the brain to the digestive system, this set takes children on an amazing journey and it is not an exaggeration to say that the next generation of doctors in Australia could be kids who grew up with this.

It is all about getting hands on with the human body and the brains, digestive tract, and muscles are all made to be squishy, gross and give children a better idea of what our insides are really like.

While this is fun, children will also be learning. I can tell you from personal experience that my son loved telling us facts about various facts in regards to the human body after playing around with this.

It features many different activities that are like science experiments so that children can truly understand what the human body does.

Best of all, as they are actually taking part in these experiments and not just watching them on YouTube or having a teacher talk “at” them, they are going to take on board what they are learning much more.

This SmartLab Squishy Human Body was a real winner and something my son benefited from greatly.

More Squishy Fun From SmartLab Toy 

The human body set is fantastic, but there is more squish biology fun to be had thanks to SmartLab Toys.

I can tell you that for his birthday my son has already asked for the Smart Lab Toys The Amazing Squishy T-Rex which is similar to the Squishy Human Body set, but it looks at a cool t-rex! Just think, Australia has all kinds of awesome dinosaur bones around and this could inspire the next Dr. Alan Grant! Another great “squishy” set is The Amazing Squishy Brain which is like the human body set, but it is all about the wonders and different parts of the brain!

Helping A Child Discover Their Inner Tony Stark!

It is not just squish biological science themed sets that are part of the SmartLab collection!

The Squishy Human Body set is cool, but if they are more “technically” minded and have an interest in computers, robotics and science then something like the Smart Circuits Games & Gadgets Electronics Lab would be awesome for them.

From making games, an alarm, a light show, and more, this set teaches children how circuits work and this gives them a basic understanding of how all the electronic gadgets that they know and love actually work!

Another great set in the same vein as this Smart Lab Toys You-Build-it Robo Xplorer.

Playing with robots is really cool and fun, but I can tell you that this is something my own son would love (and Santa may bring him if he is lucky!) as it is not just a box with a robot in it.

This set has them actually build the robot! SmartLab teaches children the science behind robotics and gives them an idea of how robots work.

They are going to have a blast putting this robot through its paces and getting it to do all kinds of fun experiments and missions.

Who knows, 20 years from now if there is someone who looks like Iron Man flying over the skies of Australia, it could be a kid who got their start with this set.

Beauty & The Beast!

It is not just all gross body parts and robots taking over the world when it comes to SmartLab!

They also have some awesome sets that are themed around health and beauty and this is a lot of fun. Many kids will love using tasty lip balm or having a bath with a bath bomb.

However, with a set like the awesome, Spa Lab Bath Bombs children can make their own set of bath bombs! While that is fun, making the bath bombs, using them, and even giving them to a friend or family member.

SmartLab teaches children who bath bombs are made. They break down how the different ingredients work, how they break down in water, and so on. It is very interesting stuff and it will certainly make kids think each time they throw a bath bomb into the bath.

Another great SmartLab set in the same style as this is the Smart Lab Toys Spa Soaps Forest Friends.

Here in Australia, we use a ton of soap and with this set, children get to make their very own soap. They can learn how soap is made, how it works, how to add various scents to the soap, and so on.

What makes this a really fun set though is that it comes with awesome animal molds so they can make all kinds of cute animal themed soaps.

The Go Natural Complete Lip Balm Lab is a very popular set from SmartLab Toys. While getting to make different flavours of lip balm is great. This set teaches children who to make all natural kip balm and how lip balm actually works!

We have only looked at a few of the fantastic SmartLab Toys that are available today. Smart Lab makes learning fun and because they are fun, kids will be really embracing what they are learning.