Learning With PlanToys

I have 3 children and 2 of them are in school now and one is just about to go to nursery, so I’m always on the look out for educational toys that can help make learning fun.

I also like getting the most for my money (who doesn’t?!) and one of my favourite brands from Babipur is PlanToys because they’re so budget friendly. They’re also fabulously ethically made so it’s win win for me!

NUMBERS

My eldest two boys only get reading and spelling homework sent home so I love using anything that involves numbers for activities at home to top up their maths skills.

I got the PlanToys Number 1-10 Tiles last year for my smallest but the older two use them a lot in games as well. It’s great that all 3 can use the same set.

It’s really versatile as the tiles come in pairs 1-10 and are double sided so you essentially get 4 different faces to play with. The large coloured number is finger sized for tracing the shape, perfect for fine motor skills and recognition for when they start writing. The PlanWood is really tactile too, all my 3 get stuck right in whenever we have the sets out. We like combining them with Grapat Mandala pieces for counting fun!

The Plan Toys Tens Frame was a birthday present for my middlest as he was struggling with maths at the time. He’s not struggling anymore!

The Tens frame is so simple but so effective at helping children cement their counting skills firmly in place. It only took a few sessions playing with this before it all clicked.

Briefly, the way it works is as a visual aid to get you to round everything up to 5 and 10 so you do additions and subtractions much more easily. The time it takes for your child to manually place the little counters in each space is enough time for them to see the next group of 5 or 10.

It’s also really portable too, as the built in elastic bands keep everything firmly in place.

LETTERS

Letter recognition is something to do with your children from a really early age. The PlanToys Braille Alphabet tiles are brilliant for spelling homework too. A nice chunky visual aid is much easier to work with in my opinion. It’s also lots of fun to play games with too. One of us will shout a word out and we all scramble to find the tiles the fastest!

This set is double sided with Upper case on one side and Lower case on the other. The addition of the Braille is lovely too because it’s great to explain to my children what it is and what it’s used for. The tactile sensory aspect when feeling the little bumps is really good for them to explore too.

Since getting this set my smallest can pull out all the letters from his name from the alphabet, which is great ahead of him starting nursery next year. He’ll need to be able to recognise his own name for his peg and tray etc.

PUZZLES

We all love puzzles in this house. They’re ideal for problem solving and logic as well as a quiet activity and independent play. Perfect for winding down at the end of the day or to distract them while I’m making dinner!

I got the PlanToys Weather set around Easter earlier this year for during the holidays. It is fab! All 4 seasons are built up with the 12 pieces and it’s a fantastic visual of the weather and which clothes you wear over the course of the year. The back has lovely tactile symbols of the weather elements too which you can use for finger tracing and rubbings with crayons!

It’s a brilliant starter puzzle for a 2 year old if you just use one season at a time as it’s only 3 pieces at a time for them to fit together.

We had lots of fun playing with the alphabet tiles to think of and link words to the seasons. It was a good challenge to try and find 3 letter words to make a mini mandala too!

If you’ve got school age kids you’re going to find yourself getting creative with various themes over the years. Both of mine have had an Under the Sea topic this year already. My smallest got this PlanToys Marine puzzle for Christmas last year and the older boys dragged it out alongside their homework and Blue Planet book to top up their sea themed facts.

It’s a great shape sorter for little ones as well as being a good visual for showing different sea creatures and shells. We had this one in the paddling pool in the garden most of the summer and it still looks fab! Love how robust the PlanWood is!

FAMILY FUN

I’ve just got the Plan Toys Timber Tumble game for Christmas. A little joke gift as our village has some rogue Beavers upstream! It would be fun to learn a little more about them whilst playing this game together as a family!

LOVE PLANTOYS

I love making learning fun for my boys and Plan Toys are perfect for this. They’re great for home education and STEM activities too.

You can find the PlanToys range >here< there is something for everyone, and perfect for gifting for Christmas!