This week we were invited to attend a play date with parenting expert, Dr Miriam Stoppard, who has worked with Galt Toys to design a range of toys aimed at babies which help stimulate development and learning through play.
When we arrived, the play area was set up with lots of baby mats and a selection of Dr Miriam’s toy range. Sophie made a beeline for the mats and toys whilst Jessica and Daddy were kept amused in the Activity Zone nearby where there were a selection of arts and crafts activities for her to do plus there were also drinks and Ella’s Kitchen snacks available if the girls got hungry.
Whilst the babies played with the toys on the mats, Dr Miriam explained how to help encourage learning and development in babies and small children through play. Here are some of the key points I picked up from the discussion:
Babies are learning all the time from birth onwards and their parents are their first playmates and teachers.
- Chatting away to your baby as you go about various activities is key to encouraging communication
- When playing with toys or looking at things, point out the defining characteristics – for example a bird has a beak, wings, tail and can (usually) fly.
- Babies use all their senses whilst learning so point out colours, describe and let them feel different textures, make noises etc.
- Toys can also aid social development – balls are particularly good toys for helping with social development as well as improving hand-eye coordination.
- The pincer grip is the most difficult skill a baby learns and is key for many later skills such as writing or playing a musical instrument.
Sophie particularly enjoyed playing with the baby walker which looked very well designed and well balanced – even when she had emptied the bricks out of it she was able to pull herself up to standing using the handle without tipping it over, which is more than can be said for our current wooden baby walker! She also enjoyed the hammer and pegs – she didn’t use the hammer but loved pushing the pegs through the board with her hands.
In the meantime, Jessica was having a wonderful time creating a picture of a princess with sequins. Whilst these kits are aimed for children aged 5 and over, she coped quite well with the activity. The picture has sticky spots covered with backing paper plus a wax crayon to help pick up sequins and place them on the spots. Naturally Jessica’s approach was more to remove all the backing paper at once and then shake the sequins all over the picture but it worked fairly well even if it was very messy! She also enjoyed creating a tile-by-numbers picture of a lion with sticky-backed foam mosaic tiles and got the hang of using different colours for different numbers fairly quickly.
As well as meeting the lovely Dr Miriam, I also enjoyed meeting some other bloggers at the event including Jodie from Life with Pink Princesses (plus the gorgeous P2 and P3) and Kara from Innocent Charms Chats (plus her beautiful daughter Addison). Sophie and Jessica also enjoyed interacting with the other children at the event and being sociable.
We were given a goodie bag of Galt Toys to take home which included the Song Bird from the Dr Miriam range of toys and the pull along puppy. The girls have enjoyed playing with these and Sophie particularly likes the bird which is lovely and soft, with different textures to explore, and cheeps when its tummy is pressed. The toys come with booklets which discuss how to encourage your baby’s learning and development through the use of that particular toy and the features of the toy which are particularly helpful with regards to this. Jessica was also given the rest of the Princess Palace Sensational Sequins kit to take home and I am sure she will enjoy doing some of the other activities in this kit.
Thank you to Galt Toys, Dr Miriam Stoppard and Kids Stuff Toys for organising such a great event – we enjoyed ourselves very much.
We were invited to this event and received some complimentary toys and activity kits as stated. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Update (07/01/15) – Galt Toys have produced the following video clip which shows what we got up to on our playdate:
You can also read more about the playdate and how you can help support your child’s learning over on the Galt Toys blog.
This sounds like such a lovely event, and the toys look great for little learners. Sounds like they will keep everyone amused for hours #triedtested
Thanks Zena – we had a great time and loved the toys 🙂
Oh wow! It looks like everyone had a wonderful time! What a great event x
Thanks Kim, we had a great time 🙂
What a fabulous day out! Gorgeous photos too x
Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested this week and I hope you have a lovely Christmas!
Thank you – it was a great morning. Lovely to link up to #TriedTested again and hope you have a lovely Christmas too x
We went to one of these a while back and it was fab. Glad you all had fun! Love love love Galt Toys, you really can’t go wrong – most of the Xmas pressies I’ve bought for anyone under eight is by them xx
Thanks – we had a great time and loved the toys 🙂
What a lovely sounding event. I’ve seen a few of these toys in my local toy shop and I’ve always been impressed with Galt #triedtested
Thank you – we loved the toys 🙂
Aw I had an invite to this but couldn’t make it – would have been great to have gone and met you. Looks like it was pretty good #sharewithme
Would have been lovely to meet you too – shame you couldn’t make it, was a great event
The Mothers say – We love GALT toys and this is such a wonderful idea. This is such a great post and your photos really show what a great and informative day you had #sharewithme
Thank you – we had a fab time 🙂
This is a fab post and looks like you got a lot out of the day. It certainly looks like Sophie enjoyed it too. #sharewithme
Thank you – we really enjoyed it 🙂
That looks like such a great event, we love Galt toys in are house and have done for many years. Lovely photos and a great review of the day x #TriedTested
Thank you – we really enjoyed the event 🙂
It was lovely to meet you!! I still love that photo of our girls.
Thank you – was lovely to meet you too and love that photo too. Your girls are just adorable 🙂
Looks like a really good event. Fun and informative, and the girls look very happy there x
Thank you – we had a great time and the girls loved it 🙂
What a great event and I love all your photo’s! Gorgeous! #ShareWithMe
Thank you – we enjoyed it very much 🙂
What a fab day- so jealous! Love the photos too, looks like you had such fun 🙂 x x
Thank you – we enjoyed it very much 🙂
Looks like yall had a very good time. Love the photos. What an adorable little on you have. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me and for all the amazing linky support in 2014! I can’t thank you enough. Happy Holidays! #sharewithme
Thanks Jenny, we had a lovely time. Lovely to link up to Share with Me each week, thank you so much for hosting and hope you have a wonderful Christmas x
It looks like you had an awesome time! Thanks for sharing, especially the tips on interacting while playing! Mim 🙂 #TheList
Thank you – it was a great event 🙂
Oh wow, this looks fantastic, looks like the girls had lots of fun =)
great tips too for encouraging learning and development!
Thanks Jenni – we really enjoyed it 🙂
I had no idea about this range or Dr Miriam’s involvement. They look lovely and it sounds like they are really well made. I love all the colours. Thanks for sharing the tips too – it’s easy to forget how much babies soak up and love us explaining and giving detail and information during play 🙂 #thelist
The toys we saw were fab and Sophie loved playing with them. It was a very interesting and informative session – glad you liked the tips 🙂
This looks like a wonderful day, lovely activities for the girls. Like the look of the sequin picture activity pack 🙂
Thanks Sara – we had a great time 🙂
What a fab event – I love that you got some time with Dr Miriam! How lovely and you came away with some great pointers. I loved the bit about chatting away with your baby and them absorbing everything – I was always doing this. Felt like a bit of a fool but now I know I was doing him some good!
Thanks for linking up to #Thelist! xxx
Thanks Hannah – I now find I talk to myself when out and about without the children but at least it is good for them that I do it at home! Lovely to link up to #TheList again – thank you for hosting 🙂