We were introduced to Halftoys when it was gifted to Isaac as one of his Christmas presents. The Parasaurolophus structure has also become one of his favourite “bring out” toys which he packs in his bag wherever he goes.
To be honest, when we saw the packaging of the box, it did not look like much. All we saw was a figurine of a Parasaurolophus, which was actually already enough to make our little dino fan happy. Little did we know there was going to be even more fun within.
In the box are :
1 x Magnetic Para skin 1 x Para skeleton structure 1 x Carton-board diorama backdrop 1 x Carton-board diorama landscape (Tree, lake, etc.) 1 x Para instruction booklet
Definitely goes without saying that the first thing that intrigued Isaac was the skeleton structure of his dinosaur because he can dismantle and put together the pieces of bones.
Then comes the fixing of the habitat of his Para as well as his favourite food – the rat. All made out of carton board. How smart is that? We can actually remove the pieces and keep them back into the box when we are done playing with them. It does not even take up much space.
When we were done putting up the landscape, he couldn’t be more pleased to add his Para to his collection at his dino corner.
The next thing he asked was – “Is there a triceratops halftoy?”.
On days that we are stuck indoors, I would think of ideas for the little one to still have fun even without going out. In fact, I try even harder now in order to minimise screen time. We told Isaac we will bring him out for a swim today but who would have expected the sun to go into hiding and it started to rain. After some time, the rain continued despite Isaac’s loud singing of Rain Rain Go Away. So here’s what I did to keep his spirits up – we had fun with water beads!
I purchased a water beads kit from Tickle Your Senses and got additional dehydrated water beads so Isaac can watch them grow.
It is amazing how something so simple can be of so much fun for the little one. The moment I showed him what was in the box, his face lit up and pointed immediately at the colourful water beads instead of the dinosaurs (he is a huge fan of dinos to the point that he tells me we are a dino family). I can totally understand because personally, I am just so in love with how pretty the colours are!
We had fun growing our own water beads. I told Isaac we will have to soak those tiny beads overnight so it will expand after soaking up the water to become pretty water beads. He agreed to play with the small container of water beads first until the lot we were soaking were ready for play. And… he asked me quite an amusing question – “will become a butterfly?”. Probably because of the colours, or the fact that he knows he has to wait for the caterpillar to become a butterfly. Ha!
Growing our beads
I put in only a small amount of the beads because the husband told me that they should be able to grow up to quite big. Based on the instructions, it will be ready to play if we soaked it up to 6hrs. So I took his word for it, and imagined it to become fishball sized kinda big if I soaked it overnight (no judging please). Of cos they did not grow to that size. Anyway, we still had quite a decent number of water beads despite that little amount that I had soaked. Look, a jar full of rainbow. Gummy rainbow in Isaac’s words.
I cannot get over how pretty they are! <3
When we started to play with them, the first thing Isaac asked was if he could touch them. He claimed how slippery and gummy-like they felt to him. Then he went on to have tons of fun transferring his water beads from one container to the other with his handy scoopers.
“oh so squishy and slimy and slippery the gummy”
To make things more interesting, we increased the number of water beads and played in the bathtub today. I let him put in his dinosaur figurines to stimulate imaginative play and perhaps, language skills. Besides the pterodactyl and t-rex, he learnt about the brachiosaurus today.
can you spot the brachiosaurus?
I enjoy watching him at play especially when he starts making up his own stories and questions. Whenever he asks me something, I’d throw the question back to him and it is interesting to see what he comes up with. For example, he asked me why does the brachiosaurus have such a long neck. To be honest, I did not know the answer. So I just said “I am not sure, what do you think?” Then he replied “maybe to eat the the leaves from the tall tall trees.”. There you go, that might just be the right answer.
We left our car at the workshop to be serviced this weekend. Not the best time because I had intended to get started with the Christmas shopping and it would be more convenient if we had the car. With Christmas just round the corner, the trains are packed and after experiencing it yesterday, we decided to stay home today.
One of the activities that we did at home today is playing with Tegu blocks. We purchased it at a fair earlier this year when Isaac had just turned 1 and he did not know what to make of those blocks. All he did was put 2 or 3 blocks together and then take them apart again. Now that he is older (19 months), he tries to make his version of cars or buildings with some help from us.
Here are some of the things he put together this afternoon.
“Car car” says Isaac
I must say, we really love these blocks. Not only do they look good, they are just so easy to put together! In my opinion, it is more appropriate for my toddler at this age as compared to Lego (which I am a huge fan of). If you are getting a gift for a toddler below 3, I highly recommend this.
Being the curious cat that I am, I was intrigued to know more about the makers of Tegu. If you haven’t heard of them or seen their website, you really should. It is fantastic! You can check them out here. Ending this post with my favourite line from the good people at Tegu –
We believe that every child possess the unhindered ability to build, create, and imagine. And they aren’t only creating towering block structures and backyard tree forts, they are building their futures.
Inside each Tegu block we pack the power to dream about that future.
** Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.
