CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY! A comprehensive kids' gift guide from Sensational Kids and The Great Equalizer
Folks, let’s be honest, the festive season can be downright terrifying. It’s just… A LOT. We totally get it, because we’re there. Panic sets in as the end of school term nears, intense one-on-one time with extended family is approaching and you’re weighing up the pros and cons of going out for some bread and milk and never coming back.
We cannot help much on the family front, but what we can do is help you with some age-appropriate gift ideas for all the kiddos in your life. Does that sound fair?
This Christmas, The Great Equalizer has partnered with Sensational Kids to bring you a specially curated list of educational toys. What’s more, Sensational Kids is offering all our listeners a 10% discount on orders made before 30 November 2018. Just use the discount code #TALKINGCHRISTMAS2018 at checkout to redeem your voucher. So guys, let’s get cracking on that Christmas shopping!
[Click on each image for more info.]
FOR ALL THE BABAS IN YOUR LIFE:
Here are some ideas fo littlies aged 0-3 years
FIRST BEAD MAZE (Melissa & Doug, R235)
Sitting in a high chair is much more fun with this fantastic bead maze, featuring brightly coloured, multi-shaped beads that spin and slide along red and yellow wire pathways anchored by a strong suction cup base.
This high quality educational toy encourages colour recognition, hand-eye coordination and fine motor development through play!
Suitable for ages 12 months and older.
FARM FRIENDS HAND PUPPETS (Melissa & Doug, R295)
This four-piece hand-puppet set makes it easy for children and caregivers to role-play together! Four simple glove puppets in a coordinated farm theme can act out a scene together, or be used separately for simple puppet play. Either way, they are great for developing motor skills, hand-eye coordination, communication skills, self-confidence, parent-child bonding, and so much more. Made with brightly patterned, washable fabrics and built to last, these soft and friendly hand puppets are sure to be go-to toys for years to come. Farm Friends Hand Puppets includes a sheep, cow, pig, and horse.
Suitable for ages 2 years and older and sized for children and adults.
GIDDY BUGGY TUNNEL (Melissa & Doug, R520)
Giddy Buggy is happy to invite active kids to crawl through a rainbow of colour in this bright tunnel. Giddy's smiling face covers one end, making it extra fun to hide and seek in this nearly five-foot-long tube. Made of durable wipe-clean materials, it sets up quickly and easily folds flat for convenient storage. Sturdy steel frame is padded for comfort and hours of activity. Crawling through this tunnel promotes gross motor skills, arm strength and co-ordination in a fun and exciting activity.
Suitable for ages 3 years and older.
FOR THE TRANSITIONING TODDLER:
This is how you can keep your 3-5 year-olds busy
CUTTING FOOD BOX – WOODEN PLAY FOOD (Melissa & Doug, R340)
This set contains 25 hand-crafted wooden pieces, making up 8 'whole' pieces of wooden food, a cutting board and a wooden knife. Cutting the food makes a satisfying "crunch" - and a playful introduction to concepts of "whole", "part", and fractions. This activity promotes bilateral skills (using two hands together) and introduces the self-care concept of eating and cutting up one's own food.
Suitable for ages 3 years and older.
EDUBEANS BEAN BAGS (R230)
The play and learning opportunities with this set of EduBeans is mind-blowing. The five brightly coloured bean bags have numbers and corresponding dots to help with perceptual skills. The weight of each bean bag differs from the next, which can help children grasp the abstract concept of heavy vs. light; and our favourite part of these cool bean bags is the fine motor and self care skills they promote by having a zip, buttons, lacing, studs and velcro on the one side. Underneath each fastening is also a special shape surprise! :)
A wonderful product that promotes so many developmental skills including gross motor, fine motor, self care and perceptual.
The set includes 20 great educational activity ideas on a card which can be stuck on the fridge for some playtime inspiration.
The bags are machine washable, sized for small hands, and the packaging and filling is made from 100% recycled material.
Suitable for ages 2 years and older.
Zingo!® It's not just bingo. It's Zingo!, a matching game that encourages pre-readers and early readers alike to match the pictures and words to their challenge cards. The Zingo! Zinger dispenses tiles and fun as young minds quickly race to be the first player with a full card and yell "ZINGO!" With two levels of play, this matching game builds language skills through fast-paced play.
This top-selling ThinkFun game not only develops perceptual and cognitive skills, but promotes social and fine motor skills too!
Features:
6 Double-Sided Zingo! Cards with 2 Levels of Play
72 Double-Sided Tiles
Zingo! Zinger with Easy Cleanup!
Parent's Guide
Players: Two or more
Suitable for ages 3 years and older.
FOR THE BIG KIDS (and even for the adults):
Combat boredom from 5 years and older
BUILD YOUR OWN WOODEN BIRDHOUSE (R175)
Encourage a love of birds and nature with this easy to assemble birdhouse for you and your child to assemble and decorate. Your feathered neighbours will love their home-tweet-home!
This great 'build your own' set contains: wooden panels, screws, 4 pots of paint and a paint brush.
This construction craft activity promotes fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and encourages artistic ability as well as an appreciation for nature.
Suitable for ages 5 years and older.
BANANAGRAMS® (R280)
THE ANAGRAM GAME THAT DRIVES YOU BANANAS!
Fast and frantic, players race against each other to build crossword grids. And it requires no pencil, paper, or board. In this addictive word game, speed wins, not points. You'll have a bunch of fun as you race to the finish by using all of your letter tiles first! Bananagrams® comes in a small portable banana-shaped pouch and is perfect for everyone; at home or on the go.
Bananagrams® can be played by 1-8 players and promotes important key developmental skills such as cognitive, perceptual, fine motor and social & emotional.
Suitable for ages 7 years and older.
WHERE’S WALLY? (R160)
The original book which kick-started the worldwide Wally phenomenon! Search for Wally and his friends as they hike round the world – on the beach, at the train station, at sea...they're fiendishly hidden in every intricately-detailed scene and there are lots of other things to look for too. Hours of fun and games await.
While enjoying this book and searching for Wally and his friends, important developmental skills such as visual perception, concentration, attention span and cognition are promoted.
Suitable for ages 5 years and older.
LASER MAZE (R590)
Beam-Bending Logic Maze Game. The challenges and laser make the hugely popular Laser Maze Game fun. The fact that it's a logic maze game that teaches STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills makes it a perfect game for anyone. Laser Maze requires you to use mirrors, beam-splitters, a little science and brainpower to direct the laser through a series of mind-challenging mazes and light up the target. This award-winning maze game is designed for solo play, but it's so much fun everyone in the family will want a turn.
This unique game not only develops perceptual and cognitive skills, but promotes fine motor skills too!
Features:
Game Grid
60 Challenge Cards from Beginner to Expert
11 Game Tokens (1 Laser, 2 Beam-Splitters, 1 Mirror, 1 Cell Blocker, 5 Targets/Mirrors and 1 Checkpoint)
Player: One
Suitable for ages 8 years and older.
ABOUT SENSATIONAL KIDS:
Debbie Mobbs is the Cape-Town based occupational therapist who founded the Sensational Kids kids’ educational toys website. She is also a mom of three, whose afternoons are consumed with school runs, sport and general kid mayhem. She has two boys (Matt, 9 and Josh, 7) and a 16-month old little girl, Jocelyn. While Debbie is pretty much the closest one can get to having your shit together, she still claims to be embracing the chaos that comes with being a family of 5.
Debbie LOVES being a paediatric occupational therapist as much as she loves being a mom. So, prior to founding Sensational Kids, she started thinking about how she could combine these two passions to promote play and learning. And what better way to impact children and to get their parents thinking about the benefits of play, than through educational toys?
So Debbie developed Sensational Kids – a website that sells a range of handpicked, top quality toys and activities. Sensational Kids’ focus is on child development through play, which means that everything available on the site has been carefully selected to ensure it facilitates the improvement of a child’s key developmental skills.
On the site, each product has been curated by Debbie to ensure maximum play, learning and development potential and you will see that each product will have been classified according to which developmental skills the toy can assist with. In addition to these skills, Debbie has written content around ways to prolong (or extend) the play capacity of each toy on each product page – see the Extension Activities tab on each product page for examples. This is to inspire parents to think out the box and for children to become creative with their toys.
So what are you waiting for? Shop Sensational Kids NOW
(and don’t forget about our discount code: #TALKINGCHRISTMAS2018).
Also, tune in to our Christmas episode ;-) It’s a goodie!