We gave it a Whirli and loved it!

Do you feel frustrated with having toys all over the house and feel like your little one gets bored of toys easily? If you feel this way then you are not alone! Baby L’s toys get everywhere. She gets super excited with new toys but I just don’t have the space to keep making purchases. Then I came across Whirli.

For a subscription price from 9.99 a month, Whirli will send you toys of your selection through the post. When your little one is finished with the toys, you send them back and swap them for different toys. After finding Whirli on Instagram, I thought that I would give it a go!

Upon browsing the catalogue of toys on the Whirli website, I was amazed by the variety of toys available. They have toys for ages 0-7, wooden toys, role play toys, outdoor, electronic and more. You can browse the selection yourself at Whirli.com There are so many options and it’s easy to navigate suitable toys as you can sort and filter your search easily. I searched for toys in the 0-18 months bracket so that they would be appropriate for my little 6 month old.

Even though I narrowed the search, there were still lots to choose from! By clicking on an individual toy you can gain more information about it. This helped me to make my decisions. I chose the Hape Geometric Rattle, the Melissa and Doug Flip Fish, a Halilit Cage Bell and Hape Beaded Raindrops toy. I selected these toys as they are great for baby sensory. As you know, I’m a huge fan of baby sensory and anything that will help my baby develop while having fun.

When our selected toys arrived, baby L couldn’t wait to play!

Baby L absolutely loved the toys. She loves making noises at the moment so the rattles and bells were her favourites. She wouldn’t let go of the Halilit cage bell and the Hape beaded raindrops at one point. She was creating music. I would shake one, while she shook the other. Toys are great for play and parent-child bonding.

As she is learning to crawl, it was a good idea that I chose the Hape geometric set. The yellow rattling ball kept moving away from her and she would try crawling to grab it. She didn’t succeed yet but it’s great that the toy gave her incentive to practice. She can carry on practicing in this way until I send the toys back. Maybe she will learn to crawl this way!

Tummy time is important. I try to place her on her tummy as much as possible. She’s tolerating it much better when she has a good tummy time toy and the Melissa and Doug Flip Fish Toy did the job brilliantly. She loved crinkling the scales and feeling for different textures. It’s brightly coloured and multisensory to help with her development.

You can find links to my toy selections below:

1.Hape Geometric Rattle

Link to toy here:

https://whirli.com/toy/halilit-cage-bell

2.Melissa and Doug Flip Fish

Link to toy here:

https://whirli.com/toy/melissa-and-doug-flip-fish-baby-toy

3.Halilit Cage Bell

Link to toy here:

https://whirli.com/toy/halilit-cage-bell

4.Hape Beaded Raindrops

Link to toy here:

https://whirli.com/toy/hape-beaded-raindrops

Whirli’s toy sharing service can also enable you to try toys out before you buy. If there was a particular toy that my baby loved, I could make a purchase at a lower than retail price. This is a great way to save money from buying unused toys.

The whole sharing process is great for the environment and teaches children about sharing toys. Baby L is a little small to understand but I still told her about where the toys came from and that they will be going to another child to play with once she’s finished with them. I’m always explaining things to her as it’s good for her speech and language development.

There won’t be huge amounts of toy packaging being added to landfill neither! The toys arrive clean and checked for safety and arrive in a reusable bag. No plastic wrap or tags in sight.

The Whirli subscription service is an amazing idea. I will be having a sort through toys and getting rid of ones she no longer uses or doesn’t like. My living room will be clutter free and my baby is happy! Happy baby equals a very happy mummy.

Go on, give it a Whirli yourself!

Polymer Science Sensory Bag

Hi all,

My daughter enjoyed a very squishy polymer Hydrogel sensory bag today. I’ve done this experiment a lot with secondary aged children and wondered if my little baby would like to enjoy the science also.

She loved squishing this sensory bag. The polymer expands when soaked in water. It creates a spongy snow like texture and appearance. To create this bag you just need three simple items and a little water.

I used:

1 nappy (any size is fine but I used a size 3)
1 plastic container
1 ziplock bag
A cup of water

My method:

Open the nappy and remove all of the cotton wool like material and place it into your waterproof container.
Tear the cotton wool up into slightly smaller pieces
Add the water
Mix a little
Place soaked polymer into freezer bag and seal shut at the zip lock and with tape, removing all air.
Tape the bag down onto a hard surface

The hydrogel is a smart material that changes shape depending on its environment. In water the polymer ionises and becomes negatively charged. The molecules expand and attract water molecules. Hydrogel can hold many times it’s weight.

When she is older she can do the above method herself. For safety reasons I kept the polymer enclosed and supervised her play. She always loves a good sensory bag for some tummy time and a tactile sensory activity.

Messy Play Smash

We have done messy play before, but this has been the messiest so far!

For this messy mash play I made a plain taste safe mash with the addition of a little red food colouring. I placed three mounds of it on the tray and added a few objects. The measuring cups that L enjoyed playing with in the sensory basket were included, along with a potato masher and a silicone cupcake case filled with some water.

My baby girl loved this set up. She was rubbing the mash between her fingers after grabbing a handful. She bashed the cups together and poured the water out of the case. Once she had finished with the tray, L thought it would be great to skip and slide her feet about all over her play mats.

Musical Spoons

We loved stirring up this idea! Excuse me! This activity is amazing. From about two months old, L has loved kicking things. She had a little keyboard that I used to let her kick to make sounds and it kept her occupied while sat in her bouncer. It gave me a great opportunity to eat and have a cuppa whilst she kicked away.

She inspired me to make this activity for her. I tied spoons of varied sizes onto a laundry basket with ribbons. To make the surface level I used the spongy mattress you get from those free baby boxes. I knew the baby box would be useful! It also serves as a toy box.

To make the base crinkly and reflective, a foil blanket was wrapped around the mattress. L liked being right underneath the spoons. Having her feet under them was the best orientation as she kicked them with such enthusiasm. They make a wonderful sound as they clank and chime together. The spoons create a wind chime like sound.

This activity city has proved to be the most popular one in my Instagram feed. Mothers have sent me pictures of their little ones testing it out for themselves. I do love it when I get feedback like that. Let me know in the comments if you try it out for yourself.

Buzzy Bee Book Sensory

L absolutely loves books. She gets excited when I get books out. We have a routine of visiting the library every three weeks. Each time we visit I grab around 8-10 new books for us. If you haven’t visited your local library then I highly recommend it. They have a large number of baby and older children’s books and it costs nothing at all to take books out. You just need to sign up for a library card and I did this on my first visit, it took 5 minutes.

A couple of weeks ago I took out a selection of books that included these two bee books. I created a themed sensory play activity to go with them.

I made a high contrast touchy feely picture with 3D bright yellow paper flowers on a black background. High contrast images are great for baby, especially newborns.

I added a few toys, made a sensory bottle and a sensory ribbon.

We looked at the books first and then played with the other objects after. She loved it! ‘That’s not my bee’ book was probably her favourite. She scratches and strokes all of the pages, looking for the touchy feely sections. She has had a few of these books.

Our First Sensory Basket

Having organised L’s clothing, I realised that I had a spare storage basket. I’d seen these sensory baskets before and thought that it would be lovely to allow L to just select her own objects to investigate. This activity kept her amused for a long time!

I selected safe objects that were to be placed in the basket. The basket included some measuring cups, metal spoons, plastic spoons, a sponge, a mirror, an ice cube tray, silicone cupcake cases and a water bottle filter.

The heart shaped measuring cups were her ultimate favourite. She chose them first and began to hit them together to make lots of sound! She selected other objects but kept going back to the cups.

There wasn’t one item that she didn’t take out of the basket. I will definitely be making more sensory baskets. The baby led play is great. By understanding what objects she likes to play with, I can then incorporate those objects into other play activities. I already have an idea that includes the measuring cups and a potato masher so keep your eyes peeled!

Rainbow Scarf Pull Activity

This activity took me just five minutes to set up. All you need is a washing basket and a few coloured or even patterned scarves. If you don’t have scarves then I’m sure a few pairs of tights, long socks or your partners work ties would do fine!

I threaded the scarves through the holes in the basket and placed L on her tummy. She pulled at the lower scarves and waved them about. I then sat her up so that she could reach the upper scarves.

This activity is great for visual skills and hand-eye coordination. I will probably do this activity with L over and over.

Sensory Balloon Water Play

My little lady loved this baby sensory activity. I filled balloons with a variety of materials. I filled one with flour, water, oats and water. Each one provided a different texture that is great for a tactile experience.

The brightly coloured balloons were placed in a bowl of water to create a combination of visual and water play.

She loved squishing the balloons, grabbing them and plopping them back in the water. The balloons themselves would be great but my baby loves water.

She made a bit of a mess by splashing but nothing a quick mop over wouldn’t fix. It’s fine as we love anything messy!

Sweet Wrapper Sensory Bag

I tried baby with her first breakfast and taste of banana today and she loved it. She didn’t eat much but enjoyed the flavour. My little monkey got up a bit too early and I think she was still tired. It wasn’t long after her breakfast that she decided she needed her first nap of the day.

After her nap I let her have a play with the stained glass effect sensory bag. It makes me think of Elmer the elephant! If you follow me on Instagram then you will have seen it already.

I made this sensory bag using chocolate wrappers. What a great excuse to go binging on a box of quality streets! I obviously had to polish them off so that my baby could have her tummy time sensory play!

Quality street have these lovely plastic little wrappers that are multicoloured and transparent. Like that coloured acetate they always have at school. Do you remember that? I remember them passing us little goggles made from blue acetate in the science lab so that we could watch Magnesium burn.

Anyway, as I love being creative and crafty with anything I can recycle, I decided to use these little wrappers. I stuck them onto a zip lock bag and filled it 1/3 with water. I closed it up and removed any air. I then double bagged it so that baby couldn’t remove the wrappers. I taped the whole thing down onto an tray and placed it on the floor.

My little lady loved it. She always loves a sensory bag! They are great for tummy time.

Later that evening I decided to let her have another play with it. However, this Time I added light. I switched the torch on that is on my phone and slid the phone under the bag to create an illuminated sensory bag. Don’t worry! My phone is waterproof and the water was double bagged. You could use any torch if you are worried about your phone getting wet. A little fibre optic wand torch would probably have worked best but I didn’t have one.

My baby was amazed and excited about the reflections as they danced about when she patted or stroked the bag. She absolutely adores lights and this was probably the perfect sensory play for her.

Oh and by the way, did you know that the wrappers dissolve in water? A little bit of water had got onto one of the wrappers and it had dissolved! Well done Quality Street for helping to save the planet.

Toy Trap Sensory Play

As I understand, people love a simple sensory activity. Yesterday I came up with one that uses only a little string, a laundry basket and a few of your baby’s favourite toys.

All you need to do is thread the string through the holes of the basket to create a spider web and then place the toys at the back of the basket.

I used some of my little ones wooden shapes and stacking rings.

At first I placed her on her tummy and she began pulling at the string and weaved her hand through to grab the green block. As she is teething at the moment she gave it a good chomp before reaching for the yellow ring.

She loved this activity! It’s a great one for hand eye coordination and practicing her fine motor skills.

Give this one a try! If you don’t have string at home you could use wool, shoestrings or possibly even some dental floss.

If you are weaning or if you just want baby to eat healthier, try placing fruit and veg at the back of the basket. My little one is only on her second week of weaning on purée. In the future I will definitely be using this game as a way to get veg down her! Can she rescue the fruit or veg from the spider? The veg would instantly become more interesting. You could cook up a nice plate of healthy food using the same fruit and veg. Try this with foods that you struggle to get baby to eat.

Have fun!