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The Benefits of Fat Brain Toys Spinny Pins

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Lubica Misevski

The toys your child plays with every day can have a huge impact on overall development--and in Spinny Pins, Fat Brain toys have, as always, kept that need for development through play at the forefront. This fascinating toy offers a variety of textures and movement options that will help entertain and delight little learners while helping them develop many of the skills they need. 

What are Spinny Pins?

Spinny Pins is a Fat Brain Toy that contains a weighted bowl on a wobbly base and five colourful, textured pins that also wobble and spin to help delight and entertain the child. Each of the five colourful pins has its own unique texture and design, including bright colours that are great for colour sorting and visual awareness. Children can use Spinny Pins for a variety of tasks: fitting the pins into slots within the big bowl, placing pins in right side up or upside down, or spinning and wobbling the pieces through incredible creative play. 

What Skills can Children Build with Spinny Pins?

Spinny Pins allows children to develop and enrich a wide range of skills, including:

Fine motor skills. Developing fine motor skills in early childhood is incredibly important to a child's eventual development and capability. Children with strong fine motor skills are better prepared to handle basic self-care tasks as they get older, including buttoning and zipping clothes, handling feeding tasks, writing and drawing, or performing many of the functions expected of children every day. While some of those skills may be a long way away for your child, working to place the pins in the wobbly bowl of the Spinny Pins toy can help build those important fine motor skills, improving grip strength and helping your child learn the cause and effect associated with those basic tasks. 

Matching and sorting. Matching and sorting skills help many children order their world. This process of sorting and organising can help children learn how to apply logical thinking skills. In playing with Spinny Pins, they're examining the pins and the holes in the bottom where the pins can go and making associations between those things. They're learning how objects are alike (after all, they're all pins!) and how they're different (different colours, textures, and shapes). This vital skill might still be in its early stages, but it can offer your child a number of advantages as they progress through those infant years and on to school. 

Sensory exploration. Like matching and sorting skills, sensory exploration is critical for children of all ages. Through sensory exploration, little ones learn more about how certain textures feel. Little ones may place those toys in their mouths, testing those textures against their teeth, tongue, and gums to get a better idea of how they feel. With Spinny Pins, your child can also experiment with balance and textures. 

Experimentation. Children learn about cause and effect through experimentation. As they experiment with the world around them, they get a better idea of how things work: how things move, how they interact with one another, and how one action can cause another response. The bump on the bottom of the bowl in the Spinny Pins set, for example, ensures that the bowl is always off-balance, which means that it will wobble and twirl with a light touch from your child. This can help your child learn about balance and how to impact wobbly objects. 

Spinny Pins are designed to encourage a wide range of play and exploration in your child. With its bright colours and unique textures, including different textures on the top and bottom of each pin, this toy helps encourage toddler play and development at the same time. 

To buy your Spinny Pins, please click on Spinny Pins. 

Posted in Early child education, educational toys, Fat Brain Toys Australia, fine motor skills

The Best Building Blocks for Your Child

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Lubica Misevski

A question a lot of parents ask, is what are the best building blocks I can buy my child?

In today's article, we will share some of our ranges and also make recommendations on which set might be right for your child.

Building blocks, as you would know, are a foundation toy that no little one should be without. They are wonderful for developing motor skills, spatial awareness, and confidence for your children.

There are many to choose from. Including magnetic blocks, blocks that aren’t quite blocks, wooden, rubber and cardboard building blocks.

So let us start!

K’s Kids Knock Building Blocks. These beautiful little coloured soft blocks are made for babies and toddlers. There are little peek-a-boo windows and house type shapes, so your little one can have hours of fun.  

Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks - Suitable from baby to adult. Beautiful blocks let your child create some unique structures from little birds to weightlifters. Fun for any age. For our whole Tegu range, please click here.

                               Tegu Pocket Pouch Prism (Jungle) 

                                          Tegu 24 Piece (Tints)     

                                     Tegu 42 Piece (Jungle)

Kapla Planks - Suitable from three years + is a wonderful wooden construction toy encouraging children to learn about the inherent power of the mathematic ratio and its application to architecture.

                      Kapla Planks 200 Wooden Blocks 

            Kapla Planks Octocolour 100 Wooden Blocks 

Plan Toys 50 Blocks - Suitable for two years + this set is a combination of natural wood and colours. Great for stimulating your child's imagination.

Melissa and Doug Wooden ABC and 123 Building Blocks. Hand painted artwork, numbers, letters, and images on the one set. It just makes this set not only economical, but a wonderful learning toy.

Fatbrain Toys Tobbles Neo. We love this one. Your child can have the blocks wiggle, spin, stack, and balance even when the second block is bigger than the first. Not quite blocks, because they are not round. But they do everything blocks do and more.

We feel this is a wonderful way to show children there are many solutions to any problem and many options.

They are easy for Babies to hold, and we feel one of the best stacking toys on the market.

Hape Maple Building Block Set - Another beautiful little wooden and coloured block set.

Hape ABC Building Blocks - Ok so you caught us out, we have more than one Hape set of building blocks. Why? Well, value for money and quality these are great building blocks for your children.

Suitable from 2 years + they are great blocks to own.

Melissa and Doug Alphabet Truck - Yes an alphabet truck set. I mean who does not want a truck with so they can carry their building blocks from one room to another :)

Hape Fantasia Stacking Block Train. A train set that you can stack the colourful building blocks on also carries from room to room. These little blocks are also great at building fine motor skills for your child.

Fat Brain Toys Squigz. This colourful little set won “Best in Play International Toyfair 2013, Parenting Magazine.”

Not a classical set of building blocks, the variety of options and they way the stick together for your little one are amazing. For the lateral thinking little one. Suitable three years +

Hape Fantasy Castle - A 22 piece building block set that you can make into a castle. Need we say more?

Hape Undersea Building Blocks - Want an octopus in your blocks? Ok. How about a starfish? You get the idea. Just a novel way for your child to have more fun with building blocks. Suitable from 2 years +

Now you know just how many blocks there are to choose from. Of course at the outset of the article we stated that we would also make recommendations.

Now the simplest way to do this is to let you know is what we have bought or own children, and what we wish we also had :)

Having a 2-year-old and four-year-old, we bought a couple of sets for each of them.

Our experience with building blocks and each of our children has been very different.

Our daughter gets the greatest sense of achievement by building towers. And once they were complete we would sit there either counting the numbers with her or explaining the letters and words.

The Melissa and Doug Wooden 123 Building Blocks, Hape ABC were the ones we initially used with Sienna. She loved them, and she still does today at the age of 4.

With our son, he was lucky because when he was born so was our toy store. For him, he got some of the latest building blocks as well as the benefit of using some of Sienna’s.

Little Zach loves his Tegu, which was perfect for him even as a one-year-old. They are beautiful little wooden blocks that connect via magnets and safe from baby right through the ages.

He also loves Fatbrain Tobbles Neo because of the shape and how easy they are for his little hand to hold.

But you know what he loves most of all, knocking them all down. A bit like his father when he was young.

We have personally hand selected every building block in our range like we were choosing them for our children.

No matter which one you decide on you will be happy. Whether learning the alphabet, numbers or how to stack. We have a building block for every occasion and every munchkin. For our whole range of blocks, please click here.

Why? Well, because learning should be fun.

Got more questions, ask away..

Posted in building blocks, fine motor skills, spatial smart toys, toddler toys, toys for babies, toys for babies and toddlers, toys for preschoolers, wooden building blocks, Wooden magnetic blocks, wooden toys

Melissa and Doug Puzzles for Everyone

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

If you have heard of Melissa and Doug Puzzles, you will know that they have been making puzzles for children since inception.

They built their business because they felt there were not enough toys on the market that helped children develop.  

Melissa and Doug Puzzles is only part of their range, but a very special part.

We carry most puzzles they have in Australia, and if you are after a particular one that is not stocked, we will try and obtain it for you.

They define their puzzles into age groups. Although depending on your child’s development stage, you can certainly try more complex puzzles.

In the 1-2 year bracket, Melissa and Doug Puzzles include; House Pets, Barnyard Animals, Jungle Friends and Large Farm.

House Pets Jumbo Knob Puzzle

Barnyard Animals Jumbo Knob Puzzle

Jungle Friends Jumbo Knob Puzzle

Large Farm Jumbo Knob Puzzle

They also have Fire Trucks, Princess, Numbers as well as Shapes. So the range and options are larger.

Fire Truck Chunky Puzzle

Princess Chunky Puzzle

Numbers Peg Puzzle

Shapes Peg Puzzle

Melissa and Doug Puzzles are great for teaching toddlers about shapes, animals, and numbers. The full collection is teaching them much more.

Continuing in the range there is the 3 - 5 years of age bracket. These Melissa and Doug Puzzles come to life, as the pieces are smaller and the detail greater.

You have the Construction Site, Prehistoric Sunset (Dinosaurs), Rescue Vehicles and a lot more. Each one of these is great for helping children develop motor skills and enjoy learning through puzzles.

 Construction Site - 12 Piece

Prehistoric Sunset - 24 Piece

To The Rescue - 24 Piece

In the same range there is a Princess, Fairy Tale and the every popular Busy Barn. One of the puzzles that we chose for our kids is the 3d cube sets of Pets. This puzzle enables your children to make many different puzzles and adds a level of complexity.

Woodland Princess - 24 Piece

Fairy Tale Friendship Floor Puzzle - 24 Piece

Busy Barn Shaped Floor Puzzle - 32 Piece

Pets Cub Puzzle

Farm Maze

Alphabet Wooden Puzzle Cards

Wooden Bear Family Dress-Up

All these wonderful designs and shapes make learning very enjoyable for your child.

The last age bracket is the 5 years + range, and you will find some amazing puzzles in this range. You will also note that some of these puzzles are included in the 3-5 bracket.

This is because as children learn through practice they can become very advanced with puzzles. You watch them, as they do the same ones over and again.

In fact, our four-year-old daughter can do puzzles better than dad, but keep that between us.

In this range of the Melissa and Doug Puzzles there are the 96 pieces Princesses Puzzle, Wooden Cards of Numbers and Alphabets.

Princess Puzzle - 96 Piece

Numbers Wooden Puzzle Cards

Alphabet Wooden Puzzle Cards

This is where your child needs to connect the right letter with the right word or the right number with the right number of pictures in the piece.

Melissa and Doug Puzzles are beautifully made, and regardless of which one you might like for your child they will bring you both hours of fun.

The sense of achievement they get from completing a puzzle is lovely to watch. It also fantastic to help them through the process, working together and building that special bond.

Puzzles as you probably are aware are a wonderful development tool for children, teaching them motor skills, both fine and major.

They teach them cognitive skills as the solve the problems as well as emotional skills as they learn patience and are rewarded by the completion of a beautiful picture.

Clearly we love Melissa and Doug Puzzles, and that is because we know you will love them too.

Posted in developing confidence in kids, fine motor skills, jigsaw puzzles, melissa & doug, melissa & doug puzzles, Melissa and doug, Melissa and Doug Australia, problem solving skills for kids, puzzles

Melissa and Doug Extensive Range of Puzzles at KidzInc

Posted on November 06, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

We are very proud to stock an extensive range of Melissa and Doug Puzzles. Originally this little brand started out in 1988, and they been making puzzles for a very long time.

Their original focus was educational products for children. They started because they love children, and they felt there were not enough products on the market that made learning fun.

What better way to do this then create puzzles. We stock a extensive range of their collection in every age group because puzzles are a brilliant way to educate children.

They are great to develop gross motor skills and fine motor skills.

We have curated the Melissa and Doug Puzzles in the following areas.

Simply clicking on any of the links below will take you to the full range for that age group.

Age 1 - 2

Age 3 - 5

Age 5 +

We love the Melissa and Doug Puzzles because they are dedicated to helping children learn. Whilst puzzles are great at building major and minor motor skills, they are also wonderful in other educational areas for children.

They help them with pattern recognition or memory, learning words, and letters or rather language.

Other areas these puzzles help children with include cognitive and emotional skills. From a cognitive point of view, children can solve problems, and make associations.

Emotionally children learn patience and are rewarded just by finishing the puzzle. In fact, when the can first put the first sheep back in the slot, this brings them a lot of joy. Any mother or father who has witnessed this would know what we are talking about.

If you have not seen this yet, you are in for a beautiful moment.

We love watching our little boy do this, and he even claps when he succeeds.

Simply it is why we love puzzles, and we are sure your children will too.

The full range of Melissa and Doug puzzles are here.

Posted in developing confidence in kids, educational toys, fine motor skills, jigsaw puzzles, melissa & doug, melissa and doug australia, problem solving skills for kids, puzzles, spatial skills

The Magical Music of Hape Wooden Toys

Posted on October 09, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

If you love the feel and look of well built and beautifully crafted wooden toys. Then you are likely to love Hape Toys, who make all the toys from wood or bamboo.

The craftsmanship in these toys are amazing, and we wanted to share just a few designs with you today.

Our very fist purchase was the Hape Guitar; we bought this for our daughter, and we could not be happier with it. Oh Yes, she likes it too. It comes in either blue or red; we went with red, and it is gorgeous little guitar. Given the quality of this product it is also a great price at $36.99.
 
We like it so much we bought this Hape Rock and Rhythm band for our son. As you can see below the Rock and Rhythm band by Hape is one of the funkiest little drum, cymbal and rhythm makers around. This one is a Christmas present and as such we have not unpacked it yet. But we have peeped at it as you do, and we think he is going to love it. Dad will probably play with it too.

Now this one we have not seen as yet, but the picture tells the story well. It is Hape Grand Piano, now who didn’t want a piano as a kid? In fact for some reason I still think I can play the piano, and I have never had a lesson. It is a 30 key small but Grand Piano, built just right for those little fingers, but still making big sounds. Hang on perhaps we should not say that :) We are sure they will be beautiful sounds.

It is a great size at a Length: 19.69, Width: 20.47 and Height 23.62 inch’s. So you can have a music recital almost anywhere.

But for the little musician there is also a wonderful Hape Early Melodies Xylophone. It has a beautiful rainbow design and is made with love. It is great for starting the love of music from an early age and wonderful for your little ones early development.

Next in the Hape Musical Range is the Melodies Pound and Tap Bench. Little wooden hammer included! This gorgeous little toy is constructed from wood and metal and is a combination hammer bench and the musical xylophone. When you place the balls over the Xylophone and pound them, they roll onto the Xylophone and music ensues.

What a wonderful way to learn about music and cause and effect at the same time.

We love music, and we are pretty sure everyone does?? The wonderful aspect about teaching music to our kids, is that it develops them in so many ways whilst also being enjoyable.

These musical wooden toys develop dexterity, hand-eye co-ordination, logic, and matching. Also spatial relationships and critical thinking, as well as an understanding of cause and effect.

It is hard to believe something that is so enjoyable can also be so beneficial. Then again maybe it is not?

We have just spoken about the Hape Musical Toys today, but there full range is just a lovely, and you can see it by clicking here.

We feel music is a wonderful gift, and if you are thinking about a Christmas or Birthday present for that special little one. Well, we know you and they will love Hape.

Posted in baby toys, educational toys, fine motor skills, Hape toys, music and children, music toys, preschooler toys, toddler toys

Magna Tiles Australia - Magnetic Blocks where Math and Creativity Meet

Posted on October 08, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

We absolutely love Magna Tiles Australia, and if you are familiar with them no doubt, you love Magna Tiles too. If not let us explain not only the benefits of Magna Tiles for your children, but why they are such a wonderful and unique product.

They make a wonderful toy for boys or girls, and are popular with both for either birthdays, christmas, any special occasion or if you just want that educational toy to entertain them for hours while developing their little minds in the process. 

For girls and boys of three years of age and up, they were one of the best toys in 2014, 2015 and now 2016. Magna Tiles are “where math, science, creativity meet.”

Currently, we stock the 32 piece set, the 48 and 100 piece sets.

Please note we are waiting for our Magna Tiles shipment to arrive, but we do have stock of the popular Playmags, and Popular Playthings Magsnaps magnetic tiles. 

Please read our Review on Playmags vs Magna Tiles if you need help deciding on which set to buy. 

Magna Tiles 32 Piece Set

Magna Tiles CC 48 Piece DX Set

Magna Tiles 100 Piece Set

These tiles are magnetic, and attract on all sides and in all manner of combinations. Enabling young boys and girls to create pyramids, cubes, and many different geometric shapes. Our daughter is currently building little box and triangle houses for her toys.

The Magna Tiles are fun for children because they give them a "hands on" approach to learning. Boys and Girls are able to critically think through play. This happens when the tiles do not lineup the way the child imagines and your boy or girl will need to think through alternatives. This is great for developing a creative mindset.

The Magna Tiles access the right side of the brain, training through simple fun and construction. This helps with math and spatial relationships, by creative building.

It is quite surprising how many development areas the magna tiles impact in young children. The areas include pattern recognition spotting similar shapes like a triangle. Identifying different shapes and colours, spotting how shapes are symmetrical when joined together.

The Magna Tiles are also great for developing fine motor skills. They are ideal for understanding how magnets work, and magnetic principles. They are wonderful for building skills, and developing your child’s imagination. The building options feel endless.

Outside of being a great product for developing your son or daughter, they are also a multiple toy winner.

They have won the:

Sorry to have listed so many Awards, however one of the things we feel as parents, with so many toys on the market today its good to know that you're buying a toy that's well regarded and recognized by the toy industry.

If we were selecting toys for our children (we do all the time :)). We too would want to know if they were award winners, and how they might help our children develop.

This is why we love Magna Tiles, and we know you and your little ones will as well. Great for Boys and Girls 3 years +

For our complete range of Magna Tiles and other Magnetic Tiles, please click here.

Customer Testimonials

What some of Our Customers have to say about Magna Tiles:

"Great product my grandchildren love them,very creative" by Shelia L

"An excellent purchase from a great seller. I love this construction toy. This is the third set I have bought. Two for grandchildren who live in the UK and this one for granddaughter who lives here in Oz. I highly recommend this to all. 10/10" by Wendy O

Posted in award winning toys, buy magna-tiles australia, buy magnatiles australia, construction toys, educational toys, fine motor skills, gifts for children, magna tiles 100 australia, magna tiles 100 piece set, magna tiles 32 piece set, magna tiles 48 piece set, magna tiles australia, magna tiles sale, Magna-tiles, magnatiles australia, magnetic blocks for kids, magnetic tile australia, Magnetic toys, STEM Toys, valtech magna tiles australia

Building Blocks that Build Kids

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Lubica Misevski

Do you remember having building blocks as a kid? I do. They were probably one of my most enjoyable activities when I was younger. I used to spend hours building them up only to knock them down again.

Well, they have come a long way since I was a kid. We now have Hape Blocks, Melissa & Doug Blocks, and Plan Toys Blocks. All these blocks are slightly different and offer girls or boys a variety of choice.

In the range we selected we have the Hape Fantasy Castle blocks, which as you would expect builds a fantasy castle. A lovely one at that.

Hape also make a maple block set, which offers a little less structure. It leave’s your child to create a castle, house, building or whatever they may choose or create.

The last line in the Hape range is the Undersea Blocks. Yes, that is correct the undersea blocks. You can make turtles; it has starfish, and an Octopus to create. It is certainly something I would have enjoyed as a kid.

Lastly in the Hape range we also have the classic ABC blocks, the Hape City Planner Blocks, and the Fantasia Stacking Block Train. As you would expect they are all beautifully made, and durable.

One of our favourite ranges is the Melissa and Doug range. We like this range because of the quality of the craftsmanship. The are made to perfection down to the very last detail.

We have included the alphabet nesting and stacking blocks, the 100 wood block set, the classic ABC block cart which is always a popular seller. As it is nice for your children to have a trolley, they can pack the blocks into and pull around the house. Just try not to step on the odd stray later :).

To finish this range off, we have also included a beautiful ABC/123 range.

Last but not least is the Plan Toys selection, which includes the traditional blocks in a group of 50 and the Creative Blocks.

But we hate to say this, one of our favourites in their range is the Castle and the Fairy Tale Blocks. The fairy tale set includes two horse with a carriage and two figures.

The castle theme is just as wonderful and will provide your children with hours of fun and play.

   

As you would expect toy blocks promote;

• Fine motor skills
• Hand-eye coordination
• Spatial skills

They are also good for developing creative and lateral thinking skills. Will this go with that? Can I build this?

Additionally children are also learning cause and effect. If I build it too high, it might fall over. If the shapes do not match or logically belong together perhaps, I need to try another way?

They also learn patience and focus as they are engaged in the activity of building. This leads to enjoyment of them seeing what they have built. When our daughter or son stand there pointing to their structures, we are just as proud of them as they are proud of themselves.

We have selected a lovely range for you, and we know whatever you choose, you and your little one will have hours of fun.

Posted in educational toys, fine motor skills, preschooler toys, problem solving toys, social development toy, toddler toys, wooden building blocks