We were lucky enough to be sent a selection of sensory toys and a set of crayon rocks from Mushroom & Co for the purpose of this review. Mushroom & Co boasts that all their products are 'both 100% safe and biodegradable as they are made from
completely natural materials' and 'Each and every product is hand painted, to
help make the final product unique and truly special.' I love their motto... 'Safe, Fun and Naturally Done!'I couldn't wait for our package to arrive!
This is 'Alfie the Spider' from Mushroom & Co's 'Lanco' sensory toys range. He can be bought for £10.00 here: http://www.mushroomandco.com/products/alfie-the-spider. Alfe is hand made with 100% organic natural rubber from the sap of Hevea tree in Spain. He is wonderfully textured, brightly coloured and has a soft squeak inside. He is flexible, durable and soft.
Daisy really enjoyed playing with Alfie the Spider... she squashed, squeezed, threw, stamped on and stretched him to start with (poor Alfie!), luckily he is very durable. I was initially worried Daisy might be able to pull his hairy tangles off or get his squeaker out, but nope! His squeaker is very secure inside and the tangles can't be pulled or bitten off... phew! Daisy then used Alfie to sing 'Incy Wincy Spider' which she enjoyed.
This is 'Heady Caterpillar', again, from Mushroom & Co's 'Lanco' sensory toys range. He can be bought for £10.00 here: http://www.mushroomandco.com/products/heady-the-caterpillar. As with 'Alfie the Spider', 'Heady Caterpillar' is hand made with 100% organic natural rubber from the sap of Hevea tree in Spain and hand painted with non-toxic food grade dyes. He has a squeaker inside and lovely colours and textures.
Daisy played with 'Heady Caterpillar' similarly to 'Alfie the Spider', squeezing, pulling, twisting and stretching him. She didn't play with him as long as Alfie, possibly because she didn't know a caterpillar song!
This is 'Maggy the Snake', again, from Mushroom & Co's 'Lanco' sensory toys range. She can be bought for £10.00 here: http://www.mushroomandco.com/products/maggy-the-snake. She is made from the same natural rubber and handpainted with non-toxic food grade dyes. She also has a squeaker inside and has many textures and colours to explore.
Daisy liked playing with 'Maggy the Snake' and enjoyed making a 'Hissssss' noise whilst moving her along the floor. By this time she knew 'Maggy the Snake' would have a squeaker as well and didn't spend long playing with her, possibly because of the similarity between these toys.
This is 'Hunter the Hedgehog', again, from Mushroom & Co's 'Lanco' sensory toys range. He can be bought for £8.00 here: http://www.mushroomandco.com/products/hunter-the-hedgehog. He is made from the same natural rubber and handpainted with non-toxic food grade dyes, however, he is a much 'harder' sensory toy and is not as soft or flexible as Alfie, Heady or Maggy.
Daisy loved Hunter. At first she squeezed him and stamped on him and then enjoyed rolling him along the floor and throwing him to me and trying to catch him. I think this was her favourite of the 'Lanco' sensory toys as it had more of a 'purpose' (like a ball) for her.
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This is 'OVO the Egg Set (x4)' and is from Mushroom & Co's 'Lanco' range. This set can be bought for £7.96 here: http://www.mushroomandco.com/products/set-of-4-ovo-the-egg-original. They are made from the same natural rubber and are handpainted with non-toxic food grade dyes. They each have a squeaker inside and are soft, flexible and bouncy! This set comes in a lovely cardboard egg box. These are advertised as being perfect squeak toys for small to medium dogs as well as toys for babies and toddlers.
This was by far Daisy's favourite of the 'rubber' toys she played with. She has a bit of a fascination with eggs at the moment, so when I gave her these her eyes lit up! She spent a lot of time taking them out of the egg box, putting them back in, rearranging them, putting the lid on, taking it off, bouncing & rolling them and then finally naming them (luckily we're a family of four now and I was a pink egg!) Overall she spent around 30 minutes engrossed in these eggs and even now they are the toys she will keep going back to. Fab!
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This is a set of 16 'Crayon Rocks'. This set can be bought for £11.00 here: http://www.mushroomandco.com/products/16-rocks-in-a-velvet-bag. They are made from natural coloured soy wax and are perfect to develop a child's fine motor skills, particularly their grip to aid with mark making and early writing. The Crayon Rocks smell lovely and feel quite silky. This set comes in a lovely red velvet bag.
Daisy LOVED these! The shape of the Crayon Rocks are perfect for little fingers and she was able to create very colourful pictures with large, wide strokes with a pincer grip. After she created a few pictures, she was also interested in taking out and putting the Crayon Rocks back in the velvet bag and she enjoyed matching the colours with the colour guide attached to the bag. A winner!
We had great fun with this toy selection, so thank you Mushroom & Co! I think they will all be welcome additions to our sensory classes and can be enjoyed by all ages. I would be interested to see what the babies will think of the squeaky toys... when our younger daughter Indie is older (she's only 3 weeks old!) she can explore these too.
Please visit Mushroom & Co's website here: www.mushroomandco.com to see all the other toys they have for sale... all of which are eco friendly and 100% safe for babies and toddlers.
We were sent a selection of 'Mushroom & Co' toys for the purpose of this review.
