Sometime in July this year, I received an email invitation for me to bring our kiddos to this centre to try out a developmental play session where children will learn to use their hands to explore, refining their sense of touch, and developing their co-ordination and fine motor control. The place was a bit too far from our house and being heavily pregnant at 8 months now and with 2 very clingy kiddos at this stage, I politely declined the offer but was then offered to try out their playbox kit at home since it is not convenient for me to go out and about. So yes, anything that I can try out with my kiddos at home, I said yes of course!
Description from the product page:
"WeePLAY is established by three sisters who are mummies (well, one will be in October 2013). We believe that kids should be given opportunities for healthy play that develop all of their senses.
The Messy Play Boxes are an extension of our messy play sessions. The reasons why we introduced the play boxes are for parents who love the idea of messy play and would have loved to come to our play sessions but for one reason or another (time, location, etc), cannot do so."
** Feedback on packaging and product features: I received the WeePLAY Messy Play Box which contains 3 tubes of WeePLAY Non-toxic Paint (colors: Neon pink, green and yellow), 3 tubs of WeePLAY Dough (colors: red, yellow and green), a paint palette and 2 paint brushes.
I immediately opened up one of the dough containers and did a smell test. I don't know why but somehow I always associate dough with yucky smells (like ermm... sweat?) so that was my 1st test on the product. And guess what? It smells goooooooodd... so fragrant as if they dumped a bottle of perfume into the dough!
Next test was taste. Yes, I did taste the dough. Why? I was afraid my kiddos will put it into their mouth (since they smell so good) and what does the dough taste like? Salty! It turned me off and I guess my kiddos won't be attempting to put the dough into their mouth hahahah...
Third test was texture. I pressed my finger onto the dough and it left my finger imprints there. It is easy to roll the dough though one of the colors (the green one) is a bit sticky and wet still. I have clarified with the company on this feedback and received this reply:
"As to your question about the green dough, here's an honest answer. As you know, we make this all in our kitchen and therefore, no ISO! The good thing about it though, is that it's all safe with no chemical whatsoever. The stickiness can sometimes be caused from either a wee bit much water (when we were making it) or from being in the fridge not kneaded or played - we suspect the latter in your case. The stickiness will lessen the more your wee ones play with it." So there you go, case solved!
Next up, the paint. I took the container with the cutest color of all... neon pink! Love it! Our 2 years old ninja girl seems to be attracted to this color as well :) I rolled the container around my hand and the paint move slowly, shows it is not too diluted or watery. The colors are even and you don't see any lumps or anything. I proceeded to pour out some on the paint palette for my kiddos to try on.
** Feedback on the usage: I let my kiddos try out the dough. I think my kiddos have some sort of OCD problem. They don't really like sticky things on their hands. Look at our ninja girl, not even touching the dough much! I tried coaxing her to have a feel of the dough but she keeps on shaking her head and insisted on using a plastic toy spoon to poke and prod the dough.
Our 4 years old boy on the other hand is a bit more adventurous. I think he thought it is the same Play-doh material we have and he uses one of his Play-doh toy to play along with the WeePLAY dough. My boy smacked the dough onto his play table and was busy cutting his imaginary food and feeding Cookie Monster.
After sometime, they got restless and I decided time to let them try the paint at our balcony. So I poured out a dollop each from the paint container onto each side of the paint palette, gave our kiddos a paint brush each, smaller brush for our girl and bigger brush for our boy. Our girl immediately scooped the neon pink paint while our boy got onto mixing the green and yellow paint. He then practised his number writing and also drew a Truffula tree on our balcony floor.
A few days later, I let my kiddos play with the paint at our balcony again. This time, I told our boy to color some of the sea shells we brought back from Penang last year during our family trip.
** Feedback on the mess and cleaning up: I was initially quite fretful at the thought of cleaning up the mess... the paint and everything! But amazingly, the paint washes off easily the moment you sprayed water on it. During the play, our girl got some paint on her legs and it doesn't make her uncomfortable or itchy or anything. In fact, she continued playing and even happily swabbed some paint on me! Our boy got so excited he painted all over the balcony floor and walls!
Cleaning up the paint is very easy. Just wash it off with water and it comes off easily. Maybe it is our balcony floor tiles but I realised the floor is very slippery while we were washing the paint off so I had to be extra cautious and keep watching our kiddos in case they slipped and fell.
** Overall Feedback: I like the Messy Play Box, especially the paint ones as I can see my kiddos enjoying themselves, coloring and doodling happily and not worried about the mess being permanently left on the floor/walls.
I also think the idea of this playbox is cool! I have seen this type of products being sold overseas (online too) where parents can subscribe and pay monthly for the crafts and playbox which will be compiled and delivered straight to their doorstep every month so that parents can use and let their kiddos play with the kit. I hope to see more products being offered by the company and that more parents are open to this concept to allow their children go crazy with messy playing (and all the time learning as well) !
The Messy Play Box (retailed at RM50 for members and RM55 for non-members) is one of the bestsellers alongside the Wee Box (RM23 for members and RM26 for non-members) which contains 5 of those WeePLAY non-toxic Paints. The other 3 Play Boxes currently available at the moment are The Sensory Dough Play Box, The Messy Marble Play Box and The Messy Slime Play Box (all 3 are RM29 for members and RM33 for non-members). All 5 play boxes are available for sale through www.weeplaymalaysia.com.
I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by WeePLAY in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.
