Almost to the middle of October this year, I received an email from Miss Karen of Whimsical Articles asking whether I would be interested in reviewing the products in their online store. I was still in the midst of settling down with baby Carolyn (barely half month old then) and hence decided to keep in view for the time being.
A few weeks later, I emailed them again asking whether I can review two of their products which I think our 2 kiddos would be using and enjoying. My review for the 1st product was Melissa & Doug Wooden Bead Set - Sweet Hearts and here is the review for the 2nd product.
Description about the sponsor:
"At Whimsical Articles, we also wanted our children to have fun too! And so we lovingly handpicked every item for the kid’s crafts - to help encourage our little ones to develop creatively and have endless hours of fun! From products that one child can do at home; to the products that can be done as a group and not forgetting crafts which can be made during parties. Your child will have loads of fun! These crafts will help your child to create masterpieces and keep as keepsakes for years to come!"
The reason why I requested to review the The Orb Factory Sticky Mosaics - My First (Team Rescue) is so that I can let both my older 2 kiddos try it out. Our 4.5 years old boy loves vehicles like fire engine and police car while our 2 years old girl is crazy with stickers, so this is a great combo that can serve the purposes of entertaining and educating both our kiddos!
My feedback on the product's packaging: The sticky mosaics are placed on either colored foam layers or the shiny glittery sticky mosaics are stuck on transparent plastic layers. It's hard to believe that there are over 600+ mosaic stickers and gems in this packaging!
My feedback on the product: The quality of the sticky mosaics is very good and strong, in fact some of them are so strong that I have to help out our kiddos to unstick it from their little fingers. The colors are striking and eye catching and the sticky mosaics are soft and smooth to the touch which is good for little kiddos' fingers.
My feedback on kiddos using the product: The moment I opened the packaging, our 2 kiddos lunged at the contents, trying hard to grab onto them to see what is it all about! I spent a few minutes going through the contents (while trying my best to hold off our 2 anxious kiddos) and then I asked our 4.5 years old which rescue vehicle he would like to choose and we ended up with the police car. I slowly explained to our 4.5 years old boy what we are supposed to achieve in the activity, to stick the appropriate sticky mosaics based on the colors and shapes shown on the rescue vehicle card.
As I had mentioned earlier, our 2 years old Alyson is crazy with stickers but being a tad young to be doing this activity since she can't quite grasp the concept that she must stick the mosaics according to their colors and shapes, I let her played along by peeling off the sticky mosaics, passing it one by one to her so that she can passed them on to her older brother. I can see Alyson feeling happy and proud for being a part of this activity!
Because of this, I actually get to train our girl to be patient in waiting for me to peel and pass to her the sticky mosaics one by one and she also had to wait again for her brother to slowly stick the mosaics correctly. As for our 4.5 years old boy, I am amazed he is able to sit still and slowly adjust and stick the mosaics correctly.
Summary: Of course at this point in time, it is still too early to expect our girl to be doing this activity like our 4.5 years old boy who is clearly enjoying the activity! On top of that, I am pretty satisfied with this product as it really kept our kiddos occupied and quiet throughout the duration they used to complete the stickers for the police car template.
I definitely see the potential of this product being played again in future though I was a bit worried that the sticky mosaics are not enough thanks to our 2 years old girl peeling off the stickers and sticking them all over the places instead of on the rescue vehicle template! In any case, this definitely could make a great gift option as well :)
You can get this at http://www.whimsicalarticles.com/kids-crafts/the-orb-factory-sticky-mosaics-my-first-team-rescue.html
Whimsical Articles has also offered a special discount for my blog followers. Below are the details of the discount:
Purchase RM180.00 or more and get additional RM15 off on top of the already discounted products.
Customer can use this voucher as many time as possible. Valid from now until 31st December 2013.
Steps to get the discount:
1) Log in / Register as a member at www.whimsicalarticles.com
2) Add in the products to purchase into cart.
3) At Check-out, place in Coupon Code : IFM2013
4) Please check that products total is more than RM180 before code can be used.
I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by Whimsical Articles 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. 