Bright and vibrant

Posted by Samantha on 21st Jul 2015

My son is 32 months old and was instantly captivated by the many unusual and unique objects in the Hide and Seek Collection.
Straight away he wanted to open all of the intriguing containers, asking what was in each as he went along. Initially he wanted to explore everything at once and hurriedly opened everything and picked each item up, presumably to see what role it would have in his investigation.
Once he had had a look at most of the objects, the bright colours of the Worry Doll caught his eye and he took it out of the vibrant coloured bag (interestingly he called this its hammock). He then set about seeing what he could fit this into and settled on the heart shaped tin. Once he had put the lid on he said “night night, sleep tight” to the Worry Doll.
He was extremely fascinated by the lovely gold coloured stones and clear gems included in the collection and transferred these from container to container giving them a good shake as he went and enjoying the sounds they made.
The Russian Doll was a bit of an enigma to him and he seemed very excited by the doll having another two dolls inside – it was great to watch his reaction each time he realised there was another doll inside.
Upon discovering the large pink gem I encouraged him to look through it to see what he could see. He said he could see “lots of mummies” which he thought was great! He twisted it round and round in front of his eyes and was fascinated by the multiple image effect.
He enjoyed opening the lavender bag and taking the pouch of lavender out, he was very keen for me to smell it and then used it as a pillow for the Russian Doll.
He tried to open the Glass Jar without success initially but persevered and continued opening and closing it for some time, Louis then moved on to putting the stones and gems in there and closing it and then opening it again to take some out. Together we then counted some in, took some out and counted how many were left in and how many were left out. Louis enjoyed this and we practised counting for some time.
My son certainly found the vast array of bright and vibrant objects appealing and was very happy to spend time investigating and exploring the size, shape, texture and colour of the items in detail.
It was clear that the endless play potential of the Hide and Seek collection honed in on his fine motor skills and inspired him to problem solve, encouraged role play and allowed him to practise counting and sorting. It is a beautiful collection which presents so many opportunities for children to explore, investigate and be creative.