Have Yourselves A Merry LEGO Christmas

As many will already know my little man is a tad LEGO crazy. That’s why we are very pleased to have been granted the privilege of becoming official LEGO family bloggers.

A week or so back I wrote a post titled “What children with Aspergers really want for Christmas” I wrote this as result of a tread I started on my Facebook page asking other parents of children diagnosed with Aspergers what was on their child’s Christmas wish list. The feed back was amazing what with some 5,000 + page members I managed to start a decent conversation thread and gather lots of great answers.

The list featured the unusual strange requests such as leaf blowers and doughnuts to the more desired gifts of smart phones, Star Wars and iPads However, appearing most frequently on the list was that of LEGO… Whether Lego StarWars, Lego city, or Lego friends… Lego was most definitely the most desired gift of all. You can read the post Here.

With this I couldn’t wait to bring my readers this very awesome Lego gift guide which won’t break the bank. All the Lego sets below are currently being sold for under £20. I do hope this will provide you all with some last minute Christmas inspiration.

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Lego Creationary: This is a must buy family game for Christmas that allows players to really show of their Lego building skills. This interactive game requires 3-8 players allowing larger family groups and friends to enjoy the game together.

With four categories, vehicles, buildings, nature and things, a Roll of the Lego Dice will reveal which one. As you build your fellow players have the job in guessing just what it is your creating. With three levels of difficulty imagination is the key. Recommend Age 7+

The game normally retails for around £23, however Argos currently have it on special for £18.75 (the joys of last minute Christmas shopping)

Lego Technic Tracked Crane. This is Lego like I’ve never seen before. This kit has all the pieces to create a perfect fully working Tracked Crane. It can be manoeuvred into different positions and has a number of fully operational features such as the extending crane arm. What’s more this is a 2-in-1 model that rebuilds into a bulldozer that features moving tracks, rotating superstructure and more. Suitable for Age 8 Years + and currently priced in many stores online and in store for as little as £11

LEGO Marvel Superheroes The Avengers – Hulk (4530)

This is a brilliant kit, especially for the child who loves both superheros and Lego. There are a number of figures that can be purchased in the Avengers range and the hulk is one of them. The kit includes a Hulk buildable figure that can be customise using the flexible building system. Hulk stands over 7″ (18cm) tall when fully built.
Build bigger figures with the exclusive high friction joints.

This kit is targeted at children aged 6-12 years and its priced really reasonable with many retailers selling for a little over £10.

LEGO Friends Andrea’s Bunny House (3938)

Andrea’s bunny house forms part of the Lego friends range of toys that has produced and targeted more towards girls (though boys can quite happily play with them too). This is one of five smaller sets, you can also get Olivia, Mia, Stephanie and Emma all complete with their own play set. Andrea comes complete with buildable bunny hutch where she keeps her much loved bunny Jazz. These sets are targeted at children aged between 5-12 years old. They are reasonably priced with amazon currently selling this particular set for just £9.50

LEGO CITY MINING 4200

4200 Mining is one of many Lego city kits. This particular one comes with a yellow 4×4 vehicle with open back storage. You also get a mining Lego figure minifigure as well as a whole host of other accessories designed to help the miner find his gold. Little man is a fan of this set… The contents is more than enough to keep the kids busy for an hour or so on Christmas morning.

Set recommended for children ages 5-12 years and can be brought for around £7.99

LEGO Stocking Fillers…

LEGO NINJAGO – Masters of Spinjitzu – Slithraa (9573)

The Ninjago spinjitzu range are a great stocking fillers for Lego lovers. Both the excitement of a figure and a game where you must spin your way to victory against the Spinjitzu masters with the help of your 4 battle cards and weapon sets.

Set Includes… Slithraa minifigure.
blue transparent spinner, blue crown, LEGO bricks, golden weapon, 2 regular weapons, a character card and 4 battle cards.

This suits Kids between the ages of 6-14 years. They can have great fun with the spinjitzu sets as they battle it out with their friends. I’ve managed to find these on the Symths website for £7.99 other than that I could only find a number of them on various eBay stores who seem to be selling these for a frightening £17.99 or more. So… get yourselves to Symths… And quick!

LEGO NINJAGO – Masters of Spinjitzu Booster Pack (9556)

If you like the sounds of the above than why not also get a booster pack for the stocking. The Booster pack 9556 contains some 25 pieces including minifigure snake bytar in dark purple. You also get a whole host of other accessories and weapons including 4 more cards.

The booster pack is recommended to children between the ages 6-14 years and can currently be purchased from symths. Again, I’d get in quickly as this is pretty hard to find so at £3.99 its an awesome price.

LEGO NINJAGO – Lloyd ZX Keyring

LEGO Ninjago fans will love to find a Lloyd ZX who is attached to a keyring within their stockings. The minifigure provides Lego lovers with a funky way to dress up their keys. Perfect stocking filler for LEGO fans both young and old.

Casdon toy reviews and competition

8

DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS

Woo-hoo… were now in single figures & to celebrate I have two fantastic Casdon products to add to the Little Helpers Wish List, as-well as two Casdon Self Service Checkout’s to give to two very lucky ‘A boy with Asperger’s readers’!

 First up we have the ‘Little Helpers Dyson Ball Upright Vacuum‘

Housework… Yes, I’m training them young, especially the Littlest tot, Harley! At the grand old age of 2 this little dude really is a dab hand with the vacuum cleaner as you can see from this super sweet image below.

Seriously, I’m not punishing my tribe with child labour, “What do you take me for?” 😉 This perfectly formed Little Dyson happens to be nothing other than a perfectly formed toy! Please, don’t pretend like you already knew, you really did think the two-year old was doing the chores, didn’t you!

 Casdon are the guys responsible for this fantastic lifelike gadget known as the Dyson ball upright which forms part of it’s Little Helper range of toys. It’s so brilliant that it really does actually have some degree of working suction and cyclone action for understanding cause and effect as-well as providing much amazement from mum!

 This little toy Dyson ball upright is a great addition to any little tots toy box with it’s bright colours providing plenty of visual stimulation. Not only does it help develop your child’s all important gross motor skills with its great manoeuvrability but it also helps your child to explore the world of make-believe while training them up for the real deal (well, one day)!

You can’t get much closer to a real Dyson ball if you tried, this groovy little replica is so realistic you’ll have to look twice.

 Honestly would you believe it, this awesome toy has already created some fantastic parent/child interaction, it’s cute but funny watching my little fella grab ahold of his vacuum and walking beside me as I engage myself in the real task of housework.

This is the perfect size for the little guy and he can work the on and of function with ease, what with it’s nice fat chunky red button located right below the handle. Once started the Little balls in the cylinder fly about madly and once you get going with the chore of vacuuming you can really hear it becoming more & more powerful making it sound like a real life vacuum.

However, one word of advice… Do reframe from vacuuming your pets, cats especially!

It’s clear to see the 2 year loved it (however, note this is recommended for the slightly older tot of 3-8). Me… I like to train them that little bit earlier and as you can see, Little Harley will make a fine husband one day (though I don’t really want to think about such a prospect)!

 Parental Perspective

 What can I say? This looks great, it’s made well, in my opinion its good value for money and it trains your little people for the days of reversed roles, you know, the ones where you sit on your back-sides watching the box and they do some housework.

 Note this is a Battery operated product which requires type C batteries.

5 stars 

 This funky Little gadget for funky little people can be picked up from around £19.99

Prices do vary according to retailers… Here’s one or two…

Tesco direct & Amazon,

 For those of you that didn’t know already, this mum is happily playing the part of Mrs Santa, giving you my lovely followers the chance to win one of two ‘Casdon’s Little Helpers Dyson Ball uprights’

 The Competition is currently already running and will close on December the 22nd 2011

Click Here to be taken directly to the giveaway

for my next competition just continue on…

Next up it’s the Casdon Self Service Checkout

Harley went from cleaner to shop worker in a minute when I presented him with the Casdon Self Service Checkout, however being just two he didn’t really do much role play here, rather just made a mess of his freshly vacuumed living room. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter because as soon as my daughter dropped her school bag at the door, this little self checkout somehow made it’s way into her bedroom.

 As many may know, Little man (my eldest with Aspergers Syndrome) was never good at make-believe, he just wasn’t interested. Then Little sister came along and required a friend to play with, so… over time she taught him games such as school’s and yep, you guessed it, “Shops” even though his not very imaginative when engaging in such activities (tends to play the same way every time) he still enjoys it, and the fact that this was a “Self Service Checkout” made his day, given he loves the real deal at our local supermarket! Once home, Little man joined his sister and they went missing for some time. In this respect it’s my opinion this one isn’t  just loved by little monsters, as my daughter is 8 and will very soon become 9 and Little man is 11 though his just catching up on all that play he missed out on! 🙂

 The Casdon Self Service Checkout has some pretty neat features!

Spoken instructions for understanding and cause of effect; realistic features with lights and sounds for visual and aural stimulation plus pretend play food and money (great for the development of counting skills, as well-as social & life skills).

 Prenatal Perspective

 It’s a good toy with lots of accessories supplied therefore providing lots of playability. I’ll be honest, I was surprised, yet overjoyed at how it appealed to the older two children. The fact that it helped to develop some great interaction between the two was fabulous given these days you are more than  likely to find them fighting (and I mean full on punch ups)! I can most definitely see this one appealing to the slightly older child 3-4 which is what it actually recommends, though Harley is only 2 years old, he does still continue to gain lots of enjoyment from this toy, Ok… he doesn’t actually play shop keeper (which at 2 I wouldn’t expect) but his enjoying himself all the same! The two older children loved the Casdon Self Service Checkout and have tried their hardest to claim it as their own. Therefore it’s fair to say that it was a definite hit with them (they gave it a full 5 stars) However as a parent I’m going to give it a 3 and a half stars as I think it should be a tad lower in price though I still would recommend this, as it’s a great toy providing hours of fun .

 The Casdon Self Service Checkout is priced at around £19.99 though prices may vary from retailer to retailer

Amazon currently have it in-stock and are selling it at £19.03

Big Countdown to Christmas Competition 

 win one of two 

Casdon Self Service Checkouts

That’s right I have two of these babies to give away! So do you want to win one for your little shopper? Here’s how!

You must follow the complusory actions, those who don’t will not go into the final draw.

Complusory Actions

Comment & share your thoughts on another review out of the options below

Mookie Street Cruz

KidCam

Olly the Little white Van

Jack & Holly’s Cosmic Stories

Come back here and leave a comment telling me which review you commented on!

You must leave a contact either twitter or email please

Additional Enteries

For every additional entry you must leave an additional comment again leaving a contact. You can enter as many additional entries as you please.

Subscribe to this blog (either by email, networkblogs, google rss, or wordpress follow {for wordpress users only} as far as I’m aware). Then leave a comment letting me know how you subscribed.

Tweet: I want to win a Casdon self-service checkout with @clairelouise82 adding the ULR to this post! Please then leave a comment telling me you did it and your twitter name.

Use the stumble or Digg buttons located in this post to share the competition, remember to let me know you did it in a comment leaving an email or twitter contact.

 Competition will close on the 30th December

T&C

You must follow all the required steps to be entered, your post may be deleted if you don’t. Competition is open to the UK only and will close at mid-night on the 30th December 2011, with winners being announced shortly after. There is no cash alternative for this prize and winners name will be published on this blog. Winner has 72hrs to respond to the winning notification.

Related articles

• Win a Toy Dyson Ball in Our Big Christmas Countdown (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

Alice Kicks some butt!

Blog-Match the brilliant peeps that match bloggers with brands have paired us with the fantastic Tactic games.

 Tactic sent us two board games to review, Faqir and Dotto (which will follow in another post)

 So, what’s it normally like playing board games with two very competitive children, one who is rule band and throws an almighty strop when he loses?

A nightmare that’s what it is!

 Five minutes in and all hell broke loose. 

 Now, I should state If it was just me and the little man then his fine, he just can’t play alongside his sister unless his in control and things are going his way! Not easy to put this into practice when playing a board game.

 Later that evening Little man went out with his father and I took Alice and the youngest around my mothers house and decided to bring the game and ask my younger sister and her boyfriend to play the game with Alice. There was no point me even trying with my toddler about.

 Lucky my sisters boyfriend said he would give it a go and with much excitement Alice sat down to face her opponent.

 Inside the box

 On opening Faqir we found a board with lots of hole, 28 brightly coloured plastic cones, 24 faqir cards, 4 Faqir dressing rooms and a handy pouch to store cards and cones. 

 What each player requires

 Each player has a certain number of cards depending on how many are playing.

Each player has a dressing table in which they place one of their cards behind.

Lastly

Each player is given a set of cones, there are 4 different colours to choose from.

 Aim of the game!

 Players must place their first card behind they’re dressing table, leaving it only partially visible to their opponent.  Each card has a number of holes (like what you get if you hole punch paper) the holes make up a pattern. The players will take it in turns with the youngest going first (Yep it’s in the rules) each must make the same pattern on their card on the board. This is done by placing the supplied cones (aka nails, into the holes on the board) Once the pattern is complete and the players card can be placed on top of the nails avoiding injury and a nasty anti-tetanus jab 🙂 they move on to another card. Once all your cards have gone you have a winner.  

Piece of cake right!

No, not exactly it isn’t! You see, as mentioned above each players card is partially exposed to its opponent(s) resulting in part of the pattern being revealed. This may only be one or two holes but still it gives players a clue to their opponents movements allowing them to try and block you. 

 The contest

On the left we have Aaron, sister’s boyfriend aged 18 years

On the right we have Alice-Sara ten years his senior at just 8yrs

How is this even fair?

 Does Aaron have the ability to easily beat his younger opponent with his ability to think outside the box?

 No way, this is my daughter we are talking about!

Competitive should be her middle name.

 Jammy dodger pulled it off.

Whoop Whoop

That’s my girl

Alice scores it top marks ***** 5 star

Where Aaron gave it a lower ***  3 star… um I wonder why?

I later played this with little man and I think its brilliant for an older child with Aspergers as It improves non verbal reasoning skills and helps the child look beyond what he thinks he see. 

Well, Little man done well and I just bet him right at the end but it was close, very, very close!

Faqir by Tactic Games

Age 7+

2-4 players per game

Around 30 minute game time per round.

 Amazon currently stock this and I’ve checked and the good news is they have six in stock for £18.99 

Amazon

Visit the Tactic website for more information

http://www.tactic.net/

A DOUBLE WOW!

 In August Harley shared some WOW toys with everybody as part of the, ‘Santa’s little helpers’ feature that’s now in full swing and is in it’s third month. Little H had so much fun playing with these fabulous toys, that I wanted to share some more of their products with you all.

 For those who didn’t see our last WOW toy review back in August,here’s a little more about them.

 WOW toys are designed for children aged between 18 months to 5 years old.

 The guys at WOW know a lot  about toys, all are designed and made from scratch each going through a series of strict safety checks before finally being delivered to the shops.

 Developmental benefits

 WOW toys are packed with developmental benefits! These toys are great  for pre-schoolers as-well as children on the autism spectrum, not only do they help feed a child’s imagination but help develop basic motor skills to advanced social interactive role play.

 WOW toys don’t require any batteries and this is a feature I’m sure many parents will love!

 WOW toys grow with your child, offering great value for money, making them the perfect gift for your little ones.

 This time Harley reviewed Mario’s Pizzeria & Roll it Riley.

 Lets start with Mario’s Pizzeria. 

What you get: This is an 8 piece set, consisting of

 1x Pizzeria 

1x Magic oven

 1x push-along trike 

3x removable pizzas

 2x figures

Special features:

 Magic oven with push to bake button

Spin Mario on  the chimney to choose your topping

 Harley had a lot of fun playing with the pizzeria. His daddy is Italian so it made the perfect toy. Like all WOW toys, all pieces are well made, there are no little pieces all pieces are chunky and ideal for the little hands of a pre-schooler. I don’t know if Little H is advanced but he will already use two toy figures to act out a scene, pretending the figures are communicating with one another, and this is what he did with Mario and the delivery boy contained in this set. His older sister plays this way all the time and I think it’s because he regularly observes her in action. What ever the reason it’s very cute and I sit watching him enjoy himself with a smile. He had fun popping the pizzas in the oven and discovering the magic features (the oven button and spinning roof) As expected H was overly happy with the push along trike and took a number of his other WOW figures for a ride:)When I asked H if he liked his pizzeria, he clapped, and said yes before kissing all the pieces (something he seems to do a lot lately) on this response it gets ***** stars

 As a parent I think it’s a fabulous set, that hosts a great set of features for your child to discover and learn, keeping their little minds busy. The full five stars is given to this toy as it really does give off the WOW factor.

 Next up is… Roll it Riley.

 What you get: This is a 3 piece set, consisting of 

1x Steam roller called Riley

 1x driver called Kev

 1x road sign

Special features

Realistic engine sounds and rattling roller

 motorised toy

Roll and Spin sorter/ face changer

 Harley loved this one as he associated it with Bob the builder. Though  the supplied figure went by the name of Kev, H insisted on calling him  Bob and I gave up on telling him, “Not Bob, that’s Kev” So Bob it was. The face changer was enjoyed by H and as well as pushing it around the living room he sat spinning the roller and copying the expression,  which was so cute but funny at the same time. He played with Riley  alongside his pizzeria and at one stage he swapped roles between Kev  (aka Bob) and Mario:) Lots of fun was had and Riley kept him very busy and fully entertained. ****  stars is again given to, ‘Roll it Riley’!

 As a parent I loved the spin and sort face changing feature (when Riley moved his face expression changed) This made me think about the potential benefits of such a toy for a child on the autism spectrum who has difficulty understanding facial expressions as Riley could prove  a great resource, offering the children a fun way to learn and understand these expressions better. I really laughed on discovering the name of Riley’s driver, “Kev” it’s sad but true, that yes, many blocks in construction are called John or indeed Kev (well, at least it seems this way, as I know of a few, *giggle*) I’m finding it really easy to again give the product the full five stars.

  I highly recommend WOW toys for your toddler/pre-schooler. This is a very honest opinion, otherwise why would this mum have WOW toys hidden in the button of her cupboard ready for Little Harley’s 2nd Birthday which is on the 11th December. We are also planning to add to the collection at Christmas (yes, just two short weeks after his birthday, meaning a very expensive December for this mum).

 WOW toys can be brought from a number of stores both on and off line. Amazon have a great range and Argos stock them too (they are currently including a small number of their Wow toys in the offer, “2 toys for £15″.

Tescos direct are currently stocking, ‘Roll it Riley’ for a steal of a price, at just £10.99. To buy or for more information, Click HERE

Mario’s Pizzeria can be brought from Amazon for another fantastic price of just £16.99. To buy or for more information, Click HERE

Related articles

• Toys that are simply WOW (aspergersinfo.wordpress.com)

Alice gets creative with fab effex

My daughter Alice-Sara had a lovely surprise this morning, let me explain!

Well, nine days ago I arrived home from shopping to discover a card sat on my mat from Royal Mail. Not expecting a parcel I had no idea what my lovely postmen had tried to fit through my letter box with little joy. The parcel had therefore been taken back to the sorting office for arranged collection. Having no idea what it was and having been madly busy, I didn’t have time to collect it till yesterday morning. 

Well, to Alice-Sara’s delight the package that awaited us at the shorting office, was from Spinmaster. 

Spinmaster are the makers of Air hogs, aqua sand, Zoobles and much more.

A few weeks back Alice-Sara reviewed one of Spinmasters  Zoobles and loved it so much, that she’s now acquired five more.

This time Alice-Sara would be reviewing FAB Effex a new craft material that is highly tactile and mouldable. The self sticking reusable material can be moulded into a number of different shapes, and can even be wrapped around pencils to create a twisted . effect 

There are a number of kits in the range, Alice received the FAB effex fashion kit. 

What you get!

150 FAB Effex pre-cut pieces

2 FAB Effex sheets

1 sticky square

3 Paper dolls with stands

I instruction guide

What we thought

Alice couldn’t wait to start, she got all the pieces out of the box and sorted them in to little piles. The pre-cut pieces were nice and bright, though they were a bit random and didn’t have all the correct colours/shapes to match the ones showed on the instructions.

If this was little mans review he would have been quite upset about this, what with his rigid thinking he would have insisted it was done the same as that displayed in the instruction booklet, thankful it wasn’t!

Alice got to work on her first doll. The instructions were not much help so, she followed what she could and used the power of her wonderful imagination to create some awesome designs.

The material is really great stuff to work with. It has a wax type backing that isn’t very sticky to the touch but sticks well to a number of different surfaces, really holding it’s shapes.

You can wrap the strips of FAB Effex around a pencil as to create a ringlet type curly effects, which Alice did for the hair on a few of her dolls. I was pretty impressed with how some hours later the effect had remained in place.

Alice-Sara loves to design outfits and then dress up dolls/models. She has a number of fashion design creations made from paper and card craft sets. Fab Effex was therefore a welcomed change as it gave Alice-Sara opportunities to try something new and a tad different from what she’s used too (Kinda taking her out her comfort zone)

Alice-Sara used the two additional sheets of material to cut out dresses and tops for the remaining two dolls opting to use these instead of the pre-cuts. What’s FAB about FAB Effex is that it’s reusable meaning you can undo and redo if any mistakes are made! This was a welcomed bonus as it saved us from a few diva moments I’m sure!

On the whole Spinmaster have come up with yet another fantastic idea, however the instruction’s supplied were a little disappointing (though the Fab effex website have much clearer and easier to follow instructions).

What Spinmaster now need to remember is, “Not everybody will have the internet available to them” despite the fact we are in the year 2011. We did found that the instructions were also laid out in a confusing fashion, what with the languages being all displayed to together, made it hard to read, and this would not work for a six year old, Alice-Sara is eight and struggled.

However, there are many positives! We loved how the pieces stuck and how they were easily moulded to shape. The colours and patterns were nice too.

It’s a great toy to help stimulate a child’s imagination. All pieces can be used to create a number of different craft projects and can be stuck to a range of different accessories such as, CD and DVD cases, twinklet boxes and more.

This Fab Effex kit can be brought for around £9.99

FAB Effex can  be brought from Amazon, Argos and beyond!

Check out other reviews from fabulous bloggers HERE

We thank blog-match and Spinmaster for sending us a FAB Effex fashion kit in return for an honest review.

Monday finds (week 1)

This is week one of my project Monday finds. All my finds are based on or around Aspergers and ASD. They are all finds I have come across though the week. ENJOY:)

Aspergers web wing
Join the aspergers web ring or any other ring that interest you. You can join in forum chats, create your own profile, submit your blog to the ring directory or create your own ring. Do all this at http://webring.com

Meetup.com
There are many meetup groups you can join. Chat online and attend meet ups in your area once a month. Visit
http://aspergers.meetup.com

Get a free DVD
The website for the treatment centre in America are offering free DVD’S just fill out a short form. Visit
http://www.autismtreatmentcentre.org

One for the UK
Read about the Dore programme and how they can help with many developmental disorders. Visit
www.dore.co.uk/dvd.aspx or www.dore.co.uk

Great read.
If you love great reads then read this!
All cats have Aspergers
It’s a playful look at Aspergers
Get it at Amazon for $9.99 visit www.amazon.com

Any problems with these links then you will be able to find them all in my sidebar:)