Play and Learn Every Day

Easter Holiday Play and Home Learning

15:24

Easter Basket Gift Ideas for Staying Home

13:00

Home Learning Extras from Etsy

11:01

Now more than ever we need to stand with small businesses to try to support them through these difficult times and Etsy have a Stand With Small campaign doing just that. And as we are all home schooling our children now I thought that it might be nice over Easter break to order a couple of things for our little home learning centre to make it extra special for when we're back at it in a couple of weeks.

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Notebooks and Journals we love:

Lockdown Journal - this would be so perfect for our daily journaling
Personalised Notebook - so they have a special place to write their school assignments

Pens and Pencils we love:

Kawaii Pens - because everyone needs a cute and special pen to write with
Personalised Colouring Pencils - a set for each child that might stop them fighting over them!
Personalised Pencil Toppers - again great for siblings and pencil identification!
Recycled Pencil Pots - useful and eco

Outdoor Play and Learning:

Outdoor Chalkboard - making writing more fun and interesting on sunny days
Mud Kitchen - for outdoor sensory play
Waterproof Tepee - perfect for bringing books outside and getting cosy for our daily Smoothies and Books time

Craft Kits:

Wooden Letter Paint Kit - the kids would love painting one of these for their room
Gardening Kit - making and growing, perfect!

I could find so many more beautiful things on Etsy to recommend, it is just filled with lovely items that could really make your home school set up more beautiful and hopefully excite your children to enjoy playing and learning at home that little bit more.

To see all of our posts with home learning tips and other resources for families while we Stay Home please click here.

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* This post contains affiliate links, I receive a small percentage of the cost when items are purchased through these links at no extra cost to you.*

Board Games for Playing and Learning at Home

16:38

Bakugan Battle Arena Review

17:00

We are new to the world of Bakugan, but I have to say that Ethan is hooked already! It's like a way to bring together shape changing toys and card collecting and put them together in a game, it's absolutely perfect for him (and so many others with similar interests I'm sure!)

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We were lucky enough to be sent a selection of different Bakugan from Spinmaster to start our collection as well as the Battle Arena to play in (this isn't necessary to start your collection, but it is a great addition once you've got a few to play with.)

First we opened up the Bakugan Ultra single pack which includes one figure, trading card and two Bakucores.

Even on its own this is fun to play with, each Bakugan figure starts a ball shape, then when you roll it over one of the Bakucores (the hexagon shaped cards) it pops open (due to the magnets on the sides of it). So the kids have so much fun rolling the Bakugan over the Bakucores and then watching the Bakugan pop open, then tucking it all back into a ball.

Next we opened up the Bakugan Starter Pack which includes three figures, trading cards and Bakucores to go with them.

There is loads in this starter pack, so it really is an ideal start to your collection, with several cards and Bakucores for each Bakugan figure in it.

Next we opened up the Bakugan Battle Planet Limited Edition set which includes 2 figures, cards and Bakucores. There is one regular figure and one ultra figure included.

Ethan was so excited to open up this pack as it is presented in such a special way. The box is also perfect to keep all of Ethan's Bakugan in.

I think that these are his two favourite figures, they are such a vibrant red colour.

Finally we opened up the Bakugan Battle Arena which includes the playing board, as well as an exclusive Bakugan figure.

The board is simple to put together as the edges just snap together and go around the board.

We then tried to figure out how to play the game, and had a go at setting it all up how we thought that it might work. We decided to try the simplest version of playing the game until we get the hang of it.

So we started by setting up three Bakugan each on our sides with the corresponding cards and Bakucores. Then we each took turns placing a Bakucore in the middle of the arena until they were all set up.

Next we took turns throwing one of our Bakugan into the centre until it popped open.

Then we picked up our Bakugan which was now stuck to a Bakucore and checked the bottom to see what our score was. We then declared the winner the person with the better score.

We then advanced to both throwing our Bakugan at the same time, and whoever's Bakugan opened up on a Bakucore was the winner. If they both opened up, then the one with the higher score is the winner.

There is an even more advanced way of playing which includes more of the scores and stats on the Bakugon cards, but we haven't reached that level quite yet.

At the moment we are having a lot of fun playing with the Bakugan Arena in our own way, and enjoying that it can be played with in multiple ways to suit the players. I have a feeling that Ethan and his Dad will advance to the harder way, while he will still be able to play the simplified way with Ivy. It is also a great collection for Ethan, and he enjoys just playing with the figures on his own and comparing all of the stats on their cards to see who is the strongest. It will be fun to see how much more he gets into playing Bakugan in the future.
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* This post contains gifted items as well as affiliate links, I receive a small percentage of the cost when items are purchased through these links at no extra cost to you.*