Jenny's Crayon Collection: Homeschool

Sensory Play with NEW Playfoam Sand!

This year in 2022 Educational Insights has expanded their Playfoam line to include Playfoam Sand. The Playfoam sand comes in: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and black. The Playfoam sand is really good tactile play for preschoolers.

The Playfoam Sand was provided by Educational Insights in exchange for an honest review.

There are four sets of Playfoam available; Ice Cream Sundae Set, ABC Cookies Set, 3 pounds of play sand in 8 colors, and a Sensory set. My favorite set is probably the ABC set because I am teaching preschool this year and teaching letters. It is a fun way for kids to learn their letters. My daughter loves them all. She was begging to play with them as soon as we got them.

What's In the Box

Each special set comes with themed accessories and the box can be played with too. The ABC box is themed liked cookies.

Here is my daughter playing with the ABC set.

She loved using the spatula.

Here is the ABC with all the accessories. We had a lot of fun make this and then as soon as it was done, my daughter loved squishing all the letters and putting them back in their bags.

The ice cream set some with some fun accessories also and a themed box.

I love the Playfoam boxes that come with this set. It is super fun to scoop out.

Here is my daughter making her sundaes. It was easy for her to know what to do. Which is super important in a childs toy.

Here is her finished project, which I might add she did all by herself!

What did we think?

My daughter and I loved using the Playfoam Sand. We have used it for preschool a few times. It is a little messy. I would not recommend using it over carpet or if there was only carpet keeping it contained or using a vacuum afterwards. The colors will mix together which can be fine for some kids. The sets are super great for sensory play for kids. My daughter definitely enjoys it.

Here are the back of the ABC Cookies Set and Ice Cream Sundae Set.

Learn about Gravity and Magnetism with Geomag Mechanics Gravity Loops and Turns Set

My son absolutely loves anything science related right now and he loved cars as a young boy. This Geomag Mechanics Gravity Loops and Turns set was perfect for him. He was able to build it and have a lot of fun using it.

I received this product in exchange for an honest review. This blog post contains affiliate links.

Find Geomag on Amazon.

Become a Kid Palentologist with the GeoSafari Fossil Excavation Kit

Want to know what present to buy your kid that will keep them occupied for hours? The GeoSarfari Fossil Kit from Educational Insights. We were playing with a bunch of toys this day and this is the toy that my kids kept coming back to again and again.

This blog post contains affiliate links. This toy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Make a Harry Potter Inspired Owl Craft

This week I decided to do some Harry Potter inspired crafts with my kids. We made our own owls! My kids loved this and it really showed their creativity. My daughter came up with the idea for the eyes on the above two. This project was inspired by My Very Educated Mother, but we made it our own :)

For this project I wanted to keep it simple and used supplies I already had in the house so I would not have to purchase anything. I used

brown card stock
scissors
scalloped scissors
hole punch (could use a quarter or nickel and trace instead)
plate
cup
tombow adhesive

First we used the plate to draw a giant circle for the base of the owl.

Here is what it looked like.

Then we folded the owl to give it its wings and beak/head.

Then we cut out the feathers for the body with the scalloped scissors. My son got super inventive.

Then we used the Tombow adhesive to glue the feathers to the body.

For the eyes we tried googly eyes, but they were way too small. I decided to change mine.

I used a cup for the shape of the eyes and then used the hole punch to cut out the pupils.

My daughter and son used the hole punch and created half eyes by cutting the circles in half to create the eyes. Then we put some beaks on our birds. My son even put on some eyebrows. I loved how these turned out. Everyone got to be super creative and we made some really cute owls.

I have teamed up with some other bloggers to show some really cute Harry Potter inspired craft ideas. Check them out.

There is also a giveaway for a Harry Potter Lego Set. Enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Learn About All Thinkgs Science with the GeoSafari KidScope

Educational Insights has some amazing STEM toys for kids. The Kidscope from the GeoSafari Jr. line is one such toy. My daughter absolutely loved this toy and loved changing out all the slides and talking about what was on each slide.

This blog post contains affiliate links. This product was received in exchange for an honest review.

Click here to find on Amazon.

Help Children Discover Emotions with the Big Feelings Pineapple

Who says innovation is dead? True there are a lot of toys on the market that are slight variations on other toys, but the "Big Feelings Pineapple" is a very much needed 21st century take on other classic toys. How is the big feelings pineapple better than other toys on the market? It is because the whole premise, "feelings" is a subject that was not talked about years and years ago and does not exist in the older toys. The Big Feelings Pineapple is a fun interactive way for kids to express their feelings.

I was given this toy in exchange for an honest review. This blog post contains affiliate links.

Find this on Amazon.