I've always been a big fan of educational toys and games and I was therefore really pleased to hear about a range of educational toys that I hadn't come across before - Miniland Educational. We were sent a couple of things from the range to review and I have honestly never seen Little Miss C jump on anything as quickly as she did the Lacing Buttons. Within mere seconds of me opening the big brown box they came in LMC had them out and had spread them across the living room floor as she excitedly started threading them onto the laces provided.
For half an hour she sat there completely absorbed in what she was doing. I even put her favourite lunch on the table in this time and she completely ignored me to carry on lacing. The fact that we'd made a button caterpillar only a month or so back meant that she knew exactly what she wanted to make with the buttons. What I loved about them was the fact that the size and shape of them made them ideal for little hands (LMC is only 2 so a bit younger than the recommended age range of 3-6) and she had no problems at all threading them on to the laces.
What is genius about these buttons is that as well as them all being different colours they also have different numbers of holes in them (ranging from one to five) so that more games can be invented where you ask children to arrange them by colour, or number of holes or ask them to find all the red ones with one hole for example. Included in the box are some activity cards which ask the children to lace the buttons on to the thread in specific orders - based on either colours, numbers or both. For the visually impared the buttons also have braille on them to say what number they are.
On the strength of these lacing buttons alone I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the Miniland range - there's just so much that can be done with them from an educational point of view, making them great value for money too.
Disclaimer: We were sent a pack of Miniland Lacing Buttons for the purpose of this review by DKL Toys. The Miniland Eductaional range can be purchased from the PlayMerrily Toy Shop.
