Wednesday, August 19, 2009

eBeanstalk – Activity Bus Review!

Picking toys is not easy and there is a toy website called ebeanstalk, dedicated to selecting good, safe educational toys and learning baby gifts. BUT they need help from moms like me to help pick the toys. The toy they sent us to test out is called Activity Bus from Plan Toys, who makes whimsical and eco-friendly modern wooden toys.

activity bus2

I was very excited when I got this. We don’t have many toys that are wooden. The bus is a great toy for individual play and provides the opportunity for continuous open-ended play. The idea that it promotes role-play with the little characters and help expand their imagination.


The bonus feature was that the bus opens into a schoolroom with desks, a chalkboard, books & two little characters.


We waited a little while to do our review because I wanted to introduce to my son about getting ready and going to school. How he would be traveling this year on the bus! He seemed to really love the bus, but I didn’t want to stop there with the review. I also tried it out with my grandson (2 yrs old) and he thought it was great to push it around and have the people driving the bus. It was also fun singing the all time favorite “The Wheels on the Bus” song.


I also decided to show it off off to my oldest daughter who is a preschool teacher. She instantly fell in love with it too! Decided that she was going to have to borrow it to bring to her school for her theme week of “transportation”. She’ll have to fight her little brother for it!


I love that it didn’t require any batteries. There aren’t too many toys around where you can instantly take it out of the box and not have to have batteries! This in itself made this toy a hit in my book! It is very durable, and well made.


If your one of those parents that is “green” Play Toys is a great company that has a multitude of eco friendly toys made out of recycled materials that reduces the impact on nature.


Plan Toys also aims to create toys for disabled children that helps to enhance skills for disabled children and provides them with opportunities for mental/physical development.


I am definitely putting these items from Plan Toys on our “wish list”


Check out the Circus Set and the Wooden Parking Garage.


So all in all, this toy was reviewed by a 4 yr old special needs child, a 2 1/2 yr old, a preschool teacher, and a mom (that’s me!) and everyone had a ball with this toy! Highly recommended. Endless ways to play, which is always a nice thing. We give it 5 High Fives out of 5!

5 High Fives

Thank you eBeanstalk for the opportunity!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Danielle said...

Wow...I don't get excited about toys much. Probably because my basement is essentially cousin to Geoffry. You know...the toys r us giraffe?

But THIS is super cute, Melanie!

Oh sheesh...and one of Trevor's fave songs is Wheels on the Bus...so now I'm fighting the "buy it...buy it" bug!

...danielle