Christmas is fast approaching and we are always on the look out for fun and educational toy ideas to share with you.  We have found a really fun toy that the kids can't get enough of at the moment with this Design & Drill SparkleWorks set from Learning Resources.

It is an ideal toy for kids who love to build and create, those who like to keep their hands busy as well as their minds.  It's a great balance between physical and mental activity all whilst being fun and not giving the kids any clue that they're learning and developing the whole time.  


The set comes with the design board, a drill and loads of sparkly bolts to drill into the board. Both the drill and the board light up, making it lots of fun for those dark evenings after school throughout the winter.  The board is also reactive to sound, so if you have music on or even just the sounds that you make while talking and playing the lights flash in time to the sounds.  The kids had lots of fun playing with this feature!


We started by just experimenting with the drill, learning how to drill the bolts into the board. This is great for developing fine motor skills and coordination in holding the bolt above the hole in the board and then connecting the drill to it.  Ivy found this a bit challenging at times, but persevered and was very proud of herself.


Then once we had put a few bolts in we flipped the switch on the drill the other way to reverse the direction of the drill to take the pieces out.  The kids were fascinated by this and just played around putting bolts in and taking them out over and over again.


At first I was wishing that the set had come with two drills as both Ethan and Ivy wanted to play at the same time, but they soon found ways to work together with just one drill.  One passed bolts to the other or held the bolts in place for the other and they learned to work as a team.


Once they had mastered putting the bolts into the board then it was time to look at some of the suggested patterns to follow in the book.  Ethan was really focused when he was making a pattern, finding all of the pieces that he needed and putting them into place.  It was lovely to watch that concentration and how proud he was of himself once he had completed the pattern.


We are really enjoying playing with our Design & Drill SparkleWorks set and can't wait to make some more patterns of our own with it!
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* This is a review post, we were sent the Design & Drill SparkleWorks set from Learning Resources in order to play with it and write our honest opinions.*