A simple gift for young children that can be fun for older kids too.

This is a gift I gave Lucy years ago. I originally gave it to her in a box, but it just wasn't a box kind of an activity. After buying some clear containers for work at a discount store, I returned to buy some more a few weeks later for us and the largest one turned out to be perfect for this set of toys.

Lucy wanted animals and fences. That's all she had wanted for Christmas that year. She was 5. I thought this was great, easy! But it turned out that buying farms and fences (that actually stood up and connected) wasn't as easy a task as I thought.

I bought a range of farm animals from a local department store. Then, after much searching, I eventually came across the lego click together fences that turned out to be the perfect size for farm animals. Daisy will even try to click them together, although it is a little tricky and is probably better suited to 2yrs+. I found them through Ebay, with the search "Lego clip bar." After a bit of analysing postage costs etc, I found an overseas seller that did reasonable combined shipping and had plenty of the three kinds I wanted. I chose some black, brown and grey. Some have sets of clips on both sides, but most have one set of clips. This means that paddocks can be made and shut completely or can have a door. The kids love having the choice.

Over the two years since I have refined this collection of  'animals and fences.' One thing that I have discovered is that just normal farm animals and fences are fun, but adding a lion and dragon or beetle and a crocodile really adds to the fun! The play tends to lend itself to an older age group when unusual items are added. Dinosaurs have even been added at times.

This set can be played with inside or outside. Sometimes we will take them out to our sand/rock pit. As all the pieces can go in water too, following outdoor play the kids play with the set in the bath or kitchen sink. For those having bath time battles, having friendly animal friends in the bath can be a real help. Daisy has had her friend "rhino" (a little yellow plastic rhinoceros) in the bath with her since she was quite young. It was very helpful for progressing past the I-don't-want-to-get-out-of-the-bath stage. It took a few times of me holding her and smiling even though she was crying, but now we wave goodbye to the water and goodbye to Rhino every night, saying "bye bye, see you tomorrow." Tears are now averted almost every time. So far this has worked for 5 out of 5 toddlers for me. That's pretty good odds!

As a Christmas gift, it is a play-straight-away gift, which is also great for toddlers and preschoolers. As an expert in undoing ALL the ties Christmas morning I would encourage all parents to think about packaging issues that could arise. My worst Christmas morning was when I had 3 children, Lucy being only 5 months old. A screaming-without-ceasing 5 month old. Craig worked day shift, so we got up at 5am, opened the presents and he left for work. And so the day of crying began. That is for all of us. A desperate-to-open-all-the-things 4 year old, a just-turned-2 year old who was over Christmas before it began, and Lucy. I wish I knew then what I know now, because my choices would have been soooo different! This set of toys would have been one of them.

Other activities that can be undertaken with this set in a more parent directed way, aiming to encourage learning, are:

* counting- focusing on one to one correspondence. This is much more important than being able to just count aloud to a million!
* sorting- and discussing different ways of sorting the same items (valuable mathematics skill.)
* naming and talking about the animals. These are great conversation starters, especially for children who need speech intervention.
* 4 yrs+ could try to write stories about the animals' adventures. It doesn't matter if the stories can be read or not. It's all about setting up writing as a fun and useful endeavour.
* drawing pictures of the animals or the farm as a whole.
* practice adding groups of animals together or taking animals away. For example, "wow, this farmer has sooo many animals! How many pigs does he/she have? How many sheep? How many is that altogether if we put them in the same pen?" or "There are 5 sheep in this pen. How many would be left if one decided to go on an adventure!?"
* it is even possible to discuss even groups, which is necessary as a start for learning about multiplication and division. For example, "How many animals should we put in each pen?" and then "do our pens have even numbers of animals?"
* with older children discussions could focus on perimeter and area (and the difference between these) or multiplication/division ("how many sheep would there be in a pen if I saw 20 legs?)

When joining in to play- enjoy it! Play can just be a fun bonding experience too.

Toys that can be used in a variety of ways and can allow children to add their own creative fair when playing with them are great, so this set is a winner.