Have you seen the Itty Bitty collection by Hallmark? They are adorable. They are basically miniature versions of your favourite characters in teddy form and they are extremely cute. You can choose from super heroes to film classics like Star Wars and the Wizard of Oz and the collections are continuing to grow all the time. These tiny teddies are brilliant for role play which is important for children’s development.
The lovely people over at Hallmark sent my boys 6 of the super hero Itty Bitty teddies.
The Hulk, Spiderman, Wonder woman, Cat Woman, Iron Man and Superman
Instead of just handing over the new toys and letting the boys have a play and then following it up with a review I thought I would make them work for their new toys, it is the summer holidays after all and there are A LOT of hours to fill. So whilst the boys were eating their lunch I crept in to my office and started writing little clues on post it notes. I made them short and easy to read with rhyming to help them solve the clues easier so they could do it together without much help. At 4 and 7 only the oldest can competently read so I didn’t want to make it to hard. Then I crept around the house hiding the toys and the clues.
I wasn’t sure what they would think of the idea of a treasure hunt, especially inside, but they were so excited that I instantly wished I had done something like this sooner. They worked so well together trying to figure out the clues and believe it or not they didn’t fight over who got which super hero either – massive win!
After they had collected all 6 I asked them to create a play for me and off they went. I could hear them practicing downstairs for a while before I was summoned to be the audience and it was the cutest, funniest thing ever with some mid way director guidance and script changes along with an apology from the eldest on behalf of the youngest because he had gone off script and was doing his own thing. Too funny.
It was lovely to see their imaginations flowing and even nicer to see that they CAN actually play nicely together for long periods of time with NO technology.
As much as both boys loved the treasure hunt and the role play it is safe to say that my teddy loving tiddler was most impressed and took all 6 Itty Bittys to bed with him and is still playing with them this morning.
Which Itty Bitty if your favourite?
(Disclaimer, 6 Itty Bittys were supplied to me for review. All opinions are my own, or that of my family.)