When it comes to toys in our household we've always tried to keep the number we own down. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of toys! Many of these have been inherited from an older cousin and others, like the lego collection have grown because we get just as much enjoyment from it as the six year old does! With the baby I'm trying to make more of a conscious effort to limit what we get her, specifically the plastic tat. She has a lot from the boy obviously, but most of her new toys have been chosen to stimulate imagination rather than directed play with flashing lights and limited functionality.
I'm also more conscious these days of the impact throw away toys have on the environment and also on their effects when children are exposed to some of the nasty chemicals they can contain. With this in mind, recently most of our toy purchases have been of a wooden nature: peg dolls, balls, eggs, puzzles... you get the idea.
Unfortunately, a lot of these items also carry a rather hefty price tag, which, whilst understandable given the amount of effort taken to produce them, often places them out of our reach! Now you may or may not be aware, but I'm quite a crafty person - not in the wily sense, think arts and crafts! I'm very much of the opinion that ideas are free and there's usually a way to achieve things a different way if you think outside the box.
Which leads me onto the reason for this post - wobble boards. We've been looking at these for a few months and debated for a long time whether to get one for the boys birthday. There's a few out there and I'm still undecided as to whether to go for a creatimber or JackaLily, but that's a post for another day. The conclusion in the end was that we couldn't afford the £60/70 at this time but probably will do later in the year.
In the meantime I still wanted to get him something he could play with in the garden that would help strengthen his core, aid his balance but also, more importantly, give him some fun and cause him to use his imagination. Enter the PhisioRoom wobble board. Granted it's an entirely different type of board and isn't necessarily aimed at children but it's definitely exceeded expectations!
The board itself is made of solid wood consisting of a circular disc with half ball attached to the centre of the underside to allow the wobble function. The top is lined with a none-slip latex free mat which, so far, has been very durable (although does pick up dust!) The board has a weight limit of 120kg which is more than enough for our whole family to make use of it and, bonus, requires no batteries of fancy setup!
In it's simplest form you can use the board to help increase core strength, both my husband and I have had lots of fun trying to balance on it. This isn't the only reason we purchased it though! To the kids it's a fun slope; a balance board; a car track; a place to balance toys. It's a surface for setting up dinosaurs and a fun place to roll balls. It can be used inside on a rainy day and outside in the sun. We've only had it a few weeks and already it's been incorporated into lots of fun play activities. I'm excited to see what they'll think to do with it next!
I haven't ruled out getting a rocker board, if anything getting this one has confirmed that one will be a great purchase, but, at the moment, they're enjoying this wobble board immensely and I'm pleased we decided to think outside the box!
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