Review - Miniland Educational aptitude sets

Miniland Educational is brand new product on the UK retail market, and comprises of a range of high quality plastic toys. We were sent two of their educational aptitude sets to try out - threading and time telling, both aimed at children aged 3-6 years old.

Miniland Educational threading set

The threading set contains four strings, forty coloured plastic beads and twelve double-sided activity cards with sequences of beads to copy. Harry is 3 1/2, and although he was able to understand following the activity cards he preferred to just string the beads to make necklaces and caterpillars. He enjoyed learning about the different shapes (cylinder was a new one to him!) and talking about the shapes and colours that he was using. The beads are really solid and they will last a long time. The activity cards will probably get a bit battered, but I always laminate things like this anyway to make them sturdier. There are lots of different ways that you can play with these, and even Mia enjoyed carrying them about. You could also make up games for younger children involving sorting by colour and shape (although obviously under supervision, as they are designed for older children).


Miniland Educational aptitude set - threading

Miniland Educational time telling set

Harry is fascinated by clocks, probably because we have one prominently in the kitchen, and he's always asking what time it is, and what time we will be doing something. The time telling set contains a clock with a simple hand turning mechanism and twelve double sided activity cards. Six of the cards are for learning about matching digital time to a clock face, and six have a clock with a picture for what is happening at that time of day. Harry is a bit young to be able to tell the time confidently, but he really loved going through the day following the pictures, and moving the clock hands to match the cards - it really helps to put the passing of time into context.


Miniland Educational aptitude set - time telling

I think that both of these kits are really good value, and they are also very open ended and educational toys, you could use them in lots of different activities and they are sturdy enough to last a long time.

You can see the full Miniland catalogue here, and click here for a full list of Miniland stockists, or you can purchase from Amazon - Clock and 6 Activity Cards (Miniland) and Giant Beads and Laces

Disclaimer - I was sent the two Miniland kits for the purpose of this review.