Welcome to my giveaway/review page! Although I am usually compensated to give away these products or do these reviews, they are products I believe in. Thank you for coming!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Activity Bus by Plan Toys

I'm a toy tester, and it's the greatest job in the world, according to the 9-year-old boy! A toy website called ebeanstalk has a group of child experts that help select great learning toys and toys for kids of all ages, from baby toys, toys for 1 year olds, toys for 2 year olds, etc. They were kind enough to send us the Activity Bus from Plan Toys who makes green developmental toys and here's how much we enjoyed the bus!

Almost everyone in the household wanted to be in on the review of this toy. Here is the capable 14-year-old girl opening the package with a sharp knife...



Here, she takes it to the entry way and is beginning to open the box. Look at the look of anticipation on Twin A's face...


(Not. He just doesn't understand the significance of what's about to happen here.)

...and the look of expectation of the 3-year-old boy...


(Isn't he an angel?)

Ah! Now the toy is finally opened! These are two little people who ride the bus. The twins loved them...


...but we quickly realized that this toy is meant for children 3 years of age or over, as there were little tiny wooden books for the little bus people to read. There is no photo of those, because they went away instantly, in order to avoid a choking hazard.

Because all three little ones liked this bus - A LOT, we had to separate them and allow the 3-year-old boy to play with it uninterrupted. We placed him and the bus and the bus people on the kitchen table to accomplish that task. Here is the bus, with it's removable bus driver's seat, bus people, desks for the bus people and a chalk board, so that the bus people can learn while they are riding the bus...



Here they are, ready to learn...


...and with 3-year-old human propulsion, this bus goes fast!



While this bus in and of itself is a cool toy, what I REALLY love is that it is only part of a set of a whole learning village!


If I were to purchase this bus, I would definitely plan on making the investment of purchasing the whole village along with it. When I showed the 3-year-old boy the potential of what we could have in addition to the bus, he began jumping up and down and saying that he wanted the really, really tall thing, which appears to be an apartment complex.

Overall, the kids definitely enjoyed this toy and they continue to fight over it a lot. I love the fact that it's wooden, kind of German-esque, and that it is a toy that has the potential of fostering creativity. On the downside, it does come apart easily, so I'm often having to put the bus halves back together, which is inconvenient, but once the pins are put pack in place properly, I can hand it back to the children to fight over once more.

I would definitely recommend that you go to plantoys.com and check out all the great learning toys they have there! Thanks for listening!

goinggreen2

4 comments:

Amanda B. said...

What a cool job and a fun toy! I LOVE wooden toys/toys that don't need batteries.

Anonymous said...

THIS IS SO COOL! WHAT A GREAT JOB!

Cheryl B. said...

While "my boys" might now all be in their 20's ... they still love to play with toys ... in fact, last Christmas,; wait, you need info. here - my siblings and I gave our parents 10 grandchildren in 8 years time - the youngest is now 18 1/2. At the point in time of last Christmas, there was only one "great-grandchild" - and he was two ... and were all of "the boy" cousins ever drooling over his batman figurine with wings - he had no shortage of volunteers trying to play "with him" ;-p.
To a one, they all complained and questioned, "how come we never get Lego's anymore?!?!!"

Cheryl B. said...

p.s. - of the 10 - there were only 2 girls ;-}