Have you seen the new Lovevery Play Kits for Three Year Olds? We've had ours for a couple of weeks and we've been able to fully test everything out. So it's time to share. What do we think?? 

First I need to say that I work with Lovevery in an advisory role. I have seen first hand how their designers work and I know these are the very best toys for our children. Each Lovevery Play Kit is designed to support learning at home and is designed to complement a Montessori education, not duplicate what your child is doing at school. Even if you aren't interested in ordering the Play Kits, I think you will find lots of fantastic ideas here. 

The Lovevery Three Year Old Play Kits offer:

• a balance between fine motor and gross motor activities.
• lots of open-ended toys to promote free play, creativity, storytelling, and building
• interesting activities - these are not boring and will instantly attract the child. The details attract the child, like using water in the cooperative game, locks in the modular playhouse.
• realistic books - that teach the child about the world around them. 
• guides with a ton of extension ideas - and other play ideas using items around the home
• practical life materials - that can be used every day and become a part of our every day lives. 
• sustainable practices - Lovevery is a Certified B Corporation. Materials used include sustainably harvested wood and organic cotton.
• convenience for busy parents - the activities are all set ready-to-go, the minute you open the box the child has everything they need of lots of play and work. There are many activities like sewing that parents would like to provide but it can take time to source all of the materials needed. The Play Kits present activities ready to go, for example, the sewing kit contains a child-safe needle, thread, ring and fabric with pre-punched holes. 

I also love the small things that can be used over and over again like the safe embroidery needle that we can use for all sorts of sewing activities, the easy-to-use pipettes, the children's measuring tape, and the fantastic visual measuring cups that can last a lifetime.

The Three-Year-Old Play Kits include:

The Observer Play Kit - Months 37, 38, 39

The Storyteller Play Kit - Months 40, 41, 42

The Problem Solver Play Kit - Months 43, 44, 45

The Analyst Play Kit - Months 46, 47, 48

Here are some highlights of our most loved and most used materials from the Three-Year-Old Play Kits.

The very top picture is of Otto using the Liquid Colour Lab, it includes 6 test tubes, 2 water droppers (pipettes - for fine motor skills), a bamboo towel set and plenty of colour tablets. Otto absolutely loves the Liquid Colour Lab, I put it all on a tray and allow him to experiment (I only give him 3-4 colour tablets at a time), and he mixes all of the colours with water and has so much fun.

As an extension in the Play Guide, Lovevery suggest that we can also grow seeds in the test tubes. So we gave it a try and it worked really well. We put some cotton balls and seeds in each test tube. We kept them moist with water using the pipettes.

A few days later we can observe the growth! 🌱

Many Montessori parents will recognise this Montessori Sensory Box. It's designed to develop the child's stereognostic sense, where the child uses their sense of touch only to determine what they are holding. There are two holes in the front for the child's hands. There is a section at the back where we can put items into the box. The Sensory Box comes with a range of textured tiles including metal, fabric and wood that we can put in the box for the child to feel. Today I put common household objects in the box for Otto to discover! 

I love the Plan Ahead Weather Board. It is perfection. I've seen similar ones available but they just weren't right or were too complicated for us. This cold also appeal to Waldorf parents as it uses the Waldorf colours of the week on the day dial. Using a weather board like this is a lovely way to start the day and is now a part of our daily rhythm. The weather board can be used on a wall or on a shelf like we have as it comes with little feet to stand it up. 

This Pattern Match Boats & Cards Set totally caught me by surprise. When we unpacked our Play Kits Otto (3yrs) was looking through everything and found these, he set them up at the table used them for 30-40minutes.  What?! He was surrounded by so many wonderful new things, yet he was able to sit down and focus just on this for such a long time. Amazing right? 

This is a matching game that is fantastic for developing cognitive development. The cards provided (that vary in difficultly) go at the bottom of the board and the child uses the boats, people and sails to match the pictures on the cards. I love that Otto still makes lots of mistakes, he hasn't mastered this yet, see the size of the sails are different (above). So he will be using this for a while yet. 

I could not wait to see the  Turtle Hatch Cooperative Game as I'd seen a sneak peek of this in development. We play this outside on our deck as it uses a little bit of water. It's at the perfect level for three year old but children 4-5 years will enjoy this too. The idea is the turtles start at the top and have to get into the water (ocean) before the sun comes up. Each player rolls the dice and either move a turtle, put a piece of the sun in the sky or adds some water to the beach/ocean. The game ends when all the turtles are in the water, or when the sun comes up (all sun pieces are in the sky). The game comes with three turtles but we could add more to make it harder. Cooperative games at this age can teach children to count, take turns and to play within the rules. This is also extra fun for children who love water play, scooping and turtles/ocean life. 

Otto also likes to use the Maths Board and Counters. Notice they are in the same colours at the Montessori Bead Chains. These can reinforce counting skills with the child being able to count the counters then line them up with the number tiles, all the same colour for self-correction. These can later be used for addition and subtraction with lots more ideas in the Get Started Guide provided. I've never seen Otto so excited about maths work before. 

This play tent is crazy fun. This is the Easy Connect Fort Set with the Puppet Theater and Fort Cover, Otto is using it here with the Storytelling Puppet Set with Changing Emotion Eyes. My ten-year-old loves this too. It can be set up as a cube and used for a puppet show or as a store. It comes with dowels, corner brackets, sleeves and clips for endless creating and play. 

It can be anything you or the child wants it to be - a reading nook, a bedroom, a doctors office, pet store. We can also use it with our play silks. Our Sarah Silks, Play Silks fit the sides of the cube exactly. 

Imagine using this outside on the green grass in the sun, with the breeze gently blowing the play silks. 

The pegs are easy enough for a three year old to use and are fantastic at strengthening those hand muscles. 

It has countless configurations. 

Some of these toys could easily be put aside for a Birthday or Christmas gift. Check out the amazing Modular Playhouse. This can be used and configured in many different ways and has a Get Started Guide to give the child some ideas. The garage has a lock for children to enjoy and there are also Wooden Accessories (stairs and a bed) and a Two-Seater Speedster car with two peg people. Our other people come from the Block Set (AU here).

The First Sewing Kit is another activity that promotes fine motor skills and the pincer grasp, preparing the hand for writing. The First Sewing Kit comes with three different pattern sheets, one needle, one hoop and multi-coloured thread. This has been used over and over and Otto often gets the thread all mixed up but he's working hard at it.

This is a great example of how Lovevery helps busy families, everything you need for a sewing activity is here. 

This Squeeze and Spray Mop!!  Who doesn't love it when their child wants to wash the floor? This is just the right height and size for young children. The child pulls the little handle and the water sprays on the floor. This couldn't be better. The mop pad is washable. This is super easy to use and gets the floor nice and clean! ❤️

Look at that swivel head. This would be a fabulous addition to a Montessori classroom too.

The Left-Right Shoe Stickers are so useful, I have them in all of Otto's shoes. 

Lovevery seems to know exactly what our three-year-old needs and what he is ready for. Have a look at these fantastic visual recipes and possibly the best children's measuring cups ever. The visual recipes are easy to follow and the measuring cups are stackable, taking up just a small space on your shelves. The measuring cups would also be a perfect fit for use in Montessori classrooms. 

The books in the Three Year Old Play Kits are lovely, they are all full colour with thick glossy pages. The images are all photographs and the topics are relevant.

Please note I have not shown all of the items in the Lovevery Three Year Old Play Kits click here to see the Play Kits in full. 

Unfortunately at this time, Lovevery does not ship to Australia. Australians are able to order Lovevery Blocks and The Play Gym via Amazon AU. You can also Shop Lovevery in the UK, Shop Lovevery in the EU. Lovevery Play Kits are coming to the UK and EU later in 2021.  

All products are c/o Lovevery. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!