Babar the Elephant has been a family favourite in the UK for 80 years - can you believe it? It is 80 years since the first Babar books were published in the UK and to celebrate, there are some beautiful new, yet traditional toys on sale for preschoolers.
Holly has been playing with this gorgeous Babar deluxe puzzle wheel which is made from six chunky jigsaw pieces which fit together into a circular centre piece to form a colour wheel. The puzzle is officially recommended for age 2 upwards but I think it is a great puzzle for Holly at 18 months who now understands the concept of jigsaw puzzles but will struggle unless the pieces are very obvious (which these are due to their colour matching) and the pieces are chunky (which these definitely are). I think it is a wonderful puzzle for toddlers.
Other toys in the range of vintage style Babar toys include a tea set, a jack-in-the-box and a kaleidoscope. The RRP for the puzzle is £13.99 and it is available from trotters.co.uk.
To try and introduce my girls to the stories of Babar the elephant I have been reading them Babar the King, a classic story by Jean de Brunhoff. In this tale, Babar the elephant has recently inherited some money and uses it to set up a new town, Celesteville. All the elephants build the town and they all get given jobs - everything is going swimmingly until their human friend gets bitten by a snake and it all turns very weird. There is a happy ending though so Lara didn't mind the slightly scary part in the middle.
Holly has been playing with this gorgeous Babar deluxe puzzle wheel which is made from six chunky jigsaw pieces which fit together into a circular centre piece to form a colour wheel. The puzzle is officially recommended for age 2 upwards but I think it is a great puzzle for Holly at 18 months who now understands the concept of jigsaw puzzles but will struggle unless the pieces are very obvious (which these are due to their colour matching) and the pieces are chunky (which these definitely are). I think it is a wonderful puzzle for toddlers.
Other toys in the range of vintage style Babar toys include a tea set, a jack-in-the-box and a kaleidoscope. The RRP for the puzzle is £13.99 and it is available from trotters.co.uk.
To try and introduce my girls to the stories of Babar the elephant I have been reading them Babar the King, a classic story by Jean de Brunhoff. In this tale, Babar the elephant has recently inherited some money and uses it to set up a new town, Celesteville. All the elephants build the town and they all get given jobs - everything is going swimmingly until their human friend gets bitten by a snake and it all turns very weird. There is a happy ending though so Lara didn't mind the slightly scary part in the middle.
