toucanBox – October 2020: Hocus Pocus Praxinoscope

ToucanBox is a flexible subscription service that encourages little fingers and minds to stay curious, creative and busy, which is especially important during this uncertain and confusing time. The box is aimed at children aged 3-8. Penny is now 4 and although she often finds a few of the activities challenging, she always has fun playing and experimenting with the materials. Every box brings a different opportunity to explore different textures, colour and materials, as well as develop her creativity, independence and knowledge of the world around her.

Each letterbox-friendly box (personalised with your child’s name) contains two activity packs full of inspiration and materials, a colourful magazine with stickers and a very small surprise gift. Each activity has a rating to give you an idea of the level of grown-up assistance needed, messiness and whether of not drying time needed. October’s box had a spooky twist and included two wonderful, challenging activities to keep us both busy for hours.

Hocus Pocus Praxinoscope

Contents: Cobweb base, spinning wheel, foam shapes & templates, plastic rod, spider handle, animation slides, mirrors and stickers.

Our first activity pack contained all the materials we’d need to create our own Hocus Pocus Praxinoscope. The instructions were straightforward and clear; however, a lot of grown-up assistance was required so, unfortunately, Penny was left twiddling her thumbs through quite a bit of the activity. Mummy’s hard work, however, was worth it in the end as she loved spinning the spider wheel and watching the slides move and the animation come to life. Blank slides were also included so Penny could draw her own characters and create her own mini-movie.

Spooktacular Scenes

Contents: base & wooden frame, magnetic strips, permanent markers, see-through sheet, light-up prop card, glue dots, prop stick and stickers.

Once again, this activity was tricky, however, assembling the magnetic viewing box challenged Penny’s fine motor and problem-solving skills whilst developing her understanding of magnets and light. There was colouring in sheets provided but also blank plastic sheets which allowed her to be more imaginative and create her own spooky scenes.

As always, the magazine was packed with colourful images, puzzles, arts and crafts ideas, science experiments, stickers and colouring-in pages. There was also a ‘Ghoul-den Ticket’ included where subscribers could win either a trick or treat.

This month’s box included two ingenious technology-based activities that were fun, imaginative and challenging. They required a lot of grown-up assistance which made Pen a little restless, however, the finished items were fantastic and encouraged hours of play, curious questions and exploring. Halloween this year has been very different, especially our little ones. We actually tested positive for Covid this October which is why this review is a little late – my apologies! Unfortunately, our ASDA delivery substituted all our Halloween treats and cakes plus they failed to delivery any decorations. Thank goodness Penny’s toucanBox arrived to save the day. It would have been a very miserable Halloween without our family and friends leaving goodies outside while were isolating and toucanBox delivering lots of fun activities straight to our door.