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http://www.one2believe.com/
We found a surprise on the front porch today, and it is one of
the items I will review for The Old Schoolhouse magazine's focus
group.
It is a nativity set, a part of the Tales of Glory series from
the company One2Believe. It retails for $24.95 and a google
search yielded quite a few places that sell the toys. The set is
adorable, there are enough pieces to tell and play out the
entire story about the birth of Jesus. The set is attractive,
big enough for little hands to grasp, and yet small enough to
display on an end table or shelf. The pieces are not fragile and
there is no danger of shattered glass from a dropped piece if
the kids are moving the pieces around.
This set is recommended for children at least 3 years old, as
there are several small parts, and, according to the description
on the One2Believe web site, the parts are made from PVC, which
may be dangerous to chewers, mouthers, people who need a lot of
oral motor sensory input. Please do your research and make your
own decision in this regard. (A google search yields quite a bit
of information about PVC in toys.)
My daughter was excited to open the set and play with the pieces
--and we spent over half an hour with it together, quite
impressive for a toy to provide the opportunity of doing
something together with mom for that long in one sitting for a
child on the autism spectrum. She returned to it many times,
too.
The learning opportunities are huge, from parallel play to
cooperative play to making a Bible lesson come to life with
kid-sized manipulatives. Over the next few months, I will plan
Bible verses from the nativity story as copywork. The set
reminds me that there are lots of new vocabulary words for us to
talk about, from the shepherd's staff to the names of the gifts
brought to the Christ Child.
The teensy story book that comes with the nativity tells a
child-friendly version of the story that is just long enough to
keep the attention and not too long or difficult for those whose
habit of attention still needs some work. Charlotte Mason's
approach will have us reading the story straight from the Bible,
and these little characters will help create a visual to go
along with the auditory information.
The nativity set would make a wonderful birthday or Christmas
gift for a pre-schooler, or a fun addition to a Sunday School
class, as would any of the Old Testament or New Testament based
play sets from One2Believe.
We give this one a thumbs up for our family!
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