Hopefully, if you're a Bigjigs fan and follower you noticed the competitions we were running throughout December. Giving away a new toy every week, we had a huge amount of entries but one in particular really stood out to us.

Vikki posted wanting to win so she could donate the prize toy to the William Harvey Padua Ward after her little boy Joe was admitted, although Vikki didn't win the competition we wanted to help.

We had a chat with Vikki and the matron in the Padua ward and organised a huge toy donation!

Little Joe, who's now fighting fit, and his twin brother both came to ensure the toys we donated were up to scratch. Looks like they passed the test!

We hope that no children have to spend long in hospital, but if they do, Padua Ward's toy room is now well equipped to help the time pass quickly and relax its little patients.

By now, your little one has probably given you their wish lists, circled every toy in the catalogue, and pointed out every toy, in every shop; leaving you with a Christmas list as long as your arm.

Summer is here! And the holidays are just days away and the kids will be ready to GO all day, every day!

Do you know what we need? A PLAN!

Here are our some of our favourite ideas to keep your little ones entertain through the summer holidays!

Summer Survival Guide: You can work through these one day at a time, a couple a day or one a week! Whichever works for you - but, we hope our summer survival ideas help to keep you and your little ones amused during the summer holidays!

Baking - Bake a cake, cookies or cupcakes! Some kid friendly recipes can be seen here: BBC Baking with Kids Fresh fruit smoothie lollies - our fave are these: Unicorn Smoothie Lollies Water play - whether it's in the garden, bathtub or kitchen sink! Read our Water & Sand Play Blog here Get your Bigjigs Rail train sets and track outside - read how we did it here. Have a face painting party with Playcolor Face Paint Sticks Plant and grow your own salads, veg & plants - read our gardening blog here. Read a book! Make your own jewellery - braclets, necklaces for you, your friends and as gifts! Go on a beach walk. Do some painting - Try our mess-free alternative Playcolour - no need for water or paint brushes! Master the balance bike! Go an adventure walk - Try out our Bug Bingo - click here to download Have a tea party in the garden, living room or park! Build a den - we love this idea from Woodland Trust & if you want to stay inside or your garden - try using a bedsheet and some garden chairs, peg the corners of the sheet to the chairs and voila! Visit a farm - a real one or a wooden one - or why not both! Play frisbee in the garden, at the park or local green! We love our Green Toys Frisbee made from 100% recycled plastic! Go swimming! Build a bug hotel Feed the ducks Play a card game Play shopkeeper Build mud or sandcastles Have a picnic Balloon Boat Racing in the garden

Make a shell or leaf wind chime.

We hope you enjoy working through some or all of the above ideas!

If you have your own ideas please share them with us below or on social media!

Have a Bigjigs Rail Outdoor adventure!

On sunny, warm days there is nothing better than getting out into the garden to play!

But, it doesn't have to stop at swings, slides & water toys - why not get your favourite toys which are usually enjoyed in the living room out into the garden! For example, take your beloved Bigjigs Rail wooden train sets outdoors too!

Have a Bigjigs Rail Outdoor adventure and set the track to run over the grass, winding over footpaths, around tree trunks and plant pots! Enjoy a new natural environment to expand your rail sets and imaginations! Bigjigs Rail themes are fantastic for exploring new worlds, and in the new surrounding, those worlds can become even more interesting. The Bigjigs Rail Medieval Train Set and the Knights of the castle guarding the royal family through the fields and across the garden! Transport the treasure around the wooden track to the castle. Train up the Knights ready for battle as the King and Queen watch over. Use the Pillory to give bad guys a telling off! The possibilities are endless with the Includes 46 play pieces including an engine and two carriages, wooden figures, trees, Knight's flags and much more!

Go beyond the set and expand to include additional track pieces, accessories and explore the medieval world some more.

Transit up along the sloping track to the Drawbridge and enter the castle then raise the moveable bridge using the red turn dials to stop enemies in their tracks. Once the enemies have been lost lower the bridge back down and return to the track for another adventure! After traveling around the wooden track searching, your Knights finally find the mystical treasure, which is being guarded by the dragon! Befriend him and he will load it into your carriage. With magnets, the Dragon Crane is able to pick up the gold using its nose and load it easily onto your train! Set includes dragon with a movable dial to lift the dragon's neck up and down, treasure and an additional carriage to fit the treasure into. Extend your rail world into new realms. Travel from one fantasy land to another via a Pink Rope Bridge. Welcome to Fairy Land! Carefully travel over the rickety wooden rope bridge to cross the woodland stream below. Once safely over the wooden bridge, the magical journey can continue into the long grass, around the flowers and beyond. Travel through the grassy edges of the river to a Lilypad Turntable. A great way to manage an ever-growing wooden rail outdoor network, this 66-way Lilypad Turntable will ensure all engines can head in the right direction! Little ones can cross the lilypad by driving onto the colourful pad and then twist the pink knob to rotate.

Share your outdoor adventures with us on social media & enter to win a £20 voucher - every week in July 2017.

Take your learning outdoors into the fresh air! The beauty of being outdoors and doing forest school activities is that children probably do not perceive it as "learning" and yet they learn some of their most valuable lessons there.

Sand & water play enables hands-on learning & can be easily linked to the school curriculum

You Don't have to be on the beach to reap the benefits of playing with sand and water. Get out in the garden and play in the sand, water, or if you're brave mud! These natural resources provide great opportunities for sensory play, essential for healthy child development. All that digging, scooping, sifting, pouring, building and cleaning up takes a lot of energy. Sand and water play is a fun way to develop children's larger muscles and gross motor skills. Adding play accessories such as trowels, rakes or toy boats will also promote children's hand-eye coordination and allow them to practise their fine motor skills. Sand and water play is particularly beneficial for developing a sense of textures. Not only is sand a new and different texture for children to feel on their skin, but the contrast it creates with concrete, grass, mud, and wood will emphasize the sensation of each surface. Don't be afraid to get messy and a little bit muddy! Let the little ones enjoy their play without worrying about their clothes! Be prepared, put them in their old clothes and if you still can't cope with the mess using an apron and gloves is a good idea too! Shop our garden range here... Building sandcastles, mud pies and splish-splashing in the water helps ignite a little one's imagination and they can get lost on imaginary adventures whilst making memories in the great outdoors. Creative play improves children's ability to understand new concepts and enables them to connect with their environment. During role play with their friends, they will develop social skills and emotional understanding. Keep it good and green. Our Green Toys are made from 100% recycled plastic milk bottles. The toys are great for getting stuck in the mud, sand, and water because they can be hosed down, dipped in a bucket of water or even put through the dishwasher to get them clean again ready for playtime indoors or bath time! Read our Bath Toys blog here

Shop Green Toys here.

Quality family time is important for parents and children alike, it builds confidence and social skills. Playing games together is a fantastic way to take a break from technology to spend time together. Family time is a great way to strengthen bonds between parents and children, improving confidence and social skills. It's important to take time out of our busy schedules to create long lasting connections and have fun together!

Making Memories

One of the best memories you can have is that of a happy childhood. Taking just a couple of hours out of a busy weekly schedule to dedicate to spending time together is invaluable! Gigi Bloks are great building material for some seriously big ideas. Build a fort, a dragon, a ship, the possibilities are endless! Gigi Bloks are easy to build, stable and robust. Perfect for little ones who love to create a construction masterpiece! The perfect toy to encourage imaginations, Gigi Bloks are fun for the whole family to build! You can draw on your fort, castle or whatever your creation may be to really set the scene! The building possibilities are endless! Gigi Bloks combine playing, learning and physical activity and are perfect for fun family time! Available to buy here from £12.99 "These are brilliant - my son loves them. I will definitely buy more in the future. They come flat-packed, but once made up they are fairly stable and robust. They fit together easily when building (my 3 year old could do it). I have even been known to take them all apart again and put them back in their box for easy storage" Anon

Explore our best kids bath toys picks from the eco-friendly toy brand, Green Toys. Ideal bath toys for both 1 year olds and older kids.

The BIG Easter Hunt

Did you know: The largest Easter egg ever made was over 25 feet high and weighed over 8,000 pounds. Wow. Well, we can safely say we won't be hiding an egg that big in the garden this year. Every year the Easter bunny brings a variety of chocolate eggs. Children across the world devour up to 8000 calories worth of chocolate eggs.

We think it's time to change from an 'egg' hunt to a 'gift' hunt...

Wouldn't it be great if Easter gifts lasted past the Easter break? But, Don't worry we Don't want to forget chocolate altogether! So here's our idea: If you like it leave a comment below.

The Easter Gift Hunt:

Mix up the traditional egg hunt & include some toys, books & a letter from the Easter bunny in there too get their little imaginations running wild and excited for the next gift!

What you need:

2-3 Bigjigs Toys. Chocolate egg, bar or buttons. FREE colouring sheet (PRINT HERE) Paints, pens or pencils for colouring in. 2 envelopes & paper for a letter from the Easter Bunny 1-2 Childrens books Baskets for collecting the treasure.

What to do:

1. Wrap up your Bigjigs Toys, books, paints/pens or pencils in bright & colourful wrapping paper.
2. Print out our FREE colouring sheet & pop it in an envelope.
3. Write a letter from the Easter bunny & pop it in an envelope.
4. Hide your treasure throughout your home or garden:
5. Sit back and see the happy Bigjiggers collecting up their treasure in their baskets.

Tips: Hide the gifts high and low - make your little egg hunters work for their gifts. You could even have a couple of extra envelopes with clues to keep them running around. Or, set targets for what they need to do before they get a gift e.g. a relay race, egg and spoon race, assault course. P.S. If you have more than 1-2 children increase the prizes.

Our favourite Easter hunt toys:

Remember to share your Bigjigs Easter Hunts on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram

Have a Happy Easter!

Explore our new range of affordable Kids Gardening Tools! Choose from garden hand tools, watering cans, and more!

Sensory Snow Play with Green Toys

Kids love sensory play! It adds another dimension to play letting little ones explore the world they live in. Enhancing learning through hands-on activities igniting a child's senses. In the summer kids love to get outdoors and play in water, sand or mud. But, this time of year it can be a bit too chilly to enjoy the outdoors for long periods of time. Often, sensory playtime suffers as a result. We have found a solution which requires no hats, coat or gloves! Our sensory play time was centered around some wonderful magic snow* & Green Toys.

Watch the snow grow here in the short video.

[embed]https://youtu.be/YsVKXQAxD5E[/embed] Instant fun! With no time to waste, we were so pleased to learn the magic snow was formed instantly! Simply pour water onto the dry snow and watch it expand into a pile of fluffy white snow! It was an absolute hit with all of us & the children loved it! And what's even better there were no cold fingers or toes! Matilda couldnt get enough of the snow! We couldn't resist getting some toys involved in the snow play. We pick toys which would help to scoop, and move the snow around. Matilda scoopped up the snow into the mini-truck out, transported it delivering a new pile of snow. The fun was never ending! We played with recycled and eco-friendly Green Toys Mini Pick Up Truck, Scooper, and Dumper in the snow and these were an ideal partner because the recycled plastic can be washed after too. If the snow gets on clothing simply shake it off! It didn't ruin anything of ours! We played on a large sheet of felt, but a tuff spot tray would be a good way to keep the snow all in one place, especially if you have carpet.

We used 5 scoops of dry snow to create enough snow to play, but, you can do more or less depending on how much you want!

And the fun can continue because the snow takes ages to dry out, especially when kept cool.

Have a go at sensory play today or over the Christmas break! Share your sensory play picture with us

@BigjigsToys

*We got our magic snow from amazon.co.uk - crucially environmentally friendly and non-toxic.

Just in time for Christmas we are excited to give you our Bigjigs Top 10 Toys! This set of pop-out dinosaurs makes a perfect stocking stocking filler. Ideal for use as fun play characters or brightening up a child's bedroom! Perfect for all the eco-friendly parents out there as they are made from recycled paper and printed with vegetable inks. RRP £8.99 - buy it here Ahoy me hearties! Set sail on the high seas for a swashbuckling adventure on the pirate train! Let young imaginations be inspired for hours with this 42 piece Pirate Train Set. Pass through shark infested waters, but don't forget to beware of the shipwrecked pirates! RRP £39.99 - buy it here This First Rolling Shape Sorter is perfect for introducing shape and colour. The shapes are the ideal size for little hands to grasp and it features a spoke that slides open for easy access to the shapes. A great educational gift for the little ones in your family! RRP £11.49 - buy it here Just push forwards and go! Promoting exercise and encouraging confidence and independence balance bikes provide the perfect stepping stone to a real bike. A balance bike provides an excellent way to improve balance while further developing hand/eye coordination. RRP £55.99 - buy it here These soft and tactile building blocks are suitable from birth and the perfect size for little hands! Made from natural rubber foam they are a great eco-friendly gift option. Rubbabu toys are durable and offer years of imaginative play and learning value. RRP £22.49 - buy it here Bring the magic of Christmas to life with Bigjigs Rail. The elves will help to load the train full of presents in the toy factory before departing ready for an adventure delivering presents around the world! Accessories can be added each year to expand the set to ensure the magic will always last. Bigjigs Rail is compatible with most other major wooden railway brands. RRP £29.99 - buy it here Little ones will be roaring with laughter when they play with this brightly coloured wooden pull along! Have lots of bendy wiggly pull along fun with this fun take on a traditional classic, with colourful wheels and elastic joints. Made from high quality, responsibly sourced materials this will be sure to make a great gifts for the little ones in your family that are on the move! RRP £14.99 - buy it here Set sail aboard the Green Toys Ferry! The perfect bath toy for babies and toddlers and great for outdoor play in the warmer months! The Ferry Boat comes complete with it's own eco-friendly cargo. Green Toys produce eco-friendly toys make from recycled plastic milk bottles, free from nasty chemicals and they are dishwasher safe too! RRP £20.99 - buy it here From great kitchens grow mighty chefs! This wooden toy kitchen is a fantastic way to encourage imaginative role play and inspire mini chefs! The Play Kitchen comes complete with oven gloves, removable cooking utensils, saucepans and more, providing hours of open-ended play. RRP£99.99 - buy it here At No.1 in the Bigjigs Top 10 Toys countdown is the award winning Fire & Rescue Train Set! Race to the rescue through the fire station tunnel and put out the fire or rescue the cat stuck in the tree! This set encourages imagination dexterity and coordination. A great starter set to spark little ones imaginations! RRP £39.99 - buy it here View the complete range here