Play Foam from Learning Resources - A Review
We all know that sensory and creative play is a great experience for our children but, usually, this kind of play means messy play and it can be tricky to find the necessary time and space to get stuck in with it.Learning Resources have a product that really takes the mess out of both. Their Play Foam aims to offer creative, sensory play straight out of the box, with no mess and no waste as it doesn't dry out like other types of dough and foam.
We received a pack of Play Foam which contained eight different colours of foam. Four plain and four which included glitter. The packaging is really bright and it's clear to see the colours included. I didn't actually like the packaging as, once it is opened it has to be thrown away, I would prefer it to provide somewhere to store the play foam for future use.
The foam itself is made up of tiny polystyrene balls which are stuck together. You can compress them and stretch them apart in order to mould them into different shapes.
The texture of the foam is quite unusual. It isn't sticky or wet and for me has the consistency of marshamllow rice krispie squares!
Bud got stuck into it straight away and really enjoyed exploring the foam and making different shapes with it.
Throughout the time he was playing with it he was talking about the different colours and the different ways in which he was separating the foam, for example he said he was tearing and ripping. He loved that some of the foam was sparkly and this added an interesting dimension to his creations as you could see the glitter twinkling.
Bud didn't manage to make anything really recognisable apart from this flower
This photo does show how easy it is to stick the colours together to create a multi-coloured design. This is great as it really enhances the design but, once you have mixed the colours it is virtually impossible to separate them out again. You end up with a great big multi-coloured ball of foam to play with. This isn't a bad thing as you can see the distinct colours in the mix rather than it going that horrible sludge brown colour that mixed playdough goes.
Of course I had to play too and I came up with a caterpillar, it seemed the perfect use of all the different colours of dough before Bud mixed them thoroughly together. The second photo here is what happened after Bud collected it all together.
I think the Play Foam is good value for money and is comparable with play dough. Obviously it not drying out means that it is likely to last a little longer. I do wish the packaging offered a way to store the foam after opening as ours is now just up on the shelf and I'd like to be able to put it back in the box.
If you'd like to try Play Foam for yourself then pop over to the Learning Resources Facebook Page to enter their competition to win one of five packs which ends on 7th June.
Disclaimer: We were sent this Play Foam in exchange for an open and honest review
