Perfect Toys for Your Mini-Adventurers: A Wicked Uncle Review
*Gifted Products
Getting out and about is one of the things we love to do as a family. Jake has always been energetic and never one for staying still so we have had to discover plenty of ways to keep him both physically and mentally busy. As with all children, Jake goes through phases of what he likes but right now he is very much into anything with army print and involves role-playing. Having already heard of Wicked Uncle and knowing how vast their range of children’s toys is, I was very happy to be asked to review some items of my choice.
Their website is cleverly set out so you can easily find the type of toy you are after. You can select from age, gender, popular toys and categories which include brainiac, adventurer, outdoorsy, creativity and many more. There is something there for everybody. I immediately knew I would find perfect items in the adventurer category and sure enough, Jake quickly spotted the Junior Explorer Kit. We then had a browse through the Brainiac category and decided that the My First Microscope would be a great fit with the explorer kit.
The Junior Explorer Kit consists of: A compass, whistle, camouflage face paint, paracord rope for den building etc, torch with 4 coloured lenses and a waterproof notebook, all inside a flip-lid tin case. As soon as Jake received it he couldn’t contain his excitement and was off booby trapping our house with the rope, asking for his face to be painted, turning the lights out so he could use the torch, oh, and the kit came out with us everywhere!
The My First Microscope is perfect for those with inquisitive minds. Jake is always asking about how things work, what’s inside something and is intrigued by bugs, as most kids are. This microscope is fully working with 8x magnification and a little LED light to help to see the items more clearly. The lens also moves up and down to get the best view.
In order to get the best review out of these two ‘mini-adventurer’ toys, we decided to go on a Dinosaur Adventure in the woods, hunt for ‘dinosaur fossils’ (and other woodland bits), try out all the pieces in the explorer kit and then to return home to view our ‘fossils’ under the microscope.
We began with face painting…
The face painting stick is double-ended, with one end being brown and the other green… perfect for camouflaging yourself in the woods! As a parent, you will love to hear that it comes off very easily with wipes.
Once we were all sorted, we headed off to the woods for some fun!
We were joined by Jake’s friend, Erin (6) and the children quickly found plenty to entertain themselves from jumping in mud, to trying to work out where North was with the compass, then finding a den and continuing to build it, discovering some woodland treasures, balancing on fallen trees and so much more…
We quickly found out how vital a waterproof notebook is when you have kids around! This is how Erin dropped it (I didn’t even need to stage it!)
They re-discovered how much free fun can be found outdoors and it was so nice to spend a relaxed afternoon playing, laughing, investigating and helping them to learn. The kit proved to be extremely popular with both of them so, er, if you have siblings you may want to purchase one each!
Once home, Jake spent some time studying his collection of finds from the woods under his microscope.
The large eye-pieces are cushioned so little ones won’t hurt their eyes if they press down too hard. They are also very simple to look through, no need to adjust them to focus, all they need to do is move the lens up and down with the knob to see things that little bit closer.
And if you want to see exactly what we got up to you can do so right here in our YouTube video:
We had a great time using these toys and I think they complement each other really well. I can see we will be enjoying more days like these in the future.
*We received these items in exchange for this review. As always all opinions remain honest and my own. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.
Pin for later:
I used to have a microscope as a child which provided hours of fun, this looks like a much better version of that!