BigJigs Farm House Sorter – Review

I love wooden toys – they are practical, hardwearing and most of all fun, so when I found out we were one of the 12 finalists to become a BigJigs’ Play Patrol Agent, I admit I let out a little scream!

We were sent a BigJigs’ Baby FarmHouse Shape Sorter to review, and it was a big hit as soon as it arrived.

There are 9 chunky pieces, perfect for little hands to sort and try and get through the relevant shaped hole.  Eliza was frustrated that it wasn’t quite as easy as it looked, but she is slowly mastering it and there are plenty of other games you can play too.

We started off by identifying each shape and making the relevant “noise or action”, which the turned into a very noisy rendition of Old MacDonald had a farm, where the children had to choose which animal came next.

The shapes are easily identifiable and we had fun naming the colours as well as the animals.  We even count them back into the farmhouse before it gets put away, as someone keeps trying to disappear with the cat!

Even packing the shapes away and putting the roof back on the farmhouse is fun!

As the children get older, each animal has its name on the reverse of the piece., which encourages early letter identification which then builds to words.  Isaac (4) is learning to read and managed to identify most of the animals by the words alone, although if he got stuck he could look at the shape for help.

Isaac also enjoyed balancing the shapes in the relevant holes, and was surprisingly good at it until his sister came up and poked them back through!