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Wednesday, 13 March 2013

LEGO Duplo Number Train Review You may have noticed my son, Ben loves his LEGO and like many little sisters Elizabeth is always wanting to emulate her big brother. With the small LEGO bricks not being suitable for her yet at just 2 years old, we bought her a few LEGO DUPLO sets at Christmas which she loves playing with and building things just like her big brother. The size of the bricks are ideal for her little hands and she is able to easily stack them together and pull them apart without too much force.

Knowing how much Elizabeth loves both building and trains (We have to stop and wave as the stream train goes past on the way in to ballet class every week!) I jumped at the chance of reviewing the LEGO DUPLO Number Train for Netmums.

When the parcel arrived, Elizabeth was transfixed by the bright and colourful packaging, pointing to the numbers on the box and getting very excited about opening it.

From a parents point of view I found the packaging to to be clear, showing the intended age range and giving a good idea of what would be found inside, including a 'to scale' image of a brick.

As a parent you will know that toddlers don't have much (or any!) patience so having something that is ready to play with as soon as it comes out of the box (and the plastic bags) is fantastic. Elizabeth immediately started putting the the train carriages together to copy the pictures on the box. I found the pieces to be well made and just the right size and shape for her to easily handle. There were enough pieces in the set for her to do her own thing and create towers as well as the train. I also thought the added features of the train driver and the dog were really lovely and Elizabeth enjoyed chatting to them while they rode the train she had built and they then climbed the tall tower. I was really impressed with the wide range of skills that this set encourages. As with all building sets, the LEGO DUPLO Number Train helps develop fine motor skills and encourages imaginative play, but this particular set has so many added dimensions that are relevant right across the age range of 2 to 5 years. The bright, chunky bricks are great for identifying shapes and colours and the 10 numbered bricks of course give an introduction to counting. As a toddler gets older there are also patterns to be found and even more fun to be had.

As well as watching Elizabeth's imagination in action as she played freely with the bricks, we also played some structured games, asking her to find a particular number or a colour of brick, she enjoyed this and responded really well, easily identifying the lower end of the bold numbers. And because it was 'hands on' rather than from a book, it held her attention a lot longer than usual.

Elizabeth has played with this set on quite a few occasions over the last week and even her 5 year old brother, who usually finds her toys 'babyish' and 'boring' joined in and helped her to create a bridge for the train and 'taught' her the different numbers. The amount of pieces in this set really encourages children to play together as there are plenty to 'share' around and they can work together to get the numbers in order.

I would say that Elizabeth's favourite thing about this set has to be the the carriage with it's hinged roof, she was very taken with this and it was used in everything she created, even a simple tower!

I love this set, every time it is played with I see something new and different about it and I can see it lasting well and being a firm favourite over the next few years. It's a great unisex toy that will appeal to Elizabeth as she goes through different stages of development.

At an RRP of just £12.99 this is a set that I would wholeheartedly recommend to fellow mums of toddlers and preschool aged children. It's great value and will last not only through time but also through your child's different stages of learning. I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from
around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on
their behalf. I have been paid expenses and supplied with a product sample for this review but retain
all editorial control. All my Netmums Reviews will display the Netmums logo within the post.
Posted by Jennifer Dixon at 07:30 Labels: colours, counting, fine motor skills, LD13Netmums, learning to count, LEGO DUPLO Number Train, little builders, numbers, Reviews, shapes

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