CBeebies was on my TV every single day when my son was little and I actually remember him watching the first ever episode of Bing being broadcast just before he turned two. He instantly fell in love and when his sister was born a few months later, she was basically introduced to the show right away.
Fast forward three years, my children are five and three and even now my eldest will ask, "Mummy, can we watch Bing on BBC iPlayer?" It's one of those shows that they never get sick of. With Halloween around the corner we decided to give carving a pumpkin a go. I have never carved a pumpkin in my life but I was willing to give it a try as I knew C and E would love getting their hands dirty and who better to carve than Bing himself? I liked the idea of doing a familar character for them rather than a traditional scary one.
As I'm such a beginner, I watched Bing's 'How To' Pumpkin Tutorial and it seemed easy enough even for me. I started off by printing a Bing pumpkin template and taping it to the front of our pumpkin. I then followed black outlines of Bing's face, eyes and mouth and pushed a pin along so that when I removed the template sheet, I had a dot-to-dot image of Bing's face.
Now for the fun bit! We scooped out all of the insides and cleaned it out, then I did the tricky bit of doing the actual carving and making holes at the mouth and sides of the eyes. I honestly couldn't believe how easy it was! The template was a massive help and it's hard to go wrong when you use it.
If you want to give carving a Bing pumpkin a go, check out the Bing website for inspiration and you can view some other cool Bing pumpkins on the Bing Facebook page!
(This is a sponsored post.)
CBeebies is always on in the background when we're home and Bing is
definitely one of my kids top three TV shows. Every time the opening
credits roll, I hear a chorus of "Bing's on!" then their eyes don't come
off the TV until it's over.
When C was offered the chance to
review Ravensburger's Bing Bunny themed 4 in a box puzzles I knew I had
to say yes. I definitely think he would disown me as a mother if I said
no and he found out.
When the puzzle arrived and I opened it
out of the packaging, both children were excited at seeing their favourite
characters Bing, Flop, Pando, Amma, Padget, Sula, Coco and Charlie on the outer box. The
puzzles are recommended for children aged 3 years + so for reviewing
purposes I did them with C first but over the past few weeks E has had a
go but, of course, can't quite work them out just yet.
As I
mentioned before, there are four puzzles included in the box. Each
puzzle has a different amount of pieces - 12, 16, 20 and 24. When
completed, the puzzles are all the same size so the individual jigsaw
pieces get smaller as the amount of them increases. I wanted to start C
off with the easiest puzzle - the 12 piece - to see how he got on before
gradually progressing.
As I imagined, he had no problems
whatsoever. He does own jigsaws and enjoys doing them so this was no
different. Except the fact that he was a bit more excited by the
characters. As we did the rest of the puzzles he did need more help (understandable as he's just shy of 4 years old) but I
know he'll be whizzing through them in no time.
Both children
loved the bright, recognisable images on the finished puzzles and gave
cheers when they were completed. I love how each puzzle has a different coloured
border. It really helped C understand which pieces go together as I
don't think that he would be able to tell solely by size at this age.
The jigsaw pieces themselves were very well-made and perfectly finished.
C has no trouble holding them and slotting them into place. He has
asked to do them quite a lot over the past few weeks and I definitely
think I'll be picking up more character puzzles for him to have a go at.
The Bing Bunny 4 in a box puzzle retails at around £5.99 from all good toy and bookshops. You can find out more at the Ravensburger website and keep up to date on their YouTube and Twitter accounts.
(We received this item for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)
