Science4You Colour and Pet Turtle

Bud and LM are so inquisitive and interested in the world and sometimes it's hard to remember that this curiosity is forming an interest in the world around them and the building blocks of their future science education. As always with young children it's important to make the most of learning through play opportunities and we have recently been sent some toys from the Science4You range for younger childen, Science Junior, to try out.


First up we have the Colour and Pet Turtle. This is from a range  of three toys - you can also get a dolphin and a puppy - and in the pack you receive a soft turtle and four washable felt tip pens.The idea is that your child can colour in the toy, wash it in the washing machine to remove the colouring, then colour it in again. Bud is rather fond of turtles, I think partly because he knows that I have 'issues' with turtles and tortoises (as regular readers will be aware), so he was very pleased to receive this.'Ernie' as he has been named, I think this is in homage to the large turtle at the Sea Life Centre in Manchester, has been played with quite a few times since he arrived.


The turtle measures around 15cm long and is white with printed on markings - perfect for colouring in all of the different features. The felt tip pens do a good job of this although Bud did state that he though that there should be a brown pen as turtles are green and brown. That said, however, he has enjoyed colouring in using the green, blue, orange and purple pens supplied. The toy is age 3+ and I think that's correct. LM has tried to muscle in on the colouring in which led to an unfortunate incident with the blue pen and a pair of pink tights. The markers really are washable, I'm happy to say!


All in all this is a fun little toy, it's a good outlet for creativity and I've been interested to see Bud using different actions with the pen than he would normally. He's picking the turtle up to colour it in and using different angles as a result which is all great for improving those fine motor skills and the muscles used for writing. This is a great rainy day activity and the ability to wash it feels like it's a new toy over and over again, very clever really. I'm not quite sure what we will do if and when the pens run out but I'm sure it's possible to buy replacement washable markers in the shops, I couldn't see any on the Science4You website.

We took the opportunity to talk about turtles while Bud was colouring in and he asked lots of questions (some of which needed Google to help me answer them) all about how turtles live, what they eat etc. He did know some of the answers from Sea Life visits but was very keen to learn more.

At £9:99 I think this is a reasonable price for a toy that, by definition, can be reused over and over again. It has engaged Bud's attention and concentration on several occasions now and we think that it would make a fantastic gift for any child aged around three to six.

The Colour and Pet Turtle is available from Science4You Toys and from their Amazon store.  

Disclosure: We received the Turtle for review purposes.