Who said that you need to get all messy to have fun? Well, you know I'm all for messy fun, but every now and then, I'd also like to take a breather and let my kids have fun without the mess.
When I was asked to review a pack of Wikki Stix, I was quite excited to explore what we could do with it. Wikki Stix are essentially yarn coated with non-toxic patented wax (made in USA) - sticky and reusable, and do not stain the surface they touch. Yes, you are reading right - this is something kids can have fun with without a mess you have to clean up after.
Honestly, it arrived on a day that I needed something to jazz up handwriting practice (homework from school). She was trying to distract me from making her finish up her work and then I suddenly thought, why not use the Wikkistix to make
I showed her the stix and twisted them to make the number that she was supposed to practise writing. Suddenly, there was so much fervour to get the writing done!
Then of course, she had to have a go at making the numbers herself... and continue writing.
While she was writing, I was thinking these would be great for making her count objects then use the stix to form the answer too. And we could use them for illustrating word families like cat, sat, mat, bat, using different coloured sticks for the beginning consonant, leaving /at/ as the fixed variable. And if you have many stix to play with, you could use these to form pictures too or even 3D objects.
She was twisting the stix together to make pretty 'candy canes'
And when homework was finished (within minutes - which could have very well been much longer without the Wikkistix), it was time to explore the stix further!
The sample pack I received came with 8 sticks and an activity sheet. She used the stix to join the dots.
Naturally, Alex was interested in the wikkistix too! :P
Ta da! Finished the activity with the stix!
Using Wikkistix to do dot-to-dot activities means that the activity sheet can be reused since no pencil/ crayon was used in the process - so environmentally friendly! And we all know how kids love to do the same thing over and over again. :)
I just had to do this - use Wikkistix to form Chinese characters! These sticks are soooo malleable, they are perfect for creating Chinese characters.
Done! For the small strokes which she folded the sticks many times to form (see picture above), we easily stretched them out again without the stix breaking or losing its sticky property.
I also revived my 四五快读 word cards for this activity. I chose words that were 8 strokes or less (as I only had 8 stix). Some of these words are familiar while some are new - I brought out familiar words first to make the task seem less daunting.
I formed words and made her fill in the missing stroke:
Then it was time for free play:
And she started to form shapes on her own:
On another occasion, I took out this dot-to-dot activity book she has for her to play with her stix:
She happily formed the alphabet first:
Then proceeded to join the dots:
Certainly, there are many more ways to play with these stix and you can find some great ideas here.
And for those who are looking for a way to teach the digestive system to your kids (and I know many moms who are doing this!), here's a really cool way:
Image from Wikki Stix
Because these are so small, light and portable, you can bring these anywhere to entertain your child on the go - on car rides, waiting for the food at the restaurant etc. Certainly easier to bring out than a colouring book plus crayons! A great busy bag idea if you just dump these into a ziploc bag with perhaps a couple of sheets of dot-to-dot activities or words for word formation etc.
The best part I think is that it's non-toxic (food colouring safe) so even if Alex does accidentally mouth it, it's not gonna be serious. Of course, I'm not letting him eat it or play with it unsupervised. After all, these sticks are so malleable, they could be made very small if you bend it many times. In case you are wondering, I didn't let him play with them - the instruction on the bag does say it's for age 3 years and up! :P
These stix initially started out really very sticky and left a sticky feeling on my fingers (easily removed with water and a bit of soap if needed) but after one session of playing, I felt that the level of stickiness was just nice - sticks well to whatever you're sticking it on without leaving that gooey feeling on the fingers. After a week of playing with them, these stix are still sticky enough so I think they should have quite some shelf life, in case you're wondering.
But most important of all, they do not stain. I just can't say this enough!
These stix are also useful for children with special needs and you can read more about the uses here.
Overall, I'd recommend Wikkistix to my readers for the possibilities they offer are endless. :)
With these, you can go grab your cuppa and enjoy it while your kid indulges in clean, sensorial play :)
Good News!
Wikkistix offers free delivery worldwide, no minimum purchase.
Disclosure: I received a sample pack of Wikkistix for this review.
