Fun with numbers

Playing with numbers or learning with numbers. It could also be playing and learning with numbers. In earlier posts, we have talked about how much we love the idea of learning through play. This week we look at number based toys that help your children in more ways that you would have thought. Two of the leading suppliers in this field are Bigjigs and Melissa & Doug and we are delighted to showcase more of their beautiful toys for you.

Bigjigs Wooden Number Tower is a beautifully constructed educational wooden toy comprising ten numbered stacking pieces and a natural wooden base. Kids will enjoy this educational, stacking toy, as you encourage them to consider the shaped pieces and how they fit together. This toy promotes shape and colour recognition, and manual dexterity. Once the tower has been built, you can encourage your child to count the pieces. The Wooden Number Tower is a fabulous toy which will encourage your child to experience constructive play, whilst promoting motor skills and creative development. From 12 months +.

Melissa & Doug See Inside Numbers Peg Puzzle is an educational wooden peg puzzle. It has a puzzle piece for numbers 0 up to 9. There is a colourful picture under each piece of the same number of items as the number on the puzzle piece. For example, under 5 there is a picture of 5 fishes.

This educational peg puzzle promotes letter recognition and early counting skills. The puzzle also helps to develop hand-eye co-ordination, fine motor skills and skills of visual perception.

From 2 years +.

Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Clock makes the challenge of learning to tell the time a little easier. The hours and minutes hands are labelled very clearly, and the hours are marked both on the shape sorter blocks and on the face of the clock. The five minute intervals are also clearly marked, showing how an hour is made up. A wooden toy clock that features shapes, colours, numbers and time telling.

The shape sorting clock has received several awards including a Silver Practical Pre-School award in 2005, Highly Recommended in the Good Toy Awards in 2005 and a Silver Award from the Best Toy Guide in 2005.

It is an educational wooden toy that encourages a child to sort shapes whilst introducing them to the basics of telling the time.

From 3 years +.

Like the idea of learning through play? Visit our online shop for lots of great (and educational!) gift ideas.

Anyone for High Tea?

We are delighted to say that, after what seems like a very long wait, we have now had a delivery of High Tea Shape Matching sets from our friends at Tidlo. Since the last of our stock sold out like, well Hot Tea cakes, our customers have been on our case wanting to when more are in stock and so we are pleased to say they are now in.






Tidlo High Tea Shape Matching is a brightly coloured, two-tier cake stand, featuring 15 attractively designed cakes. An educational wooden toy that supports early counting skills, and helps to develop shape matching and spatial awareness. Each cake has a number on the base to match into the correctly shaped base on the cake stand. The yummy, pretend cakes look good enough to eat! A fantastic toy for pretend play and for kitchen role play games. The High Tea Shape Sorting toy encourages a child to think about numbers and shapes whilst they are playing.

Ideal from 3 years + and for keeping them amused on long Summer days.

Dressing Up

There are some things that it seems will always be a part of growing up and the enthusiasm for dressing up seems as undiminished as ever. And so, with our friends at Melissa & Doug we thought we would bring you as many different costumes as possible to cover as many different interests and preferences.

If you want action then the Firemen dressing up kit, complete with jacket, a helmet, a badge, a fire exstinquisher and a totally realistic sounding bull horn will give them hours of fun. Likewise on the action front, it's all aboard for the Pirate kit - anyone not having fun walks the plank! Want to get them involved in the kitchen, get them the chef's kit complete with hat, an oven mitt, wooden utensils and measuring spoons. There are loads more options to choose from - have a look at the Dressing Up page in our online shop for more details. All for Age 3+.





Something else that always seems to fascinate is jewellery - well the girls anyway! Not only do the girls like to put on pretty things (like the Princess Daisy necklace) but also they need somewhere pretty to keep all their beautiful things (like the Cupcake Trinket box). Or when that just isn't enough, there's the Djeco Vanity case which has hairbrush, mirror, lipstick, powder bottle, perfume bottle, two hair slides, two rings and a bracelet. Hours of fun dressing up and playing with jewellery - what more could a girl (of any age!) want. Age 4 years +.





There are lots of things to enjoy, for boys & girls, at our shop so go and have a look when you get a chance. We'd really love to hear from you think about our toys and our shop - let us know at sally@butterfliesanddragons.co.uk.

Play & Learn

This week we return to a familiar and favourite theme of the team here at Butterflies & Dragons. We just love the idea that our children can play with fantastic toys that not only keep them amused but also help with their educational development. For this entry, we are looking at development of language skills through play with classic letter based toys. The focus on this comes from about the age of 3+ and hence you will find all the toys featured today suitable from that age.

Melissa & Doug Wooden ABC Puzzle featuring thick, chunky wooden pieces that neatly fit into the puzzle board and can also stand up for pretend play fun.

This educational puzzle is Super-Sized with pieces that are an easily manageable size for toddler hands. This puzzle supports your child's recognition and understanding of the letters of the alphabet in a fun, colourful way. Encourage your child to look out for the full colour pictures that nestle under the 26 alphabet pieces! Age: 3 years+




Melissa & Doug See Inside Alphabet Peg Puzzle is an educational wooden peg puzzle. It has a puzzle piece for each of the 26 letters in the alphabet. There is a colourful picture under each piece of something that begins with the same letter. For example, under N there is a picture of a Nest.

This educational peg puzzle promotes letter recognition and early reading skills. The puzzle also helps to develop hand-eye co-ordination, fine motor skills and skills of visual perception. Age: 3 years +




The Tidlo wooden lowercase letters set includes 58 colourful magnetic pieces, that can be placed on the fridge or other magnetic surface. A great way for a child to learn the alphabet!
# Bright, colourful magnetic letters that are a fun way to develop early literacy skills
# Children can practise spelling simple words and names
# Letters are easy for small hands to grasp

The wooden magnetic letters can be played with perfectly on a white magnetic board, or a fridge door. Age: 3 years+




We said in our last post we had somegreat competitions coming. We're working on some ideas so stay on the edge of your seats, more news soon.

Beautiful Spaces

We all go to a lot of trouble to make the rooms in our homes look and feel good so that they become places we love to spend time. So probably not too surprising to hear that we agree and have some wonderful pieces of furniture and accessories that will make your child's bedroom somewhere they will want to spend many happy hours playing. Here are just a few things that will look great.

Pintoy's Natural Toy Chest is a beautiful, quality, wooden toy box. This wooden toy box has a large capacity for lots of toys, helping your child to keep his room tidy. It also doubles up as a place to sit! The toy chest features a soft close mechanism to protect little fingers.




(This children's toy chest will require straightforward home assembly by an adult.)

Something really pretty comes from RJB Stone - Dancing Fairy Wall Pockets - A wall pocket hanger featuring three colourful dancing fairy designs, with pretty butterflies and flowers decorating the corners. It will look wonderful in a little girl's bedroom! The perfect place to keep her things safe.




New in today from Orange Tree Toys.......brightly coloured, handpainted wooden bookends. We have Pirate bookends featuring jolly roger pirate characters, treasure and sea chests. Or, we have beautiful Butterfly themed bookends complete with pretty pink wings. Designed in the UK and handcrafted, both will look great on any bookshelf.






Whether you want decorative items, functional storage units or a combination of both, go to the Kids Rooms section on the website for these and other fabulous ideas.

Keep an eye out for future posts. We're going to have some fun competitions with prizes coming soon.

See you again soon,

Sally & Phoebe
aka The Crew

Imagine & Pretend

How many of us remember the times when we were children that we used to dress up with our friends and pretend being pirates, firemen, doctors and nurses or the like. Well, some things will always be a part of growing up and we saw our own children grow up loving to imagine and pretend. It's amazing to see just how creative and imaginative young minds can be given a few simple props to help them on the way to hours and hours of fun play. This week we are looking at some of the ways children can continue to enjoy these experiences with some of our favourite suppliers' toys. As always, we can't show you everything (and you probably haven't got time) but hopefully these will give you a feel for what we have - loads more on the website to look at when you have got time.

Tidlo Paragon Pirate Ship is a beautifully constructed wooden pirate ship toy, produced to a very high standard. With a "Yo Ho Ho Me Hearties!" children can explore the magnificent rigging and scrub the decks, transporting them to an exciting time of pillaging and plundering!

The Paragon ship, armed with two cannons, looks every bit the part with its striped sails and flying the Jolly Roger flag. Two barrels and a treasure chest are stored in the hold, so who knows what adventures can be had! The captain and his five crew keep things ship-shape on board, ready for their next voyage.




There are recessed wheels underneath the body of the ship, so that it can 'sail' realistically across the sea! The ship is partially built, and requires very simple assembly to add the masts and the sails.

For 3 years+.


The Oldfield Farm is a beautiful wooden farmyard set. The Oldfield Farm set includes a barn with a loft and ladder, an animal shed, a farm house, a pig sty and fencing. A wooden play base is also included. Each farm building has detachable magnetic roof panels, which enable children to easily access the buildings to create their farm scenes. The Oldfield Farm is a colourful, modern play set that will become a firm favourite with your child. Maximise the play value of the set by adding the wooden farm animals and the farm family. Children will learn about farm animals, where they live and how to look after them.




Please note that the farm animals and the farm family are not included in The Oldfield Farm. However, if you buy the bundle you can get all these fabulous items together and get a discount!


The Pintoy Fire Bundle includes the following FOUR items from the Pintoy Fire Series: The Pintoy Fire Station, Fire Engine, Firefighters and the Firefighting Accessories. The Fire Series from Pintoy is one of the Pintoy best selling ranges of pretend play toys for children. They are beautiful wooden toys that will encourage your child to play imaginatively and creatively for hours! A wide range of realistic fire themed props are included with the fire toys providing good value fire rescue pretend play. This is a lovely wooden playset and the Pintoy Fire Station is a very sturdy toy which will last for years. The Pintoy Fire Engine fits neatly inside the Pintoy Fire Station when not in use. The set of Pintoy Firefighters have bendy arms and legs so they can be realistically put into position. The Fire Series Bundle is completed with the Pintoy Fire Accessory pack - which adds to the final pretend play with the hoses and extinguishers!
Your child will enjoy many hours of imaginative firefighting play both on his own and with his friends.

3 years+.

Melissa & Doug Folding Princess Castle promises exciting pretend play activities. This superlative wooden princess play castle features hand-painted regal accents, two removable turrets, balconies, a flying buttress, an arched walkway, towers and a working drawbridge. The castle is hinged allowing it to open fully for hours of engaging, imaginative play, or it is convenient to close for compact storage.



Buy the Folding Princess Castle and the Princess Castle Furniture together, and we will include a set of Royal Family Princess Castle Dolls FREE OF CHARGE. Remember, when you spend over £75 you also qualify for FREE DELIVERY!




If you have got a little prince and not a princess, you can always go for the Medieval Castle instead.



There are great deals on bundles as well to help you get an even better deal.

Also from 3 years+.