My daughter was recently gifted a Playfoam Combo 8 Pack From ImagiDo!. She was allowed to choose something to review from the ImagiDo! website and this combo pack of 8 colours of Playfoam took her fancy. She was curious as to what the product would be like as she has had all manner of modelling doughs, clays, play sand etc in the past but not these particular playfoam beads and she wasn’t quite sure what to expect!

Now if you haven’t seen Playfoam before the best way to describe it is ‘squishy, squashy, foam sensory beads that stick together but don’t make a mess!’.

Here is the website description of the product :-

Playfoam provides mess-free creative play for children
This unique creative play product will only stick to itself, not to hands, hair, clothes or carpet!
Playfoam never dries out so can be used time and time again
Use straight from the box for immediate creative play opportunities
Non-toxic formula ensures safe creative play activities for children as young as 3
Encourage imaginative thinking as children squash and build anything they can think of
Playfoam’s bead-like structure promotes sensory perception and fine motor skills
Set includes eight pods in eight vibrant colours (four original and four sparkle): Original Orange, Original Blue, Original Green, Original Purple, Sparkle Green, Sparkle Yellow, Sparkle Pink and Sparkle Orange

As soon as the parcel arrived in the post she pounced on it to start playing! It was a nice large pack so it would look like a substantial gift for a young child when wrapped up. As Christmas is on the way this is a good idea as a gift.

It’s a great price as you get 8 pods of different colour playfoam for just £7.50. Although my daughter has enjoyed playing with these beads I think it would be even better for children younger than her –  between the ages of 3 and 6 as they will love the squishiness of playing with the beads.

My daughter loved playing with the playfoam but she couldn’t make intricate models with it – unlike when she uses other products. I think she thought she would be able to use it as she does other craft doughs etc and she was surprised by it and I think that is a great thing as it means she has to adapt her modelling skills to using a sticky, beady medium that doesn’t behave like any other products she has played with before!

The beads stick to each other and only rarely decide to stick to your hands or clothes – but most of the time they stay together in a sticky shape that can be moulded into different forms and shapes. In the above photo you will see my attempt at a smiley face and the message Hi and then my daughter copied me and made the same. She really enjoyed making these designs to be photographed for the blog. 🙂

For the purposes of a thorough review I asked my daughter to squish a handful of these beads into my carpet for me ( You can imagine how much she enjoyed doing that! She loves helping with reviews) and we managed to pick them all up. As the beads stick to each other so it was a case of picking up a few and using these to pick up the rest of the beads. The beads weren’t really suitable to be played with again after having been squished into the carpet but at least they didn’t ruin the floor as the colour doesn’t spread and the beads don’t squish into the floor – they just stick to it – waiting to be picked up again. As many of you know some modelling doughs are a nightmare to get off the carpet! Thankfully not these beads. It goes without saying that if your child decides to chuck handfuls around the house that won’t be the case – these too would be a pain to clear up but if your child is careful with them then these are a good mess free way for them to play and be creative.

The one thing I would say is the colours cannot be separated once mixed together – as you can see from our multi-coloured playfoam beads in the photo. I should have probably made her play with each colour on its own and then keep them in separate pots but she was so quick to start playing with them all together that it was very quickly too late. It’s not a problem but it does mean that you can’t use the different colours together unless you are prepared for them to merge colours. My daughter’s not bothered in the slightest that she has one big mass of multi-coloured beads. Shes still more than happy playing with them. the packaging cannot be used to store your beads in so you will need either a selection of pots or one big pot if they have all been mixed together.

I would say that Playfoam is a great sensory activity to do with your child as they can explore the texture of the product plus they can listen to the noise it makes. I made you a little video so you can hear the sticky noise it makes when you squish it. 🙂

We have now had these playfoam beads a couple of months and they have been stored in an air-tight container and they are still just as sticky as when we first got them. It’s good that the product can be reused lots of times and played with for countless hours. It makes them even better value for money.!

I home educate my daughter and love discovering new things that she can use in her learning. As you can see from the photo of her playfoam ‘Hi’ design, this medium can be used to create letters / messages and so you could use the playfoam as a way of practicing simple spellings and reading – by making words such as  cat , dog, sun etc.  Also my daughter discovered that if she squished the whole packet of beads into a big ball shape she could throw it to me and bounce it slightly on the floor. She was happy with her discovery!

If you would like to purchase the Combo 8 pack of playfoam please visit this link —> http://imagido.co.uk/products/playfoam-combo-8-pack

It is also available to buy in classic and sparkle 4 packs and the links you need for that are as follows :-

http://imagido.co.uk/products/playfoam-sparkle-4-pack

http://imagido.co.uk/products/playfoam-classic-4-pack

ImagiDo! is a real treasure trove of a website and Janis sells fantastic products at great value prices! You can follow the company on social media by visiting their facebook and twitter pages.

If you home educate your child or are a parent that likes to buy creative learning resources to use at home then you really must visit the ImagiDo online shop! Plus it’s fab that the postage is just £2.90 whatever the size of your order.  🙂