Toy review
Huggies dance mat

We have about three musical mats in the library. Josie tested out the Huggies one recently and gave it five stars – well she would if she could talk!
Her joy was evident playing with this toy. The animal sounds were right up her alley – who wouldn’t love stopping on a sheep to make it baa! Perfect for active toddlers who like to test out the cause and effect principle – I stand here and it makes this noise!
The songs were all familiar and the two settings of either songs or notes meant she could listen and dance along, or make up her own tune with some vigorous stomping. I would recommend it as a great way to get little ones moving inside on cold, windy, wet winter days. And it’s not too noisy!

Toy reviews

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Press releases

31 July 2008

Mainland Foundation gives sporting start

Linwood children are off to a sporting start in life thanks to a grant for $345 to the local toy library from the Mainland Foundation. The grant has been used by Linwood Community Toy Library to purchase sports toys, specifically designed for little people – aged 3-5 years. “These junior sets of cricket, basketball, golf and soccer will help our children develop their motor skills and co-ordination as well as keeping them healthy and active,” said grants officer Sarah Mankelow.

“As children play, they learn. What they learn is shown in their physical emotional and social development and this is especially important in the early years of life,” she said.

Toy libraries provide vital opportunities for play for every child.

“Toy libraries like Linwood’s provide access to a wide variety of toys that are otherwise unaffordable for many families,” said Ms Mankelow.

“Grants such as this from Mainland Foundation help us to continue offering our services to the families of Linwood community at low cost, which is particularly important at the moment with costs of living rising.”

Linwood Community Toy Library operates fortnightly on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings from the Linwood Community Centre, Linwood Avenue.

20 January 2007 - A dozen DVDs is a great gift

Linwood Community Toy Library aims to have the best collection of children’s educational DVDs available for loan, thanks to funding from the Christchurch City Council.
The Hagley / Ferrymead branch of the Council’s Community Development Funding Scheme has given $422 to the Linwood Community Toy Library for the purchase of DVDs.
“With this funding we will purchase quality products such as the award-winning ‘Baby Einstein’ and the fantastic, locally-produced ‘Dress-up Box’ series – these will be a great start to our collection,” said grants officer Sarah Mankelow.
“In this fast-paced modern world, its naïve to believe that under-fives are not being exposed to television, but by making quality DVDs easily available, parents can control what they watch,” she said.
“When used appropriately, television can be a useful learning tool that parents and children can enjoy together, enhancing language and their understanding of the world around them,” said Ms Mankelow.
DVDs and other toys are available for hire from the Linwood Community Toy Library on a fortnightly basis.

December 2006 - COGS gives money – and the bag!

Community Organisation Grants Scheme has recently granted Linwood Community Toy Library $900 towards supplies for making storage bags for their loan toys.
“Rolls of PVC, toggles, string, lamination - all the equipment for making a plastic bag may not sound like a thrilling gift to most people, but we are ecstatic to receive it,” said library grants officer Sarah Mankelow.
“This funding will help us store our lending toys safely and attractively, providing a. more user-friendly service for library members – they will be able to easily see what they are getting!”
“The library also hopes to make and on-sell these bags to other toy libraries, thus generating more independent income and becoming less reliant on grants such as COGS just to survive,” she said.

December 2006 - Linwood Toy Library goes global

Linwood Community Toy Library has reached the global community, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Christchurch-based internet company Wired.
A new website for the non-profit organisation was launched this week onto the world wide web.
Wired has designed, created, purchased the domain name and hosted it for free!The site features photos of our very own members and a wealth of information about the library.