ALEX Toys Little Hands My Collage Farm

My 3yo absolutely loves this! She's not ready to do it on her own, so this is something that we do together. Here's a list of pros and cons about My Collage Farm.Pros:*Lots of craft materials*Colorful*Fun end product to hang on the wall*Provides good bonding time*Good for creativity*Helps develop fine motor skillsCons:*I hear that other Alex crafts are well organized and have the projects separated. Not the case with this one. Most of the supplies are loose or in a bag with similar supplies, and not at all packaged with the right craft.*It says it has simple instructions. What it has is a small square paper that shows the pig before decorating it + crayons and glue + squiggly eyes, hat, button, pipe cleaner, and crepe paper = decorated pig. The decorated pig in the instructions has a whole lot more on it that what was shown in the "instructions." And how do they get the plastic button, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner to stay on with a glue stick??? I'm still trying to figure out what will make those things stay on without making a mess and making the pipe cleaner stiff from the glue.*We were trying to follow the pictures on the box, since it didn't have adequate instructions. But the things pictured on the box aren't necessarily in the box, and there are things in the box that aren't pictured on the box. I realize they must be trying to help develop creativity, but I'm one who likes to have instructions to follow.*The box is a tiny bit too small for the animals, so they end up a little bent at the edge.*Not at all fond of those finger crayons. They don't color well. The colors are not at all vibrant. And if your kid has sensory issues like mine and mouths everything, all it takes is one little bite to break the tip and expose the finger. And then it's hard to color with.

I gave this to my niece for her third birthday and she broke into it two days later. She worked until my sister-in-law made her stop and didn't really need any help. I read the reviews and the descriptions and bought one that I thought one that would be best suited for age (as opposed to some of the more complicated ones that might frustrate her) and this one was perfect.I also followed advice and bought two of another brand of glue stick. My sister-in-law said the glue that I bought worked and everything in the kit that was supposed to stick, did. She also has various two-way sticky items on hand if they run into problems. I look forward to giving my other niece the one that I bought her for fourth birthday and buying more in the future. It's a great way for them to be creative and keep them busy, without adding to the toy clutter!

I don't like this ALEX Little Hands kit as much as some of the others. One of the things I like about a lot of the other ALEX kits is that each of the art projects in the kit is packaged separately. Also, in most of the kits, all the materials are pre-cut and ready to go. In this kit, among the other supplies there are some rolls of crepe streamer. Since they are uncut, you can be more creative in how you use them, but since I am working with preschoolers on these projects, I prefer to have most of the materials already pre-cut to save me time. This kit was made to allow for more creativity, but I prefer the other kits because I feel like the finished artwork turns out better. My four and five year old were a little overwhelmed with the choices.Sets I like a lot better include: ALEX Toys Little Hands Clothespin Farm, ALEX Toys Little Hands Paper Plate Bugs, and ALEX Toys Little Hands Paper Bag Monsters.

My four year old loves to craft and this was a perfect gift for her. It wasn't what I expected but she loved everything about it.For me, it was a little weird. I thought there would be a set of instructions and each animal would be like a kit but instead it was just a box-full of random material and you went to town with your own imagination. There were a ton of leftover materials. We saved a couple things but had no use for most of them and ended up tossing them.

Little grandson and I thought we would love this ALEX Toys Little Hands My Collage Farm since we've purchased and completed several others from ALEX Toys. Not so! The others are perfect for 3-4 year olds as everything is prepackaged for the different options in the theme. No having to guess what goes with what to achieve what they show you on the box. What you see is what you get and we really like that. However, this one leaves you pretty much flying by the seat of your pants, and we didn't like that. We completed all of the other craft sets and never had a piece left over. This one we only completed one suggestion and there is no indication of interest to go back and craft something else. I give it three stars because it includes lots of stuff though we don't like the cheap crayons included with their kits.

My grandchildren had a lot of fun using the materials and patterns in this box to make art projects. There is a lot of adult supervision required, but that was fine with me as I was looking for activities we could do together at my house. My 3 1/2 year old grandson especially enjoyed being creative and making the animals according to his own imagination rather than just following the models. There is an abundance of craft material provided. I often had to use a stapler rather than just the glue provided to attach some items.

My 4 yr old granddaughter loves to do projects. She is able to do these with minimal help from adults and loves being able to create with all the included pieces!

The Alex craft kits are great, and my daughter and I had fun creating these little animals together. My only issue is that the kits didn't have individual instructions, the previous Alex kits I've bought had each animal/project seperated out with instructions. So if you want more creative oppertunities this is great. But for my daughter who is just at the age range, she was kind of overwhelmed at all the buttons, stickers, and paper machet that wasn't set for any specific design.