London is such an interesting place, with so much to see and do for all ages and all time of day! Since I have been blogging more commercially I have had more and more opportunities to visit both on my own and with my children/family. Either way it has really sparked the interest of my children as they either want to know more about where I have been and/or where they are going: Not only that but the more times they go the more we discover exciting places to explore.
Teaching Children about London
Over the past couple of years my youngest two have been learning about London at school. This ranged from information about Buckingham Palace (did you know that there are 78 bathrooms!), the Plague to The Great Fire of London (which was 350 years ago on September 2nd!). Getting the children actively involved with their learning really helps them to engage and remembered what they have been told. I really liked how the school encouraged the children to make cardboard houses which they then burnt at school – to re-enact the bakery in Pudding Lane starting The Great Fire of London. I also took my children to Monument and Pudding Lane itself, so that they could really get a feel of how close this was to where they now live.
With this in mind, and the fact that Easter is the perfect time for chocolate, I decided to review a choconchoc™ Melt & Make Chocolate London kit.
About Melt & Make
The Melt & Make collection are Belgian chocolate ‘construction kit’, which helps children channel their inner chocolatier and build their very own chocolate creations. Each kit includes all of the ingredients needed to make sensational structures such as iconic Easter Eggs, London buildings, Animal Lollipops and a fairy tale Chocolate House, as well as a chef’s hat, specially designed moulds and the cement mix, which comes in the form of tasty chocolate buttons that are ready to be melted down. Ages 6 + with Adult supervision required. Each kit is priced at £12.99 and available at www.choconchoc.co.uk
choconchoc™ Melt & Make Chocolate London kit Contents
The Chocolate London kit contains two mould trays, 1 pack of chocolate buttons (and a code for a discount to order more), chef’s hat, colour in London scene and instructions.
You will also need a glass bowl, spoon, some way of melting the chocolate (either a microwave oven or saucepan and hob), a fridge and elastic bands.
How we found the choconchoc™ Melt & Make Chocolate London kit
The kit was really easy to understand and follow the instructions. However, the amount of chocolate provided was just the right amount to complete it once – which means that when letting young children help (ages 6 & 8) there was actually not enough (as they managed to get some up the sides of the moulds and may have licked a bit here and there, plus the odd unmelted button may have snuck into their mouthes!). In fact the best idea is to let the children fill in the bus and the taxi whilst an adult takes their turn filling Big Ben.
The moulds were really effective and you could clearly see the details when the chocolate was dry. Some of the bits that had overlapped were easy just to gently break bits off. Unfortunately, it was a bit fiddly to “glue” Big Ben together and far too messy for the children to do. It was very fragile and even when held together with elastic bands it managed to fall apart. Again I think if this was done without the children this would have been more successful – or at the least after they have had some practise. Luckily the set is reusable – I just need to purchase more chocolate and besides the boys weren’t complaining about eating it!
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Other Bloggers posts on Children and London
Life at the Zoo shares London Canal Walks and 20 (almost) Free things to do with Kids in London (tried and tested)
Emma and 3 tells us about Shrek’s Adventure
Life as Alice has lots of posts on London I particularly like 5 things to read before Travelling to London with kids
And finally Kiddy Charts shares London with Kids: Free things to do in Trafalgar Square
I received a free choconchoc™ Melt & Make Chocolate London kit for purposes of review. All opinions are honest and my own.
Oh this looks like a great kit! It’s such a shame that big Ben is a bit complicated! Lovely idea though.
Nat.x
Oh wow! How cool to make your own chocolate Big Ben!!! And thanks for sharing our London Canal Walks 🙂