My Little World, Village High Street – Review

My Little World produces delightful colouring and play sets. Developed by two dads looking to reduce screen time but still have a child led activity.

I always struggle with time to set up activities so something that is ready to go and will keep the kids occupied sounds ideal. I was gifted the Village High Street set in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Tim Frost and Richard Walkling are the dads behind My Little World. Tim the illustrator has worked on animations including Peppa Pig, Hey Duggee, Ben and Holly and Moshi Monsters so his style is recognisable to most young children. This was a real bonus for me as my eldest son is autistic and familiarity is really important to him.

My son is also particularly visual so all the little details on the pictures were much appreciated.

The My Little World products are aimed at children aged 4-9. I tried it out with my boys 3 & 5 and my nieces also 3 & 5. My Little World is a craft activity including colouring, cutting and playing with the imaginary worlds.

We had all my family over for my dad’s birthday and the My Little World set was the after dinner activity for the kids.

My Little World: What is included

I had the Village High Street set but it is my understanding that all the sets have the same contents but the images and theme is different.

The packaging is fully recyclable, made from recycled cardboard. It is a simple packet with a lovely example of the pictures on the front of the pack. Also a good size (9.5 x 6 inches) so very portable if you want to take it out. It would make a great activity on holiday or at a restaurant – or anywhere you want to keep the kids occupied!

The back of the pack details all the contents which is great.

Lets have a look inside:

The pack contains:

12 cards featuring black and white illustrations of characters, buildings and extras.

The cards are also made from sustainable sources and 100% recyclable.

12 coloured pencils, this means you are ready to go with your colouring straight away.

There are also five stands for your pictures.

What is not included?

Scissors you will need these to cut out the characters and buildings. It would have been nice to have a few more stands but it has been designed so that some of the buildings can stand by themselves and the characters fold over so can also stand up with no need for a support.

Quality

The product is clearly very well thought out. Each of the illustrations are fun and full of detail, they also include short bios for the characters who are also all double sided.

The buildings and characters all have names and the bios are used to help spark your imagination. Here is an example:

Meet the Cinis!

Cappucinno and her husband Carlo run the busy Coffee Stop. They’re open all hours for a hot drink, snack and a chat!

The products are designed to be gender neutral, they have a equal split of male and female characters. It is also designed to be fully inclusive, I think it is fair to say that this is an accessible product. You are free to colour it as you wish or leave it blank and play with it as you want.

It is very visual so my non verbal 5 year old was just as happy exploring the pictures as my niece who wanted to know all the character bios.

Obviously it is made from card so won’t last forever but it is decent card so I imagine it will last a fair while depending on which child is playing with it!

How did we get on?

My nieces were very excited straight away, both really enjoy drawing and colouring so this was perfect for them. Unfortunately my 3 year old son was not interested but he was still busy singing Happy Birthday! My 5 year old son was interested and watched the girls for a while before doing a little colouring himself.

The girls were occupied for ages and took lots of care colouring in.

The next job was cutting out and both 5 year olds enjoyed this the most and were very happy to show off their scissor skills.

Play Time

All the kids enjoyed playing with the set once we had the high street set up and coloured in. My 3 year old who had ignored us to this point was very excited to drive the police car around the room!

My youngest niece was so proud to see her cafe made up and then to be able to play with it, she absolutely loved it (I know what we will be buying for her upcoming birthday!).

Each of the kids enjoyed different stages from the colouring to cutting or playing which was lovely. The boys may not be big on colouring but they really enjoyed the playtime and cutting for my eldest son. The kids enjoyed it and it made a really lovely group activity.

Value for money

The sets are £4.99 and I would say this is great value for money. This kept the kids occupied for ages and the girls will definitely keep playing with the set.

It is also a great price for gifts.

My Little World sets

There are eight current sets: Airport, Christmas Time, Emergency Services, Fairy Village, Space Station Foxtrot, Village High Street, and two Scotland landmark-based sets – My Little Scotland Nessie and My Little Scotland, with more in the pipeline.

For all you West of England locals, I have just noticed over on Instagram that they have a Aerospace Bristol set which we will have to get next time we are there. Aerospace Bristol is a fab place to visit if you haven’t been yet.

My Little World can be purchased online at www.MyLittleWorlds.co.uk, from various online retailers, and in a number of Visit Scotland Visitor Information Centres (for the My Little Scotland sets.