A couple of years ago, the lovely people at Dorset Cereals sent us a kit to enable us to enter an "Edible Playgrounds" competition and grow cress heads. We had great fun, as you can see here. I apologise in advance to any Scottish readers for that Susan Boyle-d Egg accent !
Well, this is a very similar idea but with grass instead of cress. I'm sure you've all seen the squishy-faced grasshead toys that you water to make grass hair sprout. We actually went to a kids' play festival a few years back where they taught us how to make our own. You get an old pair of tights, tip in some grass seed, pour in sawdust, tie up the bottom, stick on eyes and a mouth and stab a few holes to allow the grass to get through. Great in theory but it never grew, however much we watered it ! (I think the seed was probably really old !)
Well, these Nyokki Egg Pet Plants not only take all the work out of it, they also look incredibly cute, sitting on the kitchen windowsill with their dangly legs ! You have a choice of chicks, bunnies - both perfect for Easter - frogs or cats, but they're all cute, whichever one you choose.
They're actually very educational as well as great fun. 9-year-old Sophie and 6-year-old Juliette have both been learning about what plants need to grow at school so this was a great hands-on experiment for them.
I was intrigued by the word Nyokki so I did a quick bit of hunting around online. These Egg Pet Plants are made in Japan (so you can do your tiny bit to help get their economy back on track after the horrific events of the past couple of weeks) and - I quote ! - Nyokki is a Japanese onomatopeia that mimics the sound of a plant growing ! Yes, really !!
The Nyokki contain medium and rye grass seed, which will start growing within 2 weeks or less once you start watering them. You can make bunches, cut the hair into funky styles - you'll be amazed at what the kids will come up with ! And you can even use the planters for growing cress seeds on wet cotton wool once you've got bored with the grass.
They may be made of china but they are a lot less fragile than boiled egg shells, which is what we usually use. Definitely a lot of fun and a pretty decorative object for the kitchen too.
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £5.99
for more information : http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/nyoki-pet-plants-nyokki-egg-pet.html
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my son had a grass head which grew really well, but when i made one it didnt do anything just eventually went mouldy lol
ReplyDeletethese are cute though, and would be fab sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen with cress in for sandwiches :)
What a clever idea lol!!! I completely never thought about adding pony tails and bunches into the hair of grass heads!!!! My 5 year old daughter came home from school with a 'cress head' just a few weeks ago - made from an egg shell, which she had carefully decorated, and the hair was made of cress! it was really quite cute but the cress stunk lol!!! This was part of this terms project on 'GROWTH'.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, with Easter coming on, I love to try new out new craft ideas on my children so I think we will grow some cress heads from decorated egg shells! I'm dying to show my two girls how we might style their grass heads hair!!!
Oh I love these. Have you seen the Grassheads. They cost about £5 but they're not edible...they look cute though. You're kids are never too old for cute stuff xx
ReplyDelete@medsdemon