Nyokki Egg Pet Plants

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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