Review: Smart Snacks Stack and Count Layer Cake from Learning Resources for teaching children maths through play

‘It’s Anna’s birthday!’
‘Blow the candle, Anna’
‘Anna be careful this icing is so sticky’

Big Girl was chatting non-stop. She was home from nursery and I was lucky enough to play Anna for a day. We had just opened the Smart Snacks Stack and Count Layer Cake from Learning Resources, which we’d received to review, and Big Girl seemed to think the vanilla and chocolate cake with numbers would fit straight into our Frozen Fever game, as Big Girl–Elsa for the day–was planning Anna’s birthday.

I had asked to review the large layer cake, as I think it seemed like a brilliant toy for getting Big Girl interested in building a tower, which could help teach her about construction and prepare her for big school. I had heard from other mums that stacking toys could be good for London preschoolers, and knowing my daughter, I knew a cake like this would get her attention.

I was right. In the few days we’ve had the Smart Snacks Stack and Count Layer Cake, we’ve not only used it to play Frozen Fever, but we’ve also used it to play with her dolls, having them go to the cake shop to order different cake pieces, and we’ve played that her cheeky monkey soft toy has stolen different cake pieces to sit on.

In every game we’ve talked about the numbers on the cake. She’s lined up the numbers when building the tower, we’ve counted the stars on the slices, we’ve talked about big and small numbers, which are reflected by the size of each piece, and as she grow older we can talk about odd and even numbers differentiated by the chocolate and vanilla layers.

For parents searching for innovative ways to ensure young children learn through play, I think this is a fantastic toy. Instead of suggesting to my three-year-old that we should be practising counting and number recognition, we can have fun doing what she loves and playing with the cake while learning.

Tags: Building blocks, Counting, Learning numbers, Learning Resources, Pretend play, Review, Stacking toy, Toy