I have been wanting to try Fimo for a long time, after reading Patch of Puddles and being inspired by this wonderfully creative home educating family.  It’s taken me a while, but thanks to the lovely Merry, of the above blog (and about a hundred other rather excellent websites) I have finally got round to it.  We received a parcel in the post a few days ago containing enough Fimo kits to last us through several rainy weeks, and we were all very excited.  Looks like we don’t need to go out for a while.  We started with the Fimo Soft Create Your Own Pirate Island Set which you can buy here.

I knew it would be a challenge to keep Tiddler away from it (Fimo is definitely NOT edible) so I got the playdough out first and he and Rabbit were very happily playing with it.  However, they lost interest as soon as they saw the Fimo.  Tiddler had a big tantrum about not being allowed to touch it, but thankfully Cbeebies came to the rescue.  Rabbit watched as Owl and Monkey softened the Fimo, with looks of intense concentration on their faces, and then she joined in with making the island scene.  I had a go too, and we had a lot of help from Supergirl who has used Fimo before.  The children looked at the pictures for inspiration but weren’t interested in following the instructions.  I think the results were rather good for a first attempt, though the trees collapsed a bit.  They were rather top-heavy, and it probably didn’t help that I left them in the oven for a bit too long.  We had fun, anyway, and we are planning to do another kit tomorrow.  I loved the calm, peaceful atmosphere that was created by doing such a therapeutic activity together, and I think we’ll be back for more once our supply has run out.