My daughter has found bubbles fascinating from a very young age She was first introduced to them when she was about 3 months old during a sensory class. Recently she has been suffering with chicken pox and feeling very sorry for herself so I got the little tub of bubbles out again and it was a great way to distract her from her discomfort and to make her laugh.
You do forget just how much joy you can get out of something which is relatively simple. I do remember when I was little having fun for hours with bubbles and now I'm still favourable of these traditional style bubbles which you blow yourself from a little plastic pot instead of the big bubble machines that you can get which aren't anywhere near as messy or exciting!
The tub
They come in a plastic tub about 6 inches tall so it's a good size for small hands to get a good grip on. The label on the front shows a rabbit dressed up as a magician suggesting that these bubbles are magic! The lid is a flip up lid which is a little stiff so when this bottle is very full and you flip it up do try to keep it as still as possible else it is easy to spill some in that initial opening as the bottle gives a little. The bottle is a firm plastic so it can't be squeezed which is a good thing as it means that your little one can't spill any by holding it too tightly. The lid can be a little irritating and keep falling down when you're trying to get the wand out and so you can get a bit messy but i think it is best that it is still attached to the bottle so it doesn't get lost unlike with screw caps which can get lost and also be a choking hazard. The tub itself is one bold colour and you can get a variety of colours; yellow, pink, orange, red... and the lid is a different colour to the tub making it stand out a bit more.
Using the bubbles
Inside the tube is a wand which is long enough to reach right to the bottom of the tub. It is round at the end for the bubble mixture to gather in and you have a little loop at the top for your fingers. When you dip the wand into the bubble mixture you can sometimes get a little bit messy especially if your bubble mixture is running low so you have to go right in to get some out. This is a design feature that I remember from my childhood- there's nothing quite like blowing bubbles without getting some mixture dripping down your fingers!
To create the bubbles you simply blow gently and hey presto! Bubbles! If you have a lot of bubble mixture in your wand it can drip a bit and roll down your fingers again being messy but it is all part of the fun!
For young children you will need to help them use the bubbles for themselves. Hope is 2 and often when she is dipping the wand into the bubbles she tips the tub a bit which causes the liquid to spill. Although because she is 2 she is also very head strong and wants to hold them all by herself a bit of gentle persuasion and showing her that she is tilting the bottle and spilling the liquid seems to have stopped many accidents from happening!
I think Hope was about 20 months when she began trying to blow the bubbles and dip the stick in the pot herself, I think any earlier than this then you need to be the one to do it.
Garden or inside?
We usually use these inside. It can make the floor a little wet as bubbles land and pop so do be careful that if you have wooden floors that you do wipe it up so you avoid any slipping. They can be used inside or outside though. It's great if you use them in the garden as it means that you don't have to worry about them being spilt or lots of drips going everywhere! They also look very effective outside as the sun catches them.
Entertainment value
These definitely do create entertainment that's for sure! When Hope was tiny she would lie and watch them mesmerised by the colours and the way they moved. Now that she is a toddler she has great fun learning how to blow the bubbles all by herself. This is quite an educational journey for her too as she learns to hold a bottle still and straight with one hand and navigate the wand into the bottle with the other. She has learnt to blow gently and to not let the wand touch her lips in order to get the bubbles to blow properly. It has only taken a few explainations and demonstrations for her to understand it and it's great to see that she has learnt it so quickly.
The bubbles are not only entertaining and rewarding to create but also really very entertaining to play with. Hope likes to chase them and try to pop as many as she can when they come away from the wand. She also gets very excited and amused if they land on her or if an extra large one is created.
My opinion
I have really enjoyed watching the amusement and sheer amazement that has been on Hope's face when these bubbles are around. From when she was about 3 months old she was fascinated by them and now she is running around and a cheeky 2 year old she enjoys chasing them and popping them. I know you can buy better quality ones which do fancy things like have different shaped bubbles or longer wands so it's less messy but i like these very simple ones. There is nothing wrong with getting a few sticky fingers when you're a child and you're having fun or when you're an adult having fun for that matter! They may be very cheap and the bottle may not be the best in design but they make fantastic little sources of entertainment so you really can't complain.
We bought our bubbles from Tesco and they cost about 30p so they would be a great little present to put in a party bag too! You can buy various coloured bottles too so you can pick and choose whichever design you'd like depending. I think 30p is great value for money especially as some children may only use these very briefly as they can be spilt easily! For something which causes entertainment and amusement 30p is really very cheap indeed!
Bubbles are a great way to entertain children. Hope enjoys either playing with them so trying to catch them and chase them as well as learning how to blow them for herself and she is always so impressed and pleased with herself when she manages to do it without any problems.
You can also try and use bubbles to educate about numbers too as you can try to count how many you make each time. It is a good way to develop hand/eye coordination too as your child learns to dip the wand into the bottle without spilling the contents.
I really like how this is such a cheap and simple item which you can remember enjoying yourself when you were little. I have had a bubble machine before which we bought last summer which blows out hundreds of bubbles at a time but this just isn't quite as exciting as holding a wand and creating the bubble magic yourself! I think that they are very aptly named as there does appear to be something quite magical about bubbles!
The amount of bubbles you create with each wand varies depending upon how you blow them and how much liquid is in the wand. I find that if you blow gently and slowly you tend to create one or two very large bubbles but a short, sharp blow and you get a myriad of tiny bubbles all sparkling away and catching the light which is very effective and creates lots of shrieks of delight! This may be a cheap product but it certainly isn't reflected in the amount of bubbles that you can create!
A bottle lasts quite a while. We use it for about 10 minutes at a time and it lasts several weeks although now that Hope likes to try and do it all by herself we have had a few spillages so I doubt it will last as long in the future.
This is a great, simple item which can keep your child amused and your baby amazed for some time either inside or outside!
Bubbly fun! 
