My youngest son Rhys has the most passionate car obsession I have ever witnessed. Since he is my third boy, I thought I had seen a love of cars in my older boys, but I've never witnessed the love that my youngest exhibits.
Most car play is based around lots of racing and lining up. He loves lying on the floor to roll them back and forth. With regular cars though, there is a limit on how much imaginative or pretend play can occur.
Go! Go! Cory Carson® is a show on Netflix that follows Cory Carson and his friends through their adventures in Bumperton Hills - they go to school, make friends and explore with their family. Rhys, of course, automatically loved the show and VTech® has a line of toys that allows kids the opportunity to create their own Cory Carson show! I was so impressed with the amount of pretend play he was engaging in with the Go! Go! Cory Carson® collection and the Bumperton Hills playset locations.
Pretend play has proven to be an essential type of play for child development. Kids learn about themselves and the world, including how conversations can play out, or how to set up a scene for typical life occurrences. It also helps with their vocabulary and social development as they make up pretend conversations with their toys.
What has been missing from our typical car play? Pretend play! This became even more evident when I saw all my boys working together to set up their Go! Go! Cory Carson® play area. The fact that these cars have names, faces, and places to live and engage with makes for the perfect way to integrate car play with important pretend and role play.
After they set up their areas, they started to have pretend conversations. Rhys was able to observe his older brothers playing, which reinforced his understanding of role play. It was amazing. Here are some of the specific toys and how we played with them.
VTech Go! Go! Cory Carson DJ Train Trax & the Roll Train
As a family, we all love music and dancing. The DJ Train Trax & the Roll Train was a lot of fun as it is a train that has a DJ set as a train car. As you roll the train around, it plays music, but you can also play mixmaster with mini characters Cory Carson and Chrissy Carson. Help Cory and Chrissy dance on stage or roll DJ Train Trax to light up his rainbow chimney while building motor skills and listening to sounds and phrases from the show.
Press DJ Train Trax’s hat or move him around to trigger phrases, sounds, songs and special lighting effects. As you collect the other characters, you can place them in the DJ booth to hear them talk, play music and to see them light up. Rhys and his brothers loved putting the characters on the train to take them from one location to the next.
VTech Go! Go! Cory Carson Freddie's Firehouse
Go on a rescue mission with Freddie Firetruck and Chrissy Carson at the Go! Go! Cory Carson Freddie’s Firehouse. You can press the button at the bottom of the slide to hear Freddie’s mom, Carolyn Firetruck's songs and phrases. She encourages exploration of all the exciting activities the Firehouse has to offer. Rhys loved the spiral ramp and lining up multiple characters to go down right after each other.
Each playset has a PlayZone location that activates different sounds and phrases depending on which character you place on top of it. For the Firehouse, it's located at the bottom of the spiral ramp. Rhys' face lit up when I showed him that area and he was so impressed that each character said something different!
VTech Go! Go! Cory Carson O'Tool's Construction Site
The Go! Go! Cory Carson O’Tool’s Construction Site includes Cory Carson and his friend Timmy O'Tool. An active construction site where you can smash through a brick wall is EVERYTHING to my boys. From Rhys, who is 2, to my oldest, who is 6, they all enjoyed setting it up and running cars down the slide over and over.
Help Cory and Timmy knock down walls, sound the whistle and slide down the ramp while listening to sounds and phrases from the episodes, and you can place Cory or Timmy on the PlayZone location to hear them each say unique phrases.
VTech Go! Go! Cory Carson Cory's Stay & Play Home
Go! Go! Cory Carson Cory’s Stay & Play Home is the ultimate landscape for pretend play. Explore every room with Cory, Mama and Chrissy Carson mini characters. I noticed as the boys were playing, they set up all the locations together and created a town, but the cars had the most conversations while they were around the house.
This house is built just for cars with a pretend bathtub car wash complete with a scrub brush, ramps and more. Hang out in Cory’s room and place the mini characters on the PlayZone location to hear unique phrases, sing-along songs and sounds.
The house has so many features that change when you press a button, like the fireplace that opens up to expose an art studio. All these areas spark a different type of scenario and pretend play in kids. Slide down the ramp to watch T.V. in the living room or try to get Chrissy to take a bath just like in the show. Press the button near the fireplace to find a hidden door or press the T.V. button to watch DJ Train Trax.
VTech Go! Go! Cory Carson PlayZone Mini Character 6-Pack
A pack of all the friends was a great addition to all the locations! It also helped with multiple kids playing together as they all had different characters and could spread them out amongst the house, Firehouse and Construction Site. The Go! Go! Cory Carson PlayZone Mini Character 6-Pack includes Cory Carson, Freddie Firetruck, Halle Copter, Frannie Fenderson, and Timmy and Kimmy O’Tool. They can also be placed onto any of the playsets’ PlayZone locations so kids can hear their unique sounds and phrases.
All the sets together made for a really fun pretend play area as it really allowed the kids to set up their own version of Bumperton Hills. The boys talked about leaving home to go to work at the Firehouse and they would take the train to get there. It is such a perfect combination of car and pretend play, and we are so impressed. It was exactly the kind of transitionary toy we needed for the car obsessed Rhys. It pushed him beyond just rolling the cars around and instead toward tons of other play possibilities.
About the Author
Shantall Bond is a mother of 3 boys, so she’s always on the move! She blogs at Urban Mom Tales. Her 10-year background in education and counseling started from a genuine passion for people, writing and helping others. After becoming a mom, that passion for creating communities turned into Urban Mom Tales. She lives with her husband and boys in the heart of Chicago.
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