One 2 Believe is a company that is striving to provide toys which reinforce Biblical stories and principles. I was very impressed with their vision as stated on the website:
“one2believe's passion is to help children learn important Bible lessons and to have them come to faith in Jesus. Our goal is to provide fun ways of teaching children about the greatest people who ever lived. Through the toys that we design children will learn and play out exciting stories about real people. Our toys teach children that there are real superheroes they can believe in!
one2believe has a great desire to support parents in their battle for their children's hearts and minds. We pray that parents will take the lead by engaging their children in faith and get them excited about Jesus. In Phillipians it speaks about pressing on, at one2believe we believe that we will either influence the world or the world will influence us.”
Most toy companies don’t have a purpose like that!
One2believe recently sent my family their Nativity Set to review. I'm going to tell you what we thought of it and then end with a few words about my favorite one2believe product.
(Photo from one2believe.com)
The Nativity set is comprised of 17 pvc pieces, including a stable, baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Kings (Wise men), Shepherds, angels, animals etc. Also included is a “Birth of Baby Jesus” mini-storybook which briefly summarizes the story of Jesus’ birth.
In order to tell you more about the play set I would like to list the pros and cons:
Pros
My kids (4 and 7) loved it!
The play set is small enough for little hands (intended for 3 years and up) and sturdy enough to endure them too.
Kids can easily act out the story - which really seems to help with learning. Many nativity sets are not able to be played with or handled by small children, this one is just for them.
Kids are strengthening their biblical knowledge while playing.
The colors are bright.
Cons
It is made in China
Over the past year I have steered clear of products made in China. This is mainly due to the usage of lead paint and other harmful products in manufacturing. I contacted the company with this concern and was informed that they independently test all of their toys using a third party inspection company. All toys must pass the strictest tests for hazardous materials for both the USA and international standards and they have never had a product fail one of these tests . One2Belive stated that they take toy safety very seriously and promises to continue being vigilant to ensure that they are always in compliance.
...So I’ll let you make up your mind about that :) Read what they say on the website here
The people look a little goofy and cartoonish for my taste.
I would prefer a more realistic, yet sturdy, Nativity set. This is personal preference, I’m sure many people would enjoy this set.
Baby Jesus looks old.
The kids didn’t say a thing about it, but I thought he looked quite funny (so did my husband).
The story book is very small.
I only include this information because the order page states that a mini story book is included. One might (or might not) expect something a little bigger than a 2 ½ x 3 inch book. This is not a big issue, I am just mentioning it for informational purposes, since one cannot glean this information from the website alone.
The angels look female.
Now, perhaps this could be seen as nitpicking, but for my family this is an issue. Angels are usually depicted as male in the Bible. I would have preferred them to look male. I want the kids to learn Bible stories accurately. I’m serious too...my daughter will tell you that those pictures you see of Noah’s ark are not correct because the have more than one window!
And the wise men...but all Nativity sets have the wise men, even though they didn't visit Jesus when he was an infant.
I hope this list of pros and cons will help my readers learn a little more about this product. Whether or not this particular Nativity set would suit your family, depends upon the reasons for having one in the first place. If you want something the kids can play with, this might very well be for you.
The Nativity set can be purchased at one2believe.com for $24.95
Even if this Nativity set is not something you desire, I encourage you to check out the one2believe website and see what they have to offer.
I know the list of cons seems long, they are mostly personal preference, and we even with those, we have still enjoyed the product.
If you are still reading, let me tell you about my favorite one2belive product!
(Photo from one2believe.com)
They are great! My son has Moses and my daughter owns the Mary doll. Both of the dolls we own say Bible verses (Moses recites the 10 commandments). I checked on the website and it states that Moses narrates his own biography, and also quotes key memory verses from the Bible, including Exodus 15:2, Exodus 31:18. Since neither of our dolls narrate a biography, I am wondering if they have changed them. I contacted the company to find out but have not heard back yet. I’ll update this post when I do.
To see their entire toy collection, click here
To read what others thought about the Nativity Set visit the Homeschool Crew blog here. |
