Learning Resources 5-in-1 Outdoor Measure Mate Review

Reviewed by Louise Totton
The kids and I have just returned from a fabulous adventure – we have been investigating the village that we live in and the beautiful woodland and countryside that we have literally on our doorstep. I know that we are really lucky to have all this so close to us, and we do try to get out and about as much as we can, mostly just to take advantage or surroundings, but also because we don’t really have much of a garden.
Getting out and about in the sunshine isn’t difficult – the surroundings are so pleasant that it doesn’t take much to persuade the girls (aged 7 and 9) to put their shoes on and go for a walk, but I do sometimes think we can be a little guilty of taking everything for granted and we don’t necessarily see beyond the end of our noses. And it actually doesn’t take a great deal to reinvigorate the senses and start taking in more of what is around us, and that is exactly what happened when we took the 5 in 1 Measure Mate from Learning Resources out with us.

My youngest daughter is completely measuring mad – it is a topic that they have been doing at school in her maths lessons and she really does seem to have grabbed it and run with it! She now has countless rulers dotted about the house and loves nothing more than getting the tape measure out of the toolbox and measuring ‘big things’ like furniture, rooms, arm spans and more. But one thing that she hasn’t met yet (much to my surprise) is a trundle wheel, which I remember very clearly from my days at school. Being sent outside to measure the playground, the lengths of the corridors or the school hall is one of my enduring memories of primary school, so I reckon I was at least as excited as Chloe was to be able to try out the Measure Mate.
But the Measure Mate isn’t just a trundle wheel. It is a multi-functional measuring device! As well as the trundle wheel function, it also features a measuring stick for both centimetres and inches, internal and external callipers for really accurate measurements and vertical and horizontal spirit level. It comes contained in its own mesh carry bag, which is perfect for taking it out and about if you don’t necessarily want to be wheeling it everywhere.

The Measure Mate consists of three component parts, and whilst you do have to assemble it yourself, it is a doddle to do and is actually designed that way on purpose – being able to take different parts off makes some of your measuring easier and also makes it more portable. Assembly is a simple case of popping the trundle wheel onto one end of the measuring stick, then popping the handle onto the other end, and that’s it: job done! The height of it is perfect for both my 7-year-old and 9-year-old, although I did have to stoop a bit to use it. Having said that, I’m 5’9, so it really isn’t designed for people of my height, but I would imagine that for the vast majority of kids it would be perfect!
The product is 100% plastic, but it is certainly a strong and robust plastic. The trundle wheel itself has four thick spokes and the tread is a rubberized, making it perfect for rough terrain and really getting outdoors; the kids particularly liked the bird-prints that the rubber tread leaves behind. The measure stick measures up to 30cm / 12” and the spirit level component which measures both horizontally and vertically uses ball bearings rather than bubbles, which I think is far easier for kids to see.
So, after planning out route (home to the village café, then on to the woods and then the waterfall), we set off. We used the trundle wheel part of the Measure Mate to measure the distance from home to the café, then I asked the kids to estimate whether the onward journey to the woods would be more or less than the walk we had already completed. The trundle wheel is really easy to use and every time you have walked a metre, the is a ‘click’ sound which you also feel through the handle of the Measure Mate, so all the kids have to do is count the clicks and they then know the distance they have walked.

As we were on our way and about to enter the woods, some kind of plot emerged (I have no idea how) whereby the kids were actually detective superheroes who were on the hunt for some hidden clues to help them foil a dastardly plot. My eldest held the notebook and pen, and the youngest was in charge of clue-spotting and measuring. It really is amazing how a little bit of make believe and story can inject a whole new dimension to something as simple as a walk, and can make everyone take so much more note of their surroundings.
Their investigation took us on a lovely tour of the woods and the village, where we were using the internal callipers to measure the gaps in gates so the kids could determine whether the ‘baddie’ could have shimmied through and escaped, the measuring stick to measure the tops of gate posts to see if they were bigger than an adult shoe and the spirit levels to determine how level the footpath was. All of the component parts of the Measure Mate were used and I was really surprised by how robust and good quality they actually were. The handle and trundle detach very easily from the measure stick, so if having the wheel on the end gets on the way of accurate measuring or using the spirit level, it can be removed and re-added in seconds by the child.
The callipers move fluidly and the measurements are very easy for the kids to read too – neither of them had ever used callipers before but they were both very confident and understood what they were doing in no time. The same with the ball bearing spirit level – because the Measure Mate is so visual and easy to read, they understood which way to tilt the spirit level to get an even reading.
The Measure Mate comes apart really easily for transport in the mesh bag, which is a great addition if you need to travel to get to the starting point of your walk, or to take it apart if you pop into the café on the way home for lunch, as we did. The box also contains a really useful activity guide which suggests a number of different activities for all of the component parts of the product. We had a go at a number of these and found them to be a superb introduction to the product and how to use it, and will certainly help you to get the best from it.
One thing that I would say is that you can only use it one way round as a trundle wheel. Because the wheel is held on by a plastic screw and bolt, and the wheel is constantly turning as you measure, if the wheel is held one way round, the screw does loosen and eventually unfasten as you walk. If you flip it the other way, that doesn’t happen and you can go along your measuring way without worrying. It would have been handy if the instructions had mentioned this as we did very nearly lose our nut and bolt at one point when it screwed off, but fortunately a little bit of logical thinking told us what the issue was and we soon rectified it.
There are lots of educational indoor toys available but far fewer outdoor options and I think that’s a real shame. We love being outdoors and I think the Measure Mate will be going on plenty more walks with us in future.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £32
For more information or to buy online visit www.learningresources.co.uk.
