With a downward movement of your hand the spiral springs open

Toys42hands sent me the Swingy Thingy to try out. It is a fascinating twisted spiral. By placing it flat on your flat hand and making a downward movement, the spiral opens. By placing your other hand on top of the spiral and turning your hands in opposite directions towards you, the spiral folds back up.

The spiral folds again by turning both hands in opposite directions

What can you do with it?

To spin your arm

The fun part is that you can let the spiral spin around your arm. To do this, fold the spiral like a bracelet around your wrist - the spiral will unfold immediately. Raise your arm and the spiral 'runs' over your arm to your shoulder. Lower your arm again and the spiral 'runs' back to your wrist. This works best on bare skin.

Spiral twists or 'runs' over arm

By hooking your fingers together, you can let the spiral 'walk' from one arm to the other and back again. By keeping your arms up or down at just the right time, the spiral keeps moving. Sometimes you have to shake your elbow or wrist to keep the spiral going. In this way, you can also pass the spiral to someone else's arm.

Spinning the spiral around your arms is a fun activity that also provides a number of specific benefits:
• Feeling your arms . The spiral itself feels quite neutral. It does not immediately entice you to do something with it. But as soon as you let the spiral run over your arm, it gives a pleasant feeling that is caused by the continuous and rhythmic touch of the spiral. Even after finishing this activity, there may still be a slight tingling sensation in your arms for a long time - up to several hours. It gives extra body feeling or body awareness to your arms, which has a particularly positive effect on alertness . In addition to the tingling sensation, the following factors also play a role.
• The spiral turning around your arms is fun to watch .
• The continuous movement of the spiral keeps the attention extra .
• It is a two-handed activity . Especially when you let the spiral run from one arm to the other.
• To keep the spiral moving over your arms, you need to move your arms continuously .

To twist a rope or plastic hose

The Swingy Thingy comes with a plastic hose, which you can also let the spiral turn around. This gives other possibilities, especially with regard to the cooperation of both arms and it is fun to watch. The extra body awareness is added when you let the spiral run via your hands over your arms to your shoulder. This gives you an extra long walking route with alternating feeling-looking-feeling.

To spin your leg

Because having the spiral wrapped around your arm gave a pleasant feeling for a long time, I also experimented with wrapping the spiral around my lower leg. It is not possible for an adult to wrap the spiral around the upper leg - for some children it will work. But how do you wrap the spiral around your lower leg?
• You can lie on your back, put your legs in the air and put the spiral around your ankle. The spiral then runs along your lower leg to your knee. To make the spiral run back, place your feet on the ground while you come to a sitting position or even to a standing position. By rolling back onto your back and putting your leg in the air, the spiral runs back to your knee.
• I made it a bit easier for myself by sitting on the edge of a round mini-trampoline and rolling backwards onto my back on the mini-trampoline. Your legs then go up almost automatically. By putting your legs down, you almost automatically come back to a sitting position on the mini-trampoline. It is also easier to stand up again. This is actually only important for children whose spiral can turn around their upper leg. Instead of the mini-trampoline, you can of course also use the edge of your bed or a sofa for this.
• Although I haven't tried it myself, it's probably also fun in combination with a regular swing. While swinging, the spiral can alternately go up and down over arms and/or legs.

The Swingy Thingy spiral is suitable for children aged 5 and over. It works best on bare skin or with the plastic hose. I think some caution is in order when using it. It is not suitable for throwing or rough handling.