We bought this for my niece’s fourth birthday and it’s the best present we’ve ever given to her.  In fact her mum says that it’s the best gift ever.  At her birthday party all the other kids wanted to have a go, and in fact some other mums asked me the price and where we bought it.

She takes it everywhere and loves it when they’re in the car.  She sings along to all her favorite songs – note to parents, change the tunes regularly before they drive you round the bend – there’s always one that she keeps repeating, so her mum downloads other tunes every few days.

It’s really well-made and even though it’s been dropped a few times (oops) and the microphone is often used for carrying.  The buttons are nice and large so it’s really easy for her to operate and the volume is able to be turned too high.  The battery lasts for a long time too, particularly considering how much of the day she plays with it.

She really loves this music player and her mum reckons that it’ll have to go on holiday with them.   

We bought this for my nephew’s second birthday and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him laugh so much.  This isn’t just one item as it converts from being a rocker, to a sit on ride so that mum can push it along, and when he is a little older then the handle at the back can be removed so that it will be his first trike. 

He started off by trying the rocker and the base locks which makes it extremely safe.  His mum then took to pushing him around using the long handle at the back.  I don’t think that it will be long before he’ll be able to push his feet on the floor and get around that way.  He can’t use the pedals yet – I think that may be a good few months away.

His older brother who’s four tried pedaling it round and did just fine, until little brother screamed that it was his, and he wanted it back!  

I must say that as with all Fisher-Price toys it is really sturdily made and I think that it will be useful for a good couple of years.

This is a super add on to the Castle Heroica or can be played as a standalone game.  We had bought this for my son who is eight but his six year old sister was able to join in.  They sorted out the hundreds of pieces in the hero pack and dad helped with building the caverns.

This kit is really wonderful for the amount of detailed pieces involved.  The game is based around the Lego Dice and then attempting to find the way through the caves to defeat the monsters and retrieve the Sceptre of Summoning! 

Whilst dad spent ages recreating the dungeons and then he and the kids couldn’t leave the game alone.  What with the monsters and treasure and many other little pieces which are picked up along the way this makes for a really close game. 

The beauty, as with all Lego sets, is that all the rules can change depending on whichever way the kids want to play – it’s all down to imagination.

I wanted to buy something that would keep my seven and five year old sons entertained while playing in the garden. They love rockets and anything that flies so I found the Stomp Rocket Jr. Glow kit and thought that this looked perfect for them. This rocket toy allows the kids to connect the glow in the dark rockets to a plastic tube. They then stomp on the stomp pad which is also connected to the plastic tube. This sends the rockets flying up into the air much to their delight.

The great thing about this toy is that my sons were able to start playing with it as soon as we took it out of the box. It is simple to use and they can operate it themselves with no help from an adult required. There are no batteries so there is no need to worry about having to replace batteries in order for them to keep playing. They love the fact that the rockets are glow in the dark and have been playing out in the garden when the sun goes down. They love having competitions with each other to see how high they can get their rockets to go. The rockets are made of foam so there is no need to worry about anyone getting hurt. I have bought this as a gift for some of my son’s friends too.

My ten year old son is really into spy movies and likes to pretend he is a secret agent. I thought I would look around for a great spy toy for his Christmas present this year and I came across the Spy Net Secret Mission Video Watch. When I first saw this watch I thought he would love it because it looked like the sort of thing that secret agents would have. However I cannot stress how impressed I was once he actually started playing with this toy.

It really is jam packed with features and functions and keeps him entertained for hours on end. This watch will take video and still photographs and it has a 1.4” screen for him to watch the videos that he has taken. If he wants to just record voices then he can do this unbeknown to anyone else as we found out!

On Christmas day when he opened this gift we were treated to our very own lie detector test which was good fun and which my son was in absolute rapture about. He found it very amusing to see us squirming as he fired questions at us – all in the name of fun of course. Other great features include the voice changer and the ability to tell the time in many different countries. He really loves this watch and wears it constantly.

My daughter had a party for her fifth birthday and received a present of the Orb Factory Sticky Mosaics Jewelry Box. The jewelry box is similar to a paint by numbers book in that you decorate the jewelry box with sticky jewels according to the numbered grid on the box. This was so easy to do because every sticker in the pack had a number which corresponded to the numbers on the grid.

Because my daughter is still quite young, I did have to help her with this but to be perfectly honest that was not a problem as we had a fantastic time decorating her own jewelry box. My daughter really loved this gift and we had a lovely time together making her jewelry box look amazing.

One thing I would mention is that you should make sure the stickers have been firmly placed on to the box in order to ensure that they don’t fall off. My daughter could not press too hard or maybe she just didn’t want to but I made sure to press them all on very firmly once she had placed them in the right position. This is definitely something worthwhile to buy for little girls as it will give them something to do on a rainy day and they will have a beautiful box to put their jewelry in when they are finished.

When I was a little girl I had my very own dress up set complete with paper clothes with little tabs at the tops and sides to keep them on the cardboard doll. I remember playing with that set for hours so I thought I would look for something similar for my six year old daughter. I really thought something like this would give her something to do when she is in the house.

I found the Melissa & Doug magnetic dress up set online and it was just what I was looking for. I must say, that these sets have come a long way since I was a child. You no longer have to get your mom to cut out the clothes and you don’t have to worry about them tearing. This set is magnetic so the clothes will just stick to the dolls, which is great.

My daughter adores this set and plays with it for hours. She has had it for about three months now and still plays with it every other day. She absolutely loves mixing and matching the outfits and showing them to me to see what I think. Some of the parts are quite small so I have bought a little box for her to store this set in. I would not hesitate to buy this fantastic toy again.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my son and his cousin (whom I had to babysit this week) so engaged in their games. I’ve been dreading the rainy season as I don’t want to encourage them to watch DVDs all day long. Since I got the Beyblade Metal Fusion Super Vortex Battle Set for them, I’ve had to drag the boys away for their meals. In fact I’ve had to insist that they watch a DVD just to calm down a bit.

Beyblade is now the new rage amongst boys, replacing The Bakugan. The boys have become very involved with making strategies and game plans to knock their opponent out of the arena or even the game that they hardly find something else to talk about.

I must say that I’m pleased with the way that that they improved their strategic and deductive thinking. It’s also helped their creative thinking abilities.

The kids love the fast pace, the excitement and the constant, non-threatening, challenge. I’m afraid that my daughter is also getting in on the game and sometimes one of them has to sit out.

The Beyblade Metal Fusion Super Vortex Battle Set comes with Metal Fusion Beystadium, two Beyblade tops, two assembly tools, two launchers, two rip cords, rule book, tournament tablet, two online code collector cards, and instructions. You can yours at Amazon.