Sam
In Part 3 of the Christmas Gift Guide we bring you 5 of the best toys for preschoolers and young children. We’ve included a brilliant educational toy for young readers, something rather twinkly to help them wind down at bedtime, two fun family games to develop hand eye coordination and encourage your kids to get active, and a great family game to play over the holidays. The gifts in the guide are all available from trusted family friendly retailers, and we’ve done our best to save you time and money by linking to the online shops with the best prices (prices are correct at the time of writing).
Vtech Storio
Ages 3-7 years
The VTech Storio Animated Reading System is a unique interactive animated storyteller for kids! Packed with educational activities, kids can even use the story dictionary to check the meaning of difficult words.
- Watch the story and reading games modes
- Interact with the animated story as it plays
- Learn more about phonics, letter, vowels, and much more
- Parent friendly extras include reading words and progress tracker
- PC and MAC compatible
- Includes Toy Story 3 cartridge
For the best prices, buy vTech Storio from these online shops
- £39.99 from ToysRUs
- £47.99 from Early Learning Centre
- £56.99 from Amazon
- £57.99 from The Entertainer
- £59.99 from Sainsburys
Peppa Pig Lullaby Peppa
Ages 3 years and up
Press Peppa’s heart shaped dome on the front of her tummy and it will play ‘twinkle twinkle little star’. Peppa will also create gentle starlight that will reflect on the ceiling and gently fade away after 20 minutes.
Elefun – The Butterfly Catching Game
Ages 3-6 years
This adorable baby elephant will have your children and their friends jumping with delight as they scramble to collect the most butterflies!
With one deep breath the elephant blows his 4-foot trunk straight up sending colourful butterflies into the air! WOW! You never know where they will fall – keep your wits about you and get ready!! The children can practice their catching skills with the handy butterfly net or quickly gather the butterflies off the floor! Win or lose, they’ll have tons of fun each time they play!
Elefun is a lovely, fun way to encourage active play!
Gator Golf
Ages 3+
Bring the fun of mini-golf to your home. Kids will love the putters that are the perfect size for little hands. The ball is light and easy to putt, and kids will love the friendly gator as he gobbles up the ball, then returns it with a happy swish of his tail. Putt the ball into the friendly gator’s mouth to get a point. Four points wins the game. Kids can play on their own or with a friend, indoors or outdoors. Includes gator, 2 putters, 2 balls and instructions. For 1 to 2 players.
Ravensburger Jolly Octopus Game
Ages 4+
Kids will love the 3D spinning game Jolly Octopus! Jolly the Octopus is sitting on a rock, sheltering lots of colourful little crabs. Players take turn using the tongs provided to remove the colourful crabs from their hiding places but watch out for those waving tentacles! If he catches you then he will stop spinning and start giggling.
The first player to collect all 5 of their colour-coded crabs will win the game. Jolly Octopus has 2 different play settings, so as you become more expert with the tongs you can make the game more difficult, ensuring you get plenty of play value and fun.
Special Offers on Toys and Gifts
- £5 off orders over £50 on toys at Sainsbury’s (use code NQ4C-FMP7-HLCN, valid til 20/12/2010)
- £10 off when you spend £50 on Toys at TheHut (use code TOY50)
- 10% off on the Top 100 Gifts at TheHut (use code TOPGIFTS)
- up to 75% off toys at The Entertainer
- Up to £15 off Children’s Gifts at PrezzyBox
- £5 off when you spend £50 – use code 5OFF50
- £10 off when you spend £75 – use code 10OFF75
- £15 when you spend £100 – use code 15OFF100
- 5% off sledges and toboggans at SuperTramp (use offer code XMAS10)
Why do your Christmas shopping with us?
Our website is all about honest reviews of places to go and things to do with children, and that means that we do not get paid for our reviews. To help us fund improvements to the website, we advertise carefully selected products and businesses which we would happily recommend to other parents. We’ll earn a small commission on some of your purchases at no additional cost to you.
Everything we earn goes straight back into the website to help pay for essential maintenance, working on your suggestions for improvements to the site and gradually shaping ReallyKidFriendly.com into an invaluable resource for parents. Thank you for shopping with us!
Still to come over the next few days are Baby’s First Christmas, and some wonderful personalised gifts for mums, dads and grandparents. Also keep an eye on our Shopping pages and for special offers and discount codes!
Toy descriptions are from the retailers themselves, i.e. these are not our reviews of these products.
We have a VTech Storio and it’s fab! This has given me ideas for the final few bits to get for Christmas for my son. Thanks x