However, Christmas 2019 we nailed it. So many presents are being used very regularly or even daily. I separated the wheat from the chaff on their Christmas lists and came up with some ideas they hadn’t even thought of but love.

Here are some of the most successful Christmas presents from last year…

Successful Christmas presents for my 11-year-old daughter

The make-up case

Sofia is only allowed to wear discreet make-up on special occasions. Nonetheless she has mountains of the stuff. It was no surprise then that she asked for a make-up storage box.

I found this lovely rose gold one from Beautify (£29.99). It’s almost like a toolbox – albeit a very pretty one – and has three tiers, umpteen compartments and loads of room. It folds away nicely and is a feature in her room.

The Armoire Storage Mirror

On the same site I came across an LED Armoire Storage Mirror (£67.99). It’s a beautiful looking white cheval mirror with theatre dressing room-style lights running all around it. The mirror opens to reveal storage for a ton of lotions, potions and jewellery. It also has a handy holder for her hairdryer! She absolutely loves it.

Successful Christmas presents for my 8-year-old twin daughters

Handmade fairy house

When browsing at The Holly and Laurel Emporium in Dorking, Maria found a fairy house. She fell in love with it immediately. It’s handmade from apple wood, uses logs reclaimed from a condemned orchard and is furnished with handmade accessories. It also has small fairly lights wrapped around it.

I wasn’t sure at first about buying it, but it remained a constant on her Christmas list so we got it. I’m glad we did as it’s her favourite present and her sisters love it too. It’s also a great antidote to electronic devices. I think it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Our Generation doll

Another more traditional present, which stood the test of time on the Christmas list, was an Our Generation Anya doll (£35.22). Our Generation is a range of healthy looking, nicely proportioned dolls that are quite tall at about 46cm. Anya has pierced ears and comes with a complete outfit – interchangeable with other dolls – two necklaces, three pairs of earrings and a jewellery stand. I bought a hairbrush and spray bottle set to go with Anya, which keeps her hair in good condition. It’s great to see Gabby playing with her beloved Nintendo and doll in equal measure.

Smart watches

The girls love gadgets, games and taking photos. They are also obsessed with the step count on my FitBit. Therefore a smart watch each seemed like a great idea. I did some research and went with the Vtech Kidizoom Smart Watch (£39.98). Since getting them they’ve got more interested in telling the time and knowing what the date is. The pedometer is a massive hit and they’ve both taken A LOT of photos. I can tell these are going to stand the test of time.

The joint presents

NET1 Portable Netball System

My three have all started netball club this year at their junior school having never played it previously. They’ve developed a real passion for it so I thought a netball post for our garden would be perfect. It is! They’ve been out rain or shine practising with each other or alone. They even keep saying what a great present it is! The NET1 Portable Netball System (£89.99) has great reviews and I can thoroughly recommend. It is completely portable – on wheels – until you fill the base with water or sand.

CRAYOLA Light Up Tracing Pad

This is a lovely simple present that has brought so much enjoyment and is used very frequently. It’s robust as you’d expect from Crayola and comes with one tracing pencil, 12 coloured pencils, six sheets with traceable items (everything from fairies to treasure chests) and 10 blank sheets. I think it’s great value at £24.47.

And let’s not forget dad

My husband loves cooking and baking, and we’re also on a bit of an economy drive. Enter the Panasonic SD2511 Breadmaker (£169.99). He makes several loaves (different styles) a week. He’ll still make bread from scratch, but this can’t be beaten for convenience. It takes just a couple of minutes to load in the ingredients and then away you go. It works out to about 40p a loaf. All of the different breads we’ve had so far are delicious.

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https://youtu.be/5TepgVcGuUY

There is still the seven surprises format that L.O.L lovers will be familiar with but not quite so many cellophane layers (but in a good way). There is a new way to uncover one of the surprises and the ball contains four wrapped items in the centre.

The all-important secret message giving a clue to the pet’s identity is still there as is the collectable sticker sheet and the water bottle charm and accessory. My testers certainly liked the continuity of this and would have been disappointed if this had changed.

New features

The new twist is a little scooper, which can be used to search a sandpit – a sort of ‘litter box’ – for another surprise; an additional accessory. In this case a little tea cup. The litter box is filled with something similar to Kinetic Sand, which was a big hit this Christmas. The litter box lid can be used to stamp footprints into the sand. The girls really enjoyed this feature and loved the sand. The final surprise was of course the pet itself with its surprise feature/s. We got a bunny: Cottontail!

We liked the fact that you could mix and match the pets’ accessories with the LOL Surprise! Dolls and LOL Surprise Lil Sisters.

My daughter’s review of LOL Surprise Pets

I started unwrapping my first L.O.L pet. There was the message in the first layer.  I looked at the pictures. It had a fairy and a dog pointing at its tail, I knew it was fairy tale straight away!  Second layer already, found the collectable stickers that you put under your pet on the collector sheet. You test what it does with water and you put the stickers on the sheet so you remember. Wow third layer, nothing in this one just to reveal the whole ball.  Then I needed to open the ball! Wow, there was a kinetic sandpit and four surprise bags. I opened them all! I loved the sandpit and accessories. There was a little scooper in one of the surprise bags!  You use it to dig out a little surprise in the kinetic sand. 

You may want to red:

L.O.L Surprise Series 2 – review

L.O.L Surprise Series 1- review

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L.O.L Surprise! Series 2

The girls are already big fans of the first series and were beyond excited when we received this one. They knew the drill and quickly unwrapped the first layer to reveal the message: Sick Beat. This gave a clue to the doll’s identity; the girls didn’t figure it out just yet and thought it would be a singer.

Next up came the four collectable stickers, which are like emojis. These link to the things that the doll might do: wee, spit, colour change and cry. You can stick these on the collector poster as a kind of checklist for all the dolls you have.

Stickers

L.O.L Surprise! The next layers

They quickly unwrapped the next layer to uncover a compartment containing a pink plastic bag, which had a gold bottle charm inside. Another layer and another compartment, this time with black and gold boots.

The next two layers revealed the outfit and accessory, and then it was down to the doll itself. Bingo! We’d got D.J part of the Hip Hop Club of dolls. There are 10 different ‘clubs’ with a number of dolls in each. The dolls are further distinguished as popular, fancy, rare or ultra rare (a # on the collector poster means that a doll is ‘OMW’ – On My Way). D.J is a ‘fancy’ one. I assume ‘popular’ are the most common ones.

Collector poster

There was a big frenzy as they dressed her and then tested to see which features she had. We quickly discovered that D.J spat, but weren’t sure what other feature she had.

D.J with her Series 1 pal

We tested our LOL doll by putting it in a bowl of cold water, but not too much happened so we tested out putting the bowl in the freezer. After 10 minutes we took it out and it had colour changed! This caused lot of excitement, as we’d never had a colour change one before. We found out that we could speed up the process by touching the doll directly onto the ice of the freezer (see below video). Further testing showed more extreme colour changing!

The ball turns into a bag/carry case as well as a stand for the doll. It can also be used as a bath and a lounge/diner.

My daughters absolutely loved the new doll. From what I can see, there are no functionality changes from series one, there are just more to collect and in the words of the girls: “we want to collect every one of the LOL dolls series two!”

The RRP for a L.O.L Surprise! Series 2 Doll is £9.99.

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Already a collectable in the US and billed as the ‘ultimate unboxing toy,’ the L.O.L Surprise! has landed in the UK and we got a sneak preview.

Unboxing…

L.O.L Surprise! – a doll and more 

It’s like a very souped up round Kinder egg: bigger, more layers, more surprises and generally a lot more going on. My initial thought was that it was too gimmicky and wouldn’t hold the interest of my daughters for more than a few minutes. I was wrong.

It was actual fever pitch excitement as all three girls dived in and systematically unravelled the layers of the ball. The first layer simply contained a secret message, but this gave a clue to which doll was going to be the ultimate surprise. The humble bit of paper completely tapped into their love of all things mystery and secret agent (they are currently obsessed with Barbie Spy Squad).

A couple of layers down

The outfit, which is stowed in one of the compartments

Cheer Captain with dress (minus accessories)

L.O.L Surprise! Unwrapping 

Layer two was emoji stickers. Next up was a baby bottle, then a pair of shoes, an outfit and then an accessory in layer six. Each of these were contained within little compartments; again all secretive and mysterious, which they loved. The final layer was the 3-inch doll itself. We got Cheer Captain. There are 45 to collect and certain ones are much rarer than others. ‘Cute’ was a word that was used to describe the doll and the whole package again and again by the girls, and the unwrapping was ‘awesome.’

Bath time for Cheer Captain

There’s actually quite a bit of functionality and the L.O.L Surprise! crosses into Transformers territory as the ball can serve as a bathtub, doll stand and a ‘hangout.’ The whole thing can then convert into a purse/handbag as it also comes with an attachable handle. The only grumble here was that the table for the hangout was quite fiddly to install.

If you feed the doll you’ll find out which one of the bonus features it has… it might cry, spit or wee! If you give it a bath, it might even be one of the special dolls that changes colour.

Maria modelling the purse before heading out to lunch

Captain Cheer came out to lunch with us

L.O.L Surprise! Overview 

The press release says it’s for children aged three and up, but I’d say it would be more suitable for five and up. My eight year old was very engaged and loved not only playing with it and using it as a handbag, but also the prospect of collecting and swapping with friends. Collecting and swapping is all the rage at her junior school at the moment with Pokemon trading cards.

Whilst I think an RRP of £7.99 represents good value as a standalone product, I can imagine that it could get rather expensive (and disappointing) if you ended up with a large number of duplicates. This is also Series 1 so I imagine there’ll be another drop in the not too distant future.

Verdict: Big hit with all three girls (ages 5-8 years) and they have already asked if they can use their pocket money to buy more. Sofia said that she can imagine her friends collecting them.

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My three are huge My Little Pony and Frozen fans so other figures aren’t getting too much of a look in at the moment, so I was interested to see how they’d be received.

The dolls are small and very cute and each one has their own mini fox pet friend and a different outfit as well as different boots/shoes and different fox hats (the idea of a fox hat might not be to everyone’s liking). There was a flurry of excitement opening them.

They loved the size of the dolls and the fact that all the outfits and accessories were interchangeable. They did find the outfits and shoes rather fiddly to remove and put back on again so they needed my help but this didn’t dent their enthusiasm. They picked up on the details of what the dolls were wearing, specifically that they had a different fox design on their outfits, which they really liked. I thought the clothes were really nice as some were dresses and others were more unisex all-in-ones.

We were sent five out of the eight dolls available to collect

My six-year-old’s (nearly seven) enthusiasm waned after a couple of days, but my four-year-old twins continue to be really engaged and after coming back from pre-school they were the first thing they went to. They encouraged great role play from them and they were very particular on how they wanted to dress them. You can visit

The dolls are recommended for three and up and were absolutely perfect for my four-year-old testers. There are eight dolls to collect and they’re £7.99 each so I think they make for a very good, slightly bigger stocking filler individually or more of a main present if you’re buying a couple.

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Sand play is fantastic in aiding a toddler’s development and it’s such a fun activity to boot.

Outdoor play is a natural and fun way to keep busy and it helps in all aspects of a child’s growth and education. It is something that comes naturally to all children and they love it, so we need to keep encouraging it in as many ways as possible. A great way to do this is through sand play. It is a fun and unique activity that can be enjoyed by everyone… parents included! Amongst its many therapeutic benefits, sand play has a very beneficial influence on the coordinative, interactional and creative aspects of your child’s brain.

Sand play benefits coordination

Playing with sand develops and teaches bilateral and hand-eye coordination. These are the two critical coordination skills that you use every day; it’s something we learn in the first few years of our life. When your little one is first learning the ropes you will notice how clumsy they can be and how over time they learn, improving with every step.

So how can sand play help? When playing with sand, the basic activities usually revolve around creating. This can either be filling buckets and making castles or drawing and writing in the sand with sticks. Doing these activities will train and encourage the use of hand-eye coordination otherwise known as visual-motor integration. In the long run this helps your child to read and write, play sport and even tie their shoelaces.

Through grasping, moving, holding and lifting, and many other movements developed through sand play, you will begin to introduce hand-eye coordination at an early and vital age. But it doesn’t stop there! These activities also teach bilateral coordination. This is the ability to use both sides of your body symmetrically. When your child rolls a rolling pin over dough or lifts themselves up with both hands, they are using bilateral coordination; it is the skill of applying equal pressure and moving both arms and legs together. It is something that we take for granted but without it we would all be incredibly clumsy.

Why not introduce tools to your sand play sessions to help the development of these areas? By digging and lifting you will not only help aid coordination but help muscle growth and motor skills…and it’s also a lot of fun!

Encourage interaction through sand play

Interaction is another important aspect of our life. It not only helps us to communicate but also changes how we look at the world. For a child interaction is completely new, and as soon as they start to talk they start to learn rapidly.

There are different stages to a child’s interactional development: seeing, questioning, reflecting, doing and learning. It’s actually a process that we use in all areas of learning. I am sure you have all been bombarded with questions as your children start to look at the world around them, and it is because they are so analytical. They use this same process when learning to communicate and make judgements with and towards others.

Sand play is often not a solo activity. It can be enjoyed with parents, siblings and friends. Whether at the local playground or a play date at the beach, it is a great way to socialise and it teaches more than just interaction.

Sand play with other children teaches both cooperation and teamwork, usually when children play it is imaginative and based around role-playing. Sand offers a world of imagination for a child and through the use of jobs and goals they will learn basic skills that will prepare them for the future.

Artistic creation is everywhere!

Art is all around us, and children can see it. From the trees to the plants, there is a never-ending supply of artistic influence and opportunity for creation. It’s vital to encourage your child’s artistic skills and allow them to express themselves as much as possible.

There are many ways to do this, not just through play but in everything you do with your little ones. Sand is a great material to use with your art projects, you can add glue, food colouring or water and make structures and portraits. Why not add shells and other materials found at the beach to liven up your creations?

So is play important?

I would like to stress the importance of play in a child’s routine. Not sitting in front of the TV or playing games on a console but getting outside and being active. It means fresh air, nature and fun! There are many ways to do this and sand play is just one of the possibilities. If you would like more tips and ideas or have any questions about the benefits of sand play then feel free to leave a comment or email me on simon@gardengames.co.uk

Visit my sandpit website for more advice relating to sandpit safety and for help buying a sandpit for your garden.

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In our house, we do stockings first thing in the morning and big presents later in the day. With great timing, Wicked Vision has sent me three products – in the stocking fillers price range – to review.

The stocking fillers

First up is The Duncan Yo-Yo priced at £10 (Duncan claim to be the original and number one yo-yo brand). It’s a light-up yo-yo so looks cool and instantly got Sofia’s interest despite being recommended for six years plus. The great thing is, it comes with batteries already installed and also replacement batteries.

It’s incredibly difficult to photograph a yo-yo in action…

It’s well made and the blurb reliably informs that it is a perfectly balanced, ball-bearing yo-yo. It certainly seems a lot smoother and slicker, and not the tangled mess I remember yo-yos being from my playground days.

so here’s a pack shot.

Sofia couldn’t do the tricks. However, the slick movement coupled with the light and colour made it a big hit. My two-year-old twins were mesmerised by changing colours and loved watching their big sister play with it. They were very entertained minus the tricks. This would definitely be a winner for those with a bit more skill.

The Chameleon Flying Disc (£6) is a Frisbee with a thermo active technology twist: it changes colour with just the heat of your hands!

Chameleon Disc in green

The kids liked it. Whilst it doesn’t change colour quite as dramatically as the website picture shows, it did noticeably alter when they touched it, which they enjoyed.

I like the fact that it’s made of soft foam so can be used indoors – as well as outdoors – safely.  It comes in four different colours. It says suitable from three years but, at two, the twins were more than capable of chucking it. The textured surface made it much easier for them all to grip, and even catch sometimes!

* The Chameleon Disc is no longer available on the site, here are some alternatives from Wicked.

Socker Boppers 

Wicked Socker Boppers are inflatable boxing pillows (£10). I initially had mixed feelings about these, as I wasn’t sure I should be encouraging my eldest daughter to box. However, they are fantastic fun and all three girls absolutely love them; I love them! In my opinion they are safe, but certainly require proper supervision.

They are very padded, featuring a ‘double cavity air chamber’, which provides extra cushioning. All four of us could comfortably get our hands into the gloves and even the two-year-olds could bop without them falling off.

They are made from heavy-duty vinyl and have taken quite a pounding without any hint of a puncture, but they do come with one repair patch just in case. They have also stayed fully inflated for the week we’ve had them, and Sofia was able to blow them up herself without any help.

There are only two soccer boppers in a pack; it would be a lot more fun to have two sets so you can have a proper little spar.

All perfect stocking fillers.

Read: Good games for four to eight year olds

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Children’s centres

Duck pond with crinkly foil water

During another spell of rainy weather I looked into taking the brood to a soft play venue, which also has animals outside. It would cost £23 for my eldest daughter and I to go (under twos are free). As it was busy, indoor time was restricted to 1 1/2 hours. Traipsing around outside was an impossibility due to the torrential rain.

More toys.

In comparison, I pay £1 per child to go to my local Children’s Centre in Banstead. I’ve met some really nice mums there, and as well as the general benefits I mentioned, the children also get to do activities that they wouldn’t normally do at home. Last week’s session, for example, was farmyard-themed. A whole toy farm with animals was set up, the books were all connected with farm animals and they got the opportunity to explore the texture and smell of hay.

Loving the hay.

There was a singing session (with plenty of animal songs) and then healthy snacks were provided. An outreach worker is also on hand for support and advice if you need it. It is certainly worth the £1!

Enjoying a healthy snack with drinks.

This particular group, despite being really good, has never been very well attended; I really don’t know why. However, on this particular week, I was the only parent there. The girls still loved it, but it was a massive shame.

These Children’s Centres are a valuable resource and if they are not supported and fail to get adequate numbers they will close. netmums provides a great list of groups in your local area.

Use them or lose them!

*** Update: I’m very happy to report that the group is really well attended now

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1. Monopoly Junior Party

Monopoly gets a child makeover with cupcake playing pieces, present tokens (instead of houses), a ‘party box’ and party cards. Instead of properties, players buy different themed parties such as a bowling party, pizza party or bouncy castle party and keep moving around the board until someone goes bankrupt. A simplified version of a family favourite, which incorporates most of the features of the original, but in a format that will keep young ones interested. It says age five plus, but most four-year-olds would not have any problems understanding the rules.

Monopoly Junior Party

2. Snakes and Ladders

This needs no introduction. An absolute classic, and a concept that is easy for a four-year-old to grasp. As well as helping with counting, it is a great game for teaching your child about losing, as you can’t deliberately let them win in this game of chance!

Snakes and Ladders

3. Pop to the Shops

This game sees each player taking on the role of both shopkeeper and shopper. As well as encouraging counting skills and involving plenty of interaction, Pop to the Shops teaches children about handling money as they negotiate the purchasing of the items they need, giving change and distinguishing between different coins.

Pop to the Shops

4. Lunch Box Game  

A memory game where the winner is the first to collect all the healthy items in their lunch box. As well as improving memory, it has prompted numerous conversations about what are good and bad foods.

Lunch Box Game

5. The Beetle Game

I’d never heard of this game until my mother-in-law purchased it as a stocking-filler. It’s a game from the 1950s (complete with retro packaging) and has now established itself as a firm favourite in our household. The premise is simple: you roll the dice and assemble your beetle part-by-part. The winner is the first person to complete their beetle. There are a couple of twists and turns which make it a little more difficult to complete this task. A very competitive game and very entertaining for children and adults alike. It also doesn’t take an age to play and no set up is required. It’s also a bargain at £4.99.

The Beetle Game

6. Connect Four

Another game that needs no introduction. Sofia is not very strategic in her play at the moment, but loves it all the same. It’s great for helping her concentration and eventually I’m hoping that this will lead to her thinking strategically!

Connect Four

7. The Gruffalo Match and Memory Board Game

Based on characters/items from the much-loved Julia Donaldson book, this is essentially a memory game. However, as it says on the tin, it is also a board game with spinner so there is a luck element as well as pure memory. The age says five, but Sofia has played this comfortably from three. A must for all Gruffalo fans!

The Gruffalo Game 

8. Guess Who?

Another cult classic, which my daughter loves. She is a little
too young to play without help, as she can’t actually read the character names. However, this does not detract in any way from her enjoyment. The guessing game has been revamped and the particular version that I’ve linked below doesn’t suffer from some of the quality issues that some reviewers describe as one big card slots into the main frame as opposed to lots of individual cards. In addition you can download new cards.

Guess Who?

9. Dora the Explorer on LeapPad

Ok, a change of direction here. Computer games probably divide opinion for this age group. However, they do provide the opportunity for children to play independently, which – if they don’t spend hours playing in isolation – I personally think is a valuable skill. This particular game is brilliant for teaching Spanish vocabulary (Sofia has picked up loads) and learning about the cultures of Egypt, China, Australia and Peru through looking at local animals, food, clothes and landscapes.

Dora the Explorer

10. Oxford Reading Tree – Read With Biff, Chip, and Kipper Flashcards: Word Games

Sofia loves this and so do I as she learns to recognise common words without even knowing it. There are various different games to play, so initially it’s about learning to read the individual words through lotto, matching pairs and snap, but later on we’ll be learning how they are used in sentences. Simple, but very effective.

Oxford Reading Tree – Read With Biff, Chip, and Kipper Flashcards

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