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Peppa Pig Music Set
by xmum2threex
Like most preschoolers my little girl is a huge Peppa pig fan. While I was browsing Argos I came across this music set reduced from £49.99 to the small price of £14.99.I knew my little girl would love it. We purchased this for her when she was two although the age recommendation was for three years old, but I just knew that she would ... enjoy it and there seemed to be nothing that could cause any danger under supervision. In the set you receive a keyboard, a microphone and a guitar. Each peace is purple in colour with splashes of pink and of course it has the Peppa pig logo stamped all over it. I was really impressed with what we received for our money, and while I would not have paid the £50 retail price for our money we received a bargain.
The microphone
The microphone comes with an adjustable stand so your little one can adjust it to the perfect height to start singing. This is very easy to do and on the lowest setting it was perfect for my two year old little girl. The microphone itself can be placed in the stand or removed so that little one can walk around singing. It is stuck to a wire so it limits how far they can walk, but it still allows ample room for pacing up and down. When the batteries are in place of course the microphone also amplifies little ones voice so they can be heard by the whole audience. Also it can be plugged into the guitar which amplifies your child's voice above the music coming from the guitar. To be honest this was the least loved part of the set by my little girl. The microphone does boost the sound level of their voice a little, but it also seems to catch a lot of interference meaning it limits where they can stand without a huge crackling noise. Also this was the first piece to break. After just a few months the microphone stopped working, and even after changing the batteries it no longer made any noise. This did not bother my little girl she just shouted over the mic instead, but this was the first thing to be put in the garage.
The keyboard
The keyboard as you would expect has a number of keys for little one to play. You can actually record the song you make up which my little girl thought was amazing as Mummy and Daddy never missed a performance again. As well as the standard keys to play there were a number of buttons that produced different noise effects and sounds. My little girl thought this was brilliant and loved that the normal keys could be turned into electro sounds, or dance or whatever she liked from the choice of buttons. There are also a number of preset songs on the keyboard including the all important Peppa pig theme tune. My only downside with this is you cannot press the keys on top of the preset song, which means when my little girl was pretending she was playing the song it would stop abruptly. For this reason she only really used these features when she was singing and knew she would not be touching any of the keys. There is also no stand for the keyboard which means it had to be placed on a flat surface which was a little annoying, but for £15 we could not moan.
The guitar
By far this is the best loved piece of the set, and now two years on it still gets use almost every day. It is the first thing visiting children run too and seems to have a huge appeal to anyone under five. The guitar comes with a strap so it can sit comfortably around little ones neck. We never added this at first when we purchased it as it was the one piece of the set I was worried about with my daughter being a year under the recommended age. It is a fair size so it appeals to children, but still very light so they can hold it with ease. Again there are a number of buttons that have songs preloaded on them. You can strum the guitar as you would with a real one but this only makes the smallest noise so my little girl usually just pretends to do so. By pressing the different fret markers on the guitar the guitar will reward you by playing different notes and different sounds. These are by far the most exciting part of the toy for the children, and are perfect for role play at being a rock star.
Overall
The whole set is a parents nightmare with noise, noise and more noise but for children it is a dream come true. It is not overly loud so it will annoy your neighbours, but the tunes are catchy and irritating at the same time. The set is really well made from strong durable plastic and other than the microphone it all still works perfectly. There are a few problems with the stickers. As we had to add these self they began to peel which has left the pieces looking less than perfect, but with a damp cloth they come away and this makes the set look a lot better. You need a whopping 9 AA batteries for the full set to work but these have lasted extremely well and two years down the line the keyboard and guitar are still working from the original Duracell we used. Considering the amount of use they have received I think this is amazing. The whole set is well thought out to be used by preschool children with large buttons and everything is very easy to navigate. Even my 10 month old little girl is able to press the buttons with ease.
Now the microphone has broken and made its way to the tip a long time ago, but the keyboard and guitar are still fully usable. The keyboard has been left to the side in favour of a newer version we bought with a built in microphone and seat, but the guitar is still a staple in my children's playing. All three of my eldest children now two, four and five all love to play rock star and it is something that is enjoyed by visiting children too. We purchased this set for Christmas 2010 and for it still to be used now is amazing, especially as a lot of the other toys purchased from the same Christmas have already seen there day. I would highly recommend this music set to anyone, not just Peppa pig fans but any child interested in music. It is not perfect, but is by far one of the best Peppa pig sets we have purchased. Unfortunately Argos no longer sells this, but it can be found on eBay for a reasonable price.
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Carousel Hammering Bench Wooden Toy
by womble1985
This is one (of many) toys my parents have at their house for my son to play with when he is there. It is a very traditional wooden hammer shape toy.
It is about 25cm long and has 5 brightly coloured wooden shapes sitting in corresponding holes in a wooden holder. The holes have a thin rubber tubing around them to lightly hold ... the shapes in places so they don't slip down.
It comes with a wooden hammer and you simply get your toddler to bash away at the shapes until they are all at the bottom, then flip the whole thing over and start again!
I love simple, traditional toys, especially wooden ones. It is bright and colourful, well made and sturdy. It won't last for that long as unfortunately it is one of those toys that has a limited lifespan, but we have kept it so our baby can play with it when she is old enough. But for the price we was you can't complain. I think it was around £7 from Tesco. This is a good price as it is of good quality, it looks very appealing and you can't go wrong.
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