I am a self confessed sucker for wooden toys, although my little man tends to go in for the all singing and dancing noisy toys himself!! However he is a big fan of shape sorters, so when I saw the Early Learning Centre Noah's Ark I thought 'Great! A toy that floats both our boats!' - ok, sorry terrible pun!!!

The toy is a wooden ark, complete with Mr & Mrs Noah, and six pairs of animals. All the animals are accurately painted to look like their animals, except bizarrely the elephants are pink. On the side of the ark are the animal shaped holes for putting them back in the ark, which are removed by lifting the lid of the ark.

I bought this toy as I thought it would make a pleasant change from sorting squares and triangles, To be honest this toy has been a bit of a non starter as a shape sorter. The holes are quite big and the animals can be manipulated through most of the cut out shapes. This seemed to take away the challenge for little man, so he preferred to just take the lid off and get the animals out that way! However that doesn't mean that this toy has been a complete waste of money. He instead prefers to play with it as a more role playing toy - getting them out and then arranging them on top of the ark, or towers of wooden blocks, and babbles away at them. He really likes to play with it, and I often find the animals stuffed in with other toys (or in my shoe!), so who am I to complain that it isn't being used for its designed purpose!!

Noah's Ark cost £15 from ELC, which I think is pretty good value for a wooden toy, and you get quite a lot for your money. It is recommended from age 12 months, and I think this is probably about right. Little man has had this since he was 14 months old and has played with it pretty much every day since he received it. I would definitely recommend this toy, and as long as you are not expecting too much from the shape sorting capabilities, you won't be disappointed.

Available from ELC, Mothercare and www.ELC.co.uk