My nephew has just had his first birthday and he loves anything musical or anything that he can use to make some sort of noise. My sister actually spotted the Xylophone in the Early Learning Centre catalogue and thought that he may like that for his birthday so I decided to purchase it for him. The Xylophone cost me £15.00 which I think was fairly reasonable as it was musical and it also looked as though it was made quite strong. The product is available to buy in store and online from The Early Learning Centre. The xylophone is for children aged from 9 months.

Although the Xylophone is made from strong plastic, it's actually quite light to hold which is good. The main colour of the xylophone is a light green colour and there are 5 keys on the xylophone, each a different colour. The colours do how-ever repeat twice. On each end of the xylophone are 2 beaters which can be taken off the end for the child to hold. They can then use the beaters to hit the xylophone to create different notes and music. The 2 beaters are different colours and have a loop at the bottom which makes it easier for a child to hold. The ends are flat and rounded. On one of the xylophone there are 2 black buttons. One of these switches the xylophone on and off and the other one can be selected so the keys on the xylophone either play music or just a note when it's pressed/hit.

I put this is front of my nephew and took a beater to show him how to use it. He picked up a beater and hit the xylophone gently with the beater. When it played a musical note he was most impressed and hit the beater on the xylophone again. He played with the xylophone for a few minutes before getting bored and crawling off. He has played with the xylophone a few more times, and when we change the keys to the music he sits and rocks to the music. Unfortunately he doesn't play with the xylophone as much as I thought he would and he does tend to get bored of it within a few minutes. The music on the xylophone seems to be more popular than the actual music tone which plays when you hit one of the bars on the xylophone.

The xylophone can be wiped with a damp cloth is anything is spilt onto it and I found that things wipe off very easily, due to the xylophone being made from a strong type of plastic.

The xylophone takes 3 x button cell batteries, which lasts a long time so long as the xylophone is switched off after use, otherwise this will of course run the batteries down. In terms of value, after playing with the xylophone with my nephew I think it probably was a little pricey, especially as my nephew doesn't seem to spend much time playing on it. The quality of the product is quite good and it's strong but also light which means it's great for packaging into a box or taking in the car for a short trip. I give this product 4 out of 5 stars as I don't think it's actually worth the £15.00 I paid for it.


(review may also appear on ciao)