We have had our bead frame for just under a year now, my friend bought it for my daughter for her 1st birthday. The frame is good value for money and costs £10 in IKEA.

It comes in a flat box and requires some minimal assembly, this consists of the base of the frame, two wooden slats, the bead runners and beads as well as the screws. You also get the alan key needed for the screws. To assemble the frame you simply need to line up the bead runners and then thread the beads. You can place the beads on however you like, I just chose different shapes and colours to go next to each other. You then need to screw the screws in tightly and it's ready to go. IKEA state that is designed to help fine motor skills and encourage logical thinking.

Young children seem to love these frames and my daughter loves the one in the doctors waiting room and she had also played with the one in the restaurant in IKEA. The recommended age is 18 months plus however my daughter was playing with this from around 6 months. There are no sharp edges and it is fairly lightweight and sturdy so I can't see no reason why a younger child couldn't play with this.

My daughter loves this frame and the fun it brings, she loves to move the beads altogether and allow them to drop as they make a noise that she seems to find really funny. As she has got older and she can count to 5 now we count the beads together as we move them along the frame, we are also starting to use the frame to identify colours.

This frame has provided hours of fun, sometimes the simpler toys are the most fun, for the money it is great value. It is also very durable my daughter has been a little rough with it at times and it is still as good as new. It can be wiped clean too.

This gets 5 out of 5 from us as it is educational in a fun way.