A multifunction play bus! This bus is quite sturdy and suitable for children aged one and over. It runs on batteries (included) and has various buttons to press. It plays tunes and phrases, letter names and phonic sounds, and numbers 1 to 10. The buttons are in themselves educational in that they are different colours and shapes, and those relating to number and letter sounds are number and letter shaped. Above all it is fun,and for the smallest child it is wonderful for pushing along and pressing buttons at random.

However, I have found that its real strength is in teaching phonic letter sounds. I have used it to very good effect with somewhat older children, who are starting to learn to spell, or who are having speech difficulties. The reason I like it so much is that the sounds are natural rather than forced; for example rather than saying an artificial phonic ' b ' for baby, it just sounds like the beginning of the word as it sounds in normal speech (this is difficult to explain in words!).

A very good buy, with much play and educational value.