One of the things that my son seems to enjoy doing is helping in the garden. His grandparents decided too help with this interest they would buy him a small spade and fork set. They choose this set from the Early Learning Centre.

What is it?
************
This set consist of a small spade and fork the handles of both items are wooden and the prongs on the fork and the main section of the spade are metal that have an enamel finish to them. The set we have has a green fork and a blue spade. The set can also be bought in a girly pink as shown on the dooyoo picture. These are smaller and lighter than adult versions of the same garden tools.

In use
**********
These items have been used periodically by my son over the past few months. In the late autumn and winter he used these to help in the garden with lifting weeds and planting some winter pansies and bulbs for the spring. The weight on these garden tools meant it was easy for him to co ordinate doing this small task. That said when he was getting a little bored of the job they also were just the right size for him to flick and spray soil all over myself and the garden. Stupidly we left these outside for a long period of several weeks in all the winter elements, despite this rough treatment however the enamel actually stayed on the tools and hasn't shown any signs of flaking off at all which I have to admit both surprised and astonished me as cheaper versions of the same tools had suffered this way.

We have clay soil in our garden and this is very heavy and hard to work with even for adult tools, the fork and spade both showed signs of getting small bends in them when we have used them when the soil has been damp and my son has applied pressure to the tools to lift the soil or a weed from the garden. However in the planting out of seeds into pots with compost in there has been none of this problem at all. My husband was easily able to straighten the bend in them out and this didn't cause the metal to snap which I was pleased about. If you have a normal chalky and light soil I don't think you would encounter this problem however and it is only with heavy soil you may need to be careful with the pressure placed on them.

As far as education and fun goes these tools these tools I think fit both categories well. Gardening is I think is a fun activity for children to do the mud and mess it seems to make it immediately appealing to my son at least. He loves especially planting and growing vegetables as he can see his hard work rewarded. These tools are a great addition to any children's toy selection as they can learn about nature and growing things in a fun way. My son has enjoyed using the spade to lift out worms and other bugs and grubs to look at and then talk about them with myself in a fun and educational way.

Overall
**********
I would definitely recommend these tools they are well made and my son loves using these alongside myself and my husband when gardening. They are small and light enough to be easily to use and for small hands to co-ordinate at £5 for the set from the ELC I think they are a bargain.