Back 2 Christmas's ago I bought my twin boys a Henry Hoover each, the toy version of course. Although they dislike cleaning for real they like to be very independent so I've encouraged their independence with toys such as irons and ironing boards, hoovers, plastic foods and cutlerys, a lot of roleplaying toys that they can use their imagination with.

The Henry hoover though wasn't that good, a total waste of about £20 each, so last Christmas I went on the search for a more suitable toy hoover that they would get better use out of.

I quickly opted for an upright hoover, but there are of course many to choose from. Browsing Argos I came across a Dyson version of an upright toy hoover - this one however looked way to fiddly and difficult just for a simple toy hoover - very much like the Henry hoovers I'd bought them previously. I soon spotted the Chad Valley toy vacuum cleaner though. A simple design but a perfect, toy upright hoover which could be played with perfectly to re-enact Mama's hoovering about the house.

Although a very simple design it resembles an upright vacuum perfectly, so no mistaking it for something else and a child could easily recognise it as a vacuum which is a must! The hoover is not reccomended for children under 3, however I don't see why a child aged 2 and above can't use it.

It's simply a plastic hoover, which comes packaged in a chad valley decorated upright box with a picture of a child pushing the hoover on it. It comes in 2 parts in the box - the main body of the hoover and the handle. The handle easily slots into place in the hole at the top of the body of the hoover and voila there you have it an upright toy.

It has it's handle for children to grip hold of to be able to push it around, it has it's hoover foot shaped exactly like a typical upright hoover would be. It even has a cylinder in the middle which would act as a hoovers cylinder for storing any dirt and dust that's collected whilst hoovering. This cylinder however is filled with tiny, multi coloured balls and as your child pushes the hoover around there is something within the bottom of the cylinder which flicks them around and the balls make an almighty racket until they decide to stop pushing. There is no trouble for your child to push the hoover around it has three wheels altogether on the bottom, 2 large ones at the back and one smaller roller wheel at the very front, so the foot of the hoover doesn't get stuck, or just stops anywhere, instead it just glides across the floor with ease - even carpet! The balls within the cylinder are not a hazard for a child either which is a plus as children can't get to these and take them out they just remain within the hoover. Not only do the wheels help with the ease of pushing it around, the hoover itself is fairly lightweight too which helps as there is no real effort for a child to push it and they wouldn't feel like they are lugging a heavy hoover around.

Although just a simple plastic hoover, it has provided many hours of fun for my boys, they love it when I get the hoover out as they can get theirs out and help me with hoovering the house. It is a little noisy sometimes when I don't have my hoover on to drown out the noise of the balls but it's not a toy which is used constantly. Instead it is used when my boys are playing games which involves roleplaying and when I get my hoover out

The hoover costs about £15 from Argos and is well worth the money in my opinion. There are no attachments and fiddly bits like the Henry hoovers had. These in my opinion are a bit too much and can take away from the fun of just pretending to hoover. These just allow them to pretend to hoover around the house and enjoy their short space of 'independence'. I'd definitely recommend these vacuums to anybody looking for one for their child.