For my son's third birthday his Granny and Grandad bought him the Chad Valley my first sing along CD player as he loved to listen to music. We had been looking at the ELC CD player but it was almost double the selling price of the Chad Valley one from argos and so we decided to tell them to purchase the cheaper one.

The my first sing along CD player came well packed in a cardboard box and on the front was a picture of the product inside so we had a good idea what we were getting before the box had been opened. Inside the box there was plenty of polystyrene holding the CD player in place so that it wouldn't be damaged and so we were more than happy with the packaging to be honest.

The actual CD player was blue with some purple accessories when we got it but it seems that it is now offered in red instead. The product is a proper CD player in that you can play real music CD's through it as opposed to one of these that comes with fake CD's for younger children! The CD player also has a really handy carry handle part and so your child is able to take it from room to room with them if they want which is something that my son used to do. Apart from the fact that the player would play real CD's for my son the main selling point with this one was the fact that it came with two microphones as my son loved to sing along to music when he was younger. The microphone's slot in to each side of the player and are attached with a curly, thick wire and so you cannot detach them from the player and dance around the room singing or anything. My son used to love singing in to the microphones and in terms of quality these are fine and what you would expect from a product such as this to be honest.

This CD player requires four size C batteries and these are easily inserted once you have used a screwdriver to remove the back of the player. The batteries lasted quite well so long as we reminded our son to switch off the power when he wasn't using it but sometimes we would find it switched on still and then the batteries would seem to drain faster. There is a place for an adapter to be inserted to plug this in to the mains but the adapter isn't included and so you would need to purchase this separately.

The front of the player opens up when you apply pressure to the button and so you can slide in a CD making sure it is fully attached before closing the door. The led light will tell you how many songs are on the CD and of course change to what number you are playing as you go through the CD. You are able to play and pause music as well as skip it using this product and so it is perfectly functional and certainly meets a child's needs in my opinion. The buttons are large enough and clearly marked so that a child can learn to work the player themselves. After a couple of months of owning this product the front door section of the player snapped and argos were great at replacing the product as they agreed it was probably a product fault instead of the player being mishandled. The replacement that we were given lasted my son a good few years before it again broke on the door part and unless we taped it down when playing a CD the door would just fall open and so we threw it away in the end.

The volume on the CD player and the microphones is adjustable and whilst it won't make the walls shake with volume it is certainly loud enough for a child's needs in my opinion. In terms of music quality it was always fine unless my son was bouncing around really close to the player in which case sometimes the CD would skip a little but this wasn't really a big issue at all.

From memory this CD player cost £25 approximately but argos are currently selling it for just £14.99 and I think this is a great price for the player to be honest. I would recommend this CD player for children aged around three to five years.

Thank you for reading my review!