Review: Le Toy Van 'Shanghai Warrior Ship'

Review: Times Table CD

I'm always on the hunt for educational products that I feel could help my children and so I was very keen to test out whether a 'Times Table CD with songs and games' would prove to be useful. My eight year old son is now receiving weekly tests on his times tables so he needs to get up to scratch.

So what does this CD involve?

I was really impressed with this CD. The songs were really pleasant to listen to even if you weren't learning the times tables; but overall the CD has been of brilliant educational use.

It is really easy to memorise the tables because as you go along throughout the day you actually find yourself singing the songs. (Yes, even I am singing them!) Which is a big help in learning the tables, if you are subconsciously singing them all the time. The CD then tests the child in two ways; repeating the song with gaps left for the child to sing in the answers. The next test is where a man reads out the tables and just leaves a few seconds gap for the child to fill in the answer before he gives the answer, which again children love because they can't wait to beat the man to it.

To reiterate the tables the CD also comes with a handy booklet with the times tables in so the children can have a visual aid as they are singing along until they become completely familiar.

Here's my son enjoying the CD:



The CD costs £7.50 which I think is very reasonable. We have had great use from this CD and my son's tables test showed this last week when he got 35/35.

For more info please visit www.kidscdsandtapes.com

Review: Kids Music Shop DVD

I was recently contacted to see if I would like to review a DVD from Kids Music Shop. The Kids Music Shop has just expanded their collection from just CD's to DVD's. This DVD in particular contains 16 popular songs that children will love.

Here's the track listing:

1. Down in the jungle 2. Ten Fat Sausages 3. Sing a rainbow 4. We all clap hands together 5. Four little ducks went swimming one day 6. Supercalifragilistic 7. Prehistoric Animal Brigade 8. One potato two potato 9. Knees up Mother Brown 10. Woodland Farm Ho Down 11. BINGO 12. Banyan Tree 13. Chick chick chick chick Chicken 14. Wiggly Woo 15. Looby Lou BONUS TRACK 16. Happy Birthday PLUS an additional special features section.

Most of the songs feature schoolchildren singing along exuberantly and very proudly performing the actions. The DVD has a slightly amateur feel to it, but I think in this case it is what keeps you watching. The fact that the children haven't been edited until every little thing is perfect and if you look closely enough you can see them give each other a quick smirk etc.

It was great to see a DVD with local accents and the trouble that they had gone to to set up the scenery for each particular song.

So what did my children think?

This DVD made a great alternative to having a children's music CD on because I could actually see my children noting the actions to the songs. Years ago, I remember I had this old book which listed the actions you needed to do for certain songs and I LOVED it. I felt really important and loved showing off with my dance moves and actions. Now, after observing my children watching this DVD I have noted the same behaviour. They keep showing different actions to the songs which is highly amusing.

Overall opinion: We liked this DVD because it was almost like taking a glimpse in to childhood to see how proud children get when performing. There's even a section on the DVD to see funny outtakes and how the children progressed from rehearsals to filming. This DVD costs £4.99 which is great value. My children loved the songs and dancing along and copying actions from the children on the TV.

For more information please visit www.kidscdsandtapes.com

Review: Stinky the Garbage Truck by Matchbox

Introducing Stinky the Garbage Truck. The ULTIMATE best friend.

The ultimate in boys' buddies, Stinky the Garbage Truck is anything but rubbish! This rugged, large scale garbage truck has interactive sensors that bring him to life in unbelievable ways! With amazing articulation, Stinky interacts with his new best friend by talking, telling jokes ans singing - this garbage truck is like no other. He loves to exercise and dance along to music with his own unique personality.

I was first introduced to Stinky the Garbage Truck through Milkshake on Channel Five. Stinky appears behind the 'Five' logo after every ad break and my children were immediately drawn to him. My 2 year old son wildly pointing at him trying to get my attention to the screen and my eight year old already well-versed in the name of the creature replying "Yes, Stinky!" Stinky really looked the bees knees on the advert showing off his robotic skills and his humorous personality, but I was unconvinced. Things often look so much better on TV and when you get them home they sound very robotised and the movements are unrealistic and jerky. Not the case with Stinky.......

Stinky the Garbage Truck came to our home on a Thursday afternoon and my son couldn't wait for me to get him out of the box. There were lots of wires to deal with in the packaging and this seemed to pose a problem for my two year old son as he jutted out his bottom lip in frustration at me because I was not removing Stinky from his packaging quickly enough for him. Wires removed, he snatched the toy off me with delight and sat playing with him for around 20 minutes on the floor (impressive for a toddler). My 8 year old then got stuck in to the playing; putting his toys in to Stinky's mouth so that they would fall out of Stinky's garbage truck etc. It was what you could call quite a hectic day as my husband had managed to drive in to a pothole and damage both wheels so in all the rush we failed to realise that the toy had batteries in for a demo mode. It was only the next day when my son realised that you had to pull the plastic tab out did Stinky come to life.....

Stinky coming to life after being an inanimate toy seemed to prove a huge problem for my nearly two year old as he froze in terror and pushed it away. He must have wondered what on earth was happening with Stinky suddenly "coming to life.'


The 8 year old absolutely loved Stinky's crazy movements and I must admit I was VERY impressed. This was every bit as good as it had appeared on the TV and I have included a video I got off YouTube to illustrate how good he is in real life.

Besides the fantastic robotics what I really loved about Stinky was the element of humour instilled in him! He had us all laughing. Particularly when he continuously passes wind and apologises by repeatedly saying "Excuse me!" It's also great fun putting toy cars in to his garbage truck as he laughs and says that it tickles him and then demands that you give him more.

It was also hilarious when he got up on to his back two wheels and sung and dance. The gruff voice he beholds also adds to how funny he is.

Around £65 for this amount of interaction, humour and robotic technology is great value and I will certainly be recommending Stinky to others.

And if you think that is good then Stinky even comes with a 20 minute DVD of him and his other friends having fun! I think this is great for children as it provides more of a background to Stinky and fuels their imagination when playing with him.

A few hours of watching us all laugh and gasp in awe at Stinky and my two year old came round to him again; suddenly becoming very possessive with him. The result is that I now have a war on my hands, as my two children rival to get to play with Stinky first.

Our conclusion: Simply AWESOME! We couldn't be any more impressed. In fact we think Stinky is even better in real life than he appears on TV. WE LOVE STINKY!!

Available from Argos
For more info on stockists please telephone: 01628 500303

Review: Vtech Storio

Vtech STORIO is an interactive animated story teller aimed at 3-7 year olds, which encourages kids to read along with their favourite characters whilst developing their understanding of letters, vowels and phonics. There's even parent friendly extras to help monitor their development.

We were sent the Vtech Storio to review and so here's our honest opinion:

We were first drawn to the Storio because of our love for 'Toy Story.' The book that comes in the Storio package is 'Toy Story 3' and so we couldn't wait to test it out. We pressed the 'on' button and immediately we were simply amazed by the quality of the film accompanying the story. It was like having a little TV in our hands. I love reading gadgets, I'm the proud owner of a Sony Reader; but I could say in some ways the Storio impressed me even more. Not only a story book but a running cartoon too!

To add to the delight of the above, we could even personalise the Storio with my sons name and play reading games. My two sons are nearly 2 and 8 and it was a constant fight between them who could use it first. At the moment my youngest son can only listen and watch but I am sure this will ease him in to the world of reading and really encourage him to want to read.

The touch screen was brilliant to use and you could either use it with your fingers or with the stylus pen that comes with the Storio. The fact that each word was being highlighted as it was read out made it great for my children not only to learn the words and see how they were pronounced but also to learn the tone of voice that is used when something exciting is happening. A skill that can often be ignored. Another brilliant factor was that if there was a difficult word, then they could just tap on it and up would pop the 'story dictionary' explaining what the word meant. They also really seemed to like the facility of being able to virtually turn over the page.

The reading games were a big hit with the children too and are a great tool for finding out how well your child comprehends the story.

I'm also surprised at the fact that we have had the Storio for around six weeks and still haven't had to change the battery! Putting the Storio on a dimmer light setting certainly seems to conserve the battery life and prevents the Storio from devouring batteries.

Our overall opinion:

Brilliant! The Storio really does manage to bring reading to life in a variety of interesting ways. With the ever expanding library of Storio such as Shrek, Dora the Explorer, Scooby Doo and Disney Fairies we are never going to get bored of this toy.

For more information please visit www.vtechuk.com

"Like" Us on Facebook!

Still trying to get our Facebook "Likes" on our Trendy Tree page up to 500 so we can give away the $50.00 Trendy Tree shopping spree. So if you haven't visited us there......drop by and click on the "Like" at the top of the page and get your name in the drawing for the shopping spree! Would be a great opportunity to pick up some nice Christmas items))

Trendy Tree - Pence Christmas Tree Farm Facebook Page

Sweet Craftiness: Outfit of the Month

There's nothing we love more here at the world of Sweet Craftiness than an outfit that is comfortable and yet stylish. In these crisp Autumn days it can be very hard deciding on what to wear, but browsing through the latest La Redoute catalogue we were actually at a loss at what we should prioritise to buy. Luckily for my readers I have teamed up with La Redoute to review some of the latest fashion must-haves to see if they live up to how good they look in the catalogue.

Feast your eyes on this month's outfit of the week: (dress pictured above). Short-Sleeved Dress. I LOVE it; it's bang on trend and team it up with a lovely long cardigan and you will be stylish and cosy. It's a really figure flattering dress as it flows over the stomach gently and yet allows easy movement because it is not too long. It's a great length and with some black tights and the black biker boots you are ready to go. If you want to be extra warm you could even wear leggings with it. On warmer days this dress will also look great with a simple denim jacket.

If you want to go for a more fitted look and really want to accentuate your petite waist then a belt is a great option. A particularly nice belt to suit this dress is the 'Plaited Leather belt with studs' (pictured below) item no 8252530.

This is a gorgeous plaited leather belt with metal studs, available in brown or black. You could either go with brown belt and brown biker boots or black belt and black biker boots. This belt is probably one of La Redoute's bestsellers as the belt is actually featured in their TV adverts. It costs £35 but is versatile enough to go with many different outfits and the outstanding quality means that it will last some time.

The biker boots below are brilliant value! They are short biker boots which is the 'in-trend' this season! They are easy to get on and off quickly too as they simply slip on. These are part of their 'Mini-Price' range and so at £29.00 are very affordable. More importantly they are VERY comfortable and I have used them for dashing about on the school run several times. They really kept my feet nice and warm too. One thing I did notice about them is because of the 2.5cm heel they are quite noisy to walk about on but that is my only minor quibble.



Hope you have enjoyed this month's 'Outfit of the Month' and keep your eyes peeled for next month's treat for the eyes!

For more info please visit www.laredoute.co.uk