10meters.com

What young boy doesn’t like dinosaurs? They are big, fearsome and incredibly cool, well in this My First Dinosaur Science Kit by Scientific Explorer then you can turn your child into an archaeologist and get them learning new skills while also being able to build their very own dinosaur skeleton at the end of it!

Basically the kits is a series of dinosaur bones set into a block of plaster, then your child can use the tools (and safety glasses!) provided to start to chip away at the plaster and unearth the bones, then they have to try and figure out where on the skeleton the bone would go. It sounds boring, but to a young boy then it is super exciting!

It also teaches them patience as it will take a while for even the most determined young child to pick their way through the plaster to get all the bones. It will make a mess though, so set out some newspaper for them to work on or something like that, and you’ll need to have a good vacuum up afterwards. It is well worth a bit of mess though to see their face as they unearth another bone!

Bear in mind that the skeleton is only for display afterwards, it isn’t strong enough for them to start charging around the living room with, and if they are rough and try to force the bones out of the plaster rather than excavate them then they may break a bone or two, but a bit of glue will sort that right out.

It has some great reviews online, and as long as you don’t mind the mess or maybe having to glue some broken pieces together, then this My First Dino Kit is a great buy.

>> See the full product details here

Here is what some of the other people who have bought this are saying:

"This was a present for the grandkids. They worked at this for hours (age 4 and 6 ) and never lost interest. One word of caution: It is messy. This is probably a better outside toy where you can hose everyone and everything down."

"Beautiful product. It shows clearly the way dinosaurs were discovered. The product has 2 dinosaurs and glasses for eyes protection."

"This was a gift for my almost 5 yr old grandson and he opened it this morning and just loved it. My daughter said it was a lot of fun for him and a lot less messy than some others he has had. All in all, it was a huge success. Thanks!"

>> See the full reviews here

This concludes our My First Dino Kit review, hopefully you have found it useful, but if you are still struggling to decide what to choose then head on over to Amazon.com and browse through their full range of fantastic toys.

This is the Melissa & Doug ‘Band in a Box’ beginner band set. It says it is a 10 piece set, but by that they mean there are actually ten parts to it, not ten instruments!

This is one of those toys that you know your child will love, but you know you will quickly regret after about 24 hours when you realise giving them 6 different ways to make more noise was not a good idea! In the kit you get a triangle, a tambourine, a set of maracas, some hand cymbals, a clacker (the one you shake from side to side and the wood knocks together and it clacks) and then another wooden instrument you can hit.

The instruments are made from metal or wood, not plastic, and they all seem to be sturdy apart from the tambourine which people report the covering on that breaking after a few days. Yes the other parts can be broken too, especially if your child decides it is good fun to hit the maracas on the table for instance! But while plastic instruments might be more durable, then there is something about traditional wooden toys that I personally find appealing.

The Melissa & Doug ‘Band in a Box’ only costs about $18 if you buy it from Amazon.com, and if your child likes music, or even just likes to make noise, then this is a great present for them!

>> See the full product details here

Here is what some of the other people who have bought this are saying:

"We love this product! My 1 year old loves to shake the maracas, and the clacker….and even the tambourine! We thought she’d like it, but did not think she’d be REALLY into it until a few months down the line. But she is."

"This is the best looking music set for young children I have seen. My three yr. old loves all the instruments, but her favorite is the triangle. We keep them in the box they came in. It’s nice to buy a product and be able to also use the packaging it came in."

"My 18 month old little girl LOVES these instruments! We bang and shake them in concert and try to keep a beat. All the instruments are well-made and durable except for the tamborine. The flimsy paper easily punctured and ripped – probably not a good choice of material for an instrument that is made to be used by little folks."

>> See the full reviews here

This concludes our review of the Melissa & Doug beginner band set, hopefully you’ve found it useful, but if you are still struggling to decide what toys to pick then head on over to Amazon.com and browse through their full range.

There is something about a jack-in-the-box that seems to captivate young children, and this Jester jack-in-the-box by Schylling is a traditional, well-made version that will last for years and years.

This isn’t some plastic throwaway toy, as I said this is a traditional version, which to mean means having an actual jester in the box, not some cartoon character or weird thing, and it has to have a metal painted box, why? Well so it lasts until they are an adult of course! Most toys nowadays are going to be in the bin within a year, let’s face it, but this is durable enough to last even the harshest abuse a youngster can throw at it, and still look fantastic when they are cleaning out the garage in 30 years time and stumble upon it.

It also plays the traditional ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ which some jack-in-the-boxes seem to change. You wind the handle, hear the tune and then the ‘jack’ pops out, you finish the song and hear a click and then you can put him back into his box and start over! Yes listening for the click is hard for a youngster and it may annoy them at first, but it is up to you as the adult to teach them to listen for it.

It has great reviews on Amazon.com with most of them giving 4 or 5 stars, a few people reported paint defects etc, but if you buy through Amazon then they will quickly and simply exchange anything that is faulty!

>> See the full product details here

Here is what some of the other people who have bought this are saying:

"This is truly a great toy. No wonder it won the Dr. Toy award! We bought this for our little one when he was two and he just loved it from the start."

"Thought the toys I had as a child were lost forever, however this one comes very close! Solid tin box with very happy looking clown and the obligatory “pop goes the weasel”! My daughter loves it."

"My son LOVES this toy. He is 2 1/2 and it only took him a time or two to figure out how to get Jack back in the box by himself. He plays with it all the time, and never fails to get excited when Jack jumps out at him."

>> See the full reviews here

This concludes our Schylling Jack-In-The-Box review, hopefully you have found it useful, but if you are still struggling to decide what to choose then head on over to Amazon.com and browse through their full range of toys.

This is another of the games in the ThinkFun range, and at first glance I think it is going to be another winner!

This is the Chocolate Fix puzzle by ThinkFun and yes if you look at the picture you can see the playing pieces are actually little chocolates in little cases! Don’t bite them though as they are plastic, and any child young enough to bite them will soon learn not to again!

The style of game is similar to the others, it is easy to grasp the idea but hard to actually complete the puzzles. You start off with a few of the chocolates on the board and have clues about where to place some of the others, then you need to work out where to place the remaining chocolates based on the clues or by deduction based on the pattern forming on the grid.

There are 3 different colors of chocolates and 3 different shapes for each, and it is the color or the shape, or both of those attributes, that help you decide where to place it. As with all of these types of games/puzzles then you get a good few puzzles to try (40) and they vary in difficulty so they can keep even the brightest young child stumped for hours or even weeks!

The parts in this Chocolate Fix game are durable and great to look at, and the twist of using little pieces of candy as pieces makes it a really interesting game to have on the side when people come round (yes adults love it too).

The reviews for it are fantastic and almost everyone I’ve seen who has purchased it thinks it is fantastic value for money, well made and great fun for kids from even as low as 5 years old to play with (they will stick with the first few puzzles though!).

>> See the full product details here

Here is what some of the other people who have bought this are saying:

"What an amazing game. Your kids will accidentally use their brains and not even realize it because it is so much fun. I secretly play the game at night and it is such a fun challenge."

"This gift for my 12 year old was a big hit – easy to learn – fun to play – challenging on the later pages. It’s a single player deduction game – place the pieces based on the clues given. Everyone loved it – adults, 12, 10 and 7 year olds."

"This was a great Christmas gift! Although I gave it to my 12 year old, I played it more. Ditto with the other “kids” who received this! My 6 year old niece liked playing with the Beginner levels, her 9 year old cousin the Intermediate level and adults with the Advanced and Expert levels."

>> See the full reviews here

This concludes our review of the Chocolate Fix game from ThinkFun. We hope you have found enough information to help you decide if it is right for you, if you are still unsure then visit Amazon.com and browse the thousands of other games they have there.