Toys R Us: VTech Storio Animated Reading System

The VTech Storio is a new children’s interactive animated storyteller, with many educational activities, aimed at 3-7 year olds.

I think I must have had my head buried in the sand over the last few years, or perhaps it's because Betty is now old enough to benefit from a toy of this nature - but WOW, I had no idea such toys existed!

Opening up each Toyologist box is always an exciting time in the Button household, specially when we find products like this one.  I have to admit I set the Storio up and had a good look at it before I allowed Betty to get her little mitts on it.  I wanted to check it's suitability, and having gone through every activity that this Reading System has to offer I was more than happy to hand it over to Betty.  My only concern was that it comes with the Toy Story 3 cartridge, and I have written before on my blog about how we had an abortive trip to the cinema to see this film, because Betty didn't like the 'scary baby'.  But the fact that it was Toy Story didn't bother her and she casually remarked 'this is what I saw at the cinema and it made me cry' before promptly getting back to listening to the story on screen and then playing the many educational reading games.  She was amazed by the touch screen, and I was amazed by the quality on screen.

The VTech Storio encourages your child to read along with the story, whilst developing their understanding of phonics, letters and vowels.  This product is perfect for Betty's age (4) as she is so excited about reading anyway, so this is a fabulous additional tool - it is lots of fun and educational too. 

Betty loves it so much that she has asked grandparents for some additional cartridges to go with it - in particular, Olivia Takes Ballet - she loves Olivia and she loves ballet!  There are many other cartridges that can be purchased: Dora the Explorer, Disney Fairies, Mr Men, Shrek, Scooby Doo - something to suit everyone!

Fantastic! And Toys R Us currently have it on offer for £39.99! (normally retails at £59.99)

Toys R Us: Old MacDonald Lotto game

This is a great lotto game which the whole family can play.  Well, I say the whole family - we made the mistake of trying to involve young Dolly (18 months) but she became a real hindrance and had to be banished to another room with her granny, whilst Betty, Tom and I continued the game in a civilised manner.

Betty loves this game.  It is a very simple idea, but very effective and lots of fun, and easy to grasp for little people. 

The game comes with four picture boards and you have to match the pictures on your playing board to the farm cards.  It's great for exercising memory, observation, and matching skills. 

This gets a big thumbs up from us.  The only thing I would say is that I think the boards should be magnetic.

Toys R Us: VTech Kidizoom Video Camera

This Kidizoom video camera is child-friendly, durable and easy to use.  You can record videos, take photos and then edit what you have done with the built-in video editor - and you can add funny stamps and borders to your movies for rather a professional finish.  It features face-tracking that allows you to add moving animations to a moving picture - pretty amazing!  And to top it all, it comes with 3 built-in games, which allow you to put yourself in the game!


It has a 1.8" colour screen and 256MB internal memory and you are able to connect it to your TV and PC.

I am pretty overwhelmed with this product, and Betty has hardly had a look-in since it arrived!  It costs £44.94 (special offer from Toys R Us) and for what it can do I think that it is worth every penny!

Toys R Us: Moon Sand Sweet Delights Shake Maker

For a child who spends most of her time making pretend food (mainly fairy cakes) from playdough and mud and plastercine and making them look pretty with little pom poms and glitter and stickers etc, this Moon Sand set was absolutely perfect for Betty. 

We (me, Betty and Dolly) had such fun, moulding different fruits and chocolate, then placing them in the blender with a scoop of ice-cream, whizzing them around and then making some colourful fruit shakes by placing it in the dessert glasses and decorating with straws and berries and umbrellas.

This set comes with a working blender, moulds, scoops, spoons, straws, umbrellas, dessert glasses, 3 colours of Moon Sand, and a storage box.

We all thought this product was fantastic! -  I would recommend this toy for any child who loves pretend cooking and likes to get creative and have lots of fun!  Priced at £14.99 I think it is very reasonable.

A Year in Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem

Over the stream and across the field is the world of Brambly Hedge... And they are celebrating 30 years!

When I received an email offering this new series of Brambly Hedge books to review, I was rather excited. I vaguely remembered the Brambly Hedge mice when I was a child but had not seen or heard of them since.

This beautiful box-set consisting of four books (Summer/Autumn/Winter/Spring Story) arrived in the post and I had a flick through them, I was immediately catapulted back to my childhood and felt very nostalgic and warm. The illustrations are absolutely magical and beautiful and colourful, and the stories themselves are completely captivating for a child, and adult. They make you yearn for homemade bread and blackberry jam, and big roaring fires, and hot cups of tea.  They make you feel very cosy and safe. 
These busy mice live in the roots and trunks of trees of Brambly Hedge. They collect berries and nuts and make homemade pickles and jams. And when they are not working hard they have lots of fun and adventures too.

This is an extract from the Winter Story:

When the Toadflax family went down to breakfast, they found the kitchen dark and still. Mrs Toadflax put fresh wood on the fire and set Clover to work with the toasting fork. Soon they were all sitting round the table, eating hot buttered toast, drinking blackberry leaf tea and making plans for the day ahead.

The snow was thicker than the mice had expected. All the downstairs windows along the hedgerow were covered with snow and many of the upper ones, too, were hidden in deep drifts. They leaned out of their bedroom windows to wave and call to their friends. "Enough for a Snow Ball, wouldn't you say?" called Toadflax to Mrs Apple. "A Snow Ball!" echoed the little mice , gleefully.

This collection of books is absolutely adorable and I would recommend to anyone wanting to give a truly lovely present.

Tube Town Pop-Up Playhouses

Today we received an inflatable Disney Princess Castle from the Ninja Corporation, as part of their new Tube Town collection.  

Coincidentally I had been looking for a playhouse for Betty and Dolly that we could use inside during the cold, wet, dark winter months, and so when an email pinged into my inbox offering up this product for review I was thrilled.  

Having studied the dimensions of the castle and looked at the pictures, before its much anticipated arrival, I was really surprised at how small the package was when it did arrive.  Once the castle had been unpacked and blown-up, which took just a few minutes, using the speedy hand pump supplied with the product, the castle was huge! - and looks much bigger than it does in the pictures.

I was worried that when erected the inflatable pop-up construction would be a bit flimsy and not that stable, but I was wrong,  the castle stood tall and strong and was able to withstand two children, tearing through it, and having a few scraps about who was going to go in which bit.  In fact, a big plus point for me is that there are no hard poles, which in past experiences of other play tents, have easily bent or snapped under a little bit of pressure from a toddler.  

I was surprised at how much detail there was on the castle (which was difficult to see on the images) - there were rose bushes, birds, princesses etc, which all added to the excitement for Betty and Dolly.  I was also surprised at just how quickly the castle deflated - I was expecting it to be like an airbed which seems to take forever, but this product deflated itself in seconds once the valve had been released.

Ok, so this product may look tacky, but I quickly learnt that tacky is what children love, and Betty and Dolly are absolutely thrilled with their new playhouse!  And the great thing is that you can pack it away in seconds, put it into the little bag, and pop it in the cupboard, with it hardly taking up any space.

The castle was erected and being played in, when the Tesco delivery man came with our shopping, and even he was rather excited about it and asked me for details of where he can get one for his grandchildren!

Tube Town... a new era in playhouses - this is what it says on their press release:

The sturdy construction relies on unique double tube technology, with a heavy duty outer tube protecting the inner core. Tube Town playhouses are inflated in just a couple of minutes through specially designed valves using the high-volume hand pumped included. Whilst inflation is extremely quick, deflation is even faster thanks to a rapid release valve. 

Each Tube Town playhouse comes with its own storage bag for easy carrying between friends, child minders, grandparents and even holidays abroad.

Complete with ground pegs for windy days, Tube Town playhouses are durable and practically puncture proof, ensuring that children have a safe place for their creativity and imagination to thrive. Finally their lightweight design offers immense flexibility when playing outdoors – if it begins to rain, they can simply be deflated and re-inflated indoors or even picked up and brought inside.

The range (to be launched in mid-November) includes a Disney Princess Castle, priced at £79.99 (pictured above) and a Gingerbread House, priced at £49.99 (pictured in the video clip below).  More products will be added throughout 2011.  Stockists include Amazon.co.uk and Toys R Us.

Night Night Sweet Dreams book by Forever Friends

Forever Friends are launching a new children’s bedtime book called Night, Night Sweet Dreams, and are also running a campaign around children’s sleep habits, looking at the challenges of getting the kids to sleep, particularly around the clocks changing.

We have been sent the book to review, and Betty has asked that it be read to her almost every night since we received it last week.  She is enchanted by the fact that when she falls asleep her bed turns into a boat and that she might go off on lots of adventures like the little bear does in the book.  It is a lovely, calm, bedtime story and is a winner in this household. And Betty did actually say last night 'I want to go straight off to sleep like the little bear' - so it is obviously having the desired effect!
Forever Friends are holding a live Twitter Q&A with the Channel 4 children's sleep expert, Chireal Shallow, tomorrow on Hallmark's twitter page (www.twitter.com/hallmarkuk) from 11am tomorrow if you are interested in joining in.

ELC: Kidizoom Pink Digital Camera

Now this may seem a little over the top, but this is seriously the best kids' toy I have ever seen! It is a highly durable 2 mega pixel camera with zoom and built in flash and a dual viewfinder. It has a colour screen, SD card slot and changeable face plates.

Not only does it take pictures but you can also take video clips, and play 5 different games on it!  And the best bit, is that you can edit the photos you have taken, on the camera - you can add fun effects (such as face distortion and kaleidoscope effects), stamps and borders.  Betty and I have such fun with the edits!  

You can then connect the camera (lead is supplied) to a TV and view your photos and video clips on a larger screen.  It also comes with a USB cable so that you are able to download the finished photos onto the computer.

This camera is child-friendly and relatively easy for a four year to pick up its functions.  I am camera mad anyway so when this arrived for Betty from ELC, I was completely overcome with excitement.  And Betty, who has watched Mummy with her camera time and time again, is thrilled to be taking her own photos with her very own bright pink, fabulous camera!

It retails at £49.99 and I think it is worth every penny - it is the best!