The First Giants of the Dinosaur World - from Schleich

For 2016, Schleich has gone back to the era when prehistoric creatures first walked our planet with the introduction of ‘The First Giants’.  This cool collection includes five of the first giant prehistoric reptiles, each of which come complete with moving jaw and educational tag leaflet which contains facts about each dinosaur.  The species includes the Dilophosaurus, Dimetrodon, Barapasaurus, Herrerasaurus and Dunkleosteus and the RRPs range from £7.99 to £14.99.  

Freddy received a Dilophosaurus and a Dimetrodon model to play with. Both have the same high quality workmanship that you expect from Schleich, with great colours and excellent attention to detail. From the texture of the skin to the realistic mouth, with moving jaw, pointy teeth and life like tongue, they are excellent interpretations of the incredible dinosaurs that walked the planet around 250 million years ago.

The little leaflet, which is attached to the model's leg, gives you some facts about the dinosaur such as when it lived, its size, weight and what it would have eaten. There is also a mini, illustrated timeline, putting each dinosaur into the period in which it lived. This adds an element of education to the toys that budding paleontologists will love.

Schleich do a great range of dinosaur models that children can collect to make their own collection ready to play imaginary games of prehistoric life or to build their very own Jurassic World. Schleich toys last for years and are great value for money. My children have always loved their model animals, they are such wonderful toys for inspiring imaginative play and educational discovery.

Stockists include Amazon and many good toy and model shops. See the full range at www.schleich-s.com/en/GB/.

Discovering Clementoni Toys - Crazy Chic Nail Salon and Archeofun

Clementoni is a leading European toy brand, and both Kizzy and Freddy have been lucky enough to each try something from their brilliant range. With toys suitable from birth to 13,200 piece puzzles suitable for adults, they have an extensive selection, incorporating educational toys for young learners, creative toys, Disney toys, baby toys, electronic toys and a huge selection of puzzles.

Crazy Chic - My Beauty World Nail Salon

Anyone who enjoys make-up and beauty will love this nail salon set. It includes three bottles of nail varnish along with nail file, adhesive jewels, 3D stickers and glitter to customise the look. There is also a removable, handy nail polish hand dryer to speed up the drying process.

Everything fits into a work station, keeping it all safe and together. The full colour instruction booklet gives tips and ideas for funky manicures, and there are plenty of contents in the set for using time and time again.

Kizzy and her friend Georgia had some creative fun designing looks for each other using the nail varnish and the accessories.  It is a lovely set for girls to practice their varnishing skills and explore their own unique style.

Science & Play Archeofun - T-Rex and Triceratops

Freddy is learning all about dinosaurs in school for this term's project. He is really interested in this subject matter so when he received this Science and Play 2 in 1 Archeofun set he could not wait to get started.

The set contains two plaster blocks inside which are the 'bones' of two dinosaurs, a T-rex and a Triceratops. Using the hammer and chisel, children can play at being archaeologists and chip away at the plaster to reveal the bones inside, which are then gently removed. Once excavated and cleaned, they can be attached together to create two fantastic, glow in the dark dinosaur skeleton models.

Freddy absolutely loved chipping away at the plaster block and was thrilled to find the bones hidden inside. We started off indoors with a tray, but he generated a lot of mess with his over zealous hammering so we moved outdoors to continue the process. The instructions suggest laying down newspaper, but we didn't have any. I'd definitely recommend that or plastic sheeting because it does create a lot of thick, white dust.

It took him quite a while to find and remove all the bones, but he was persistent with the job in hand and really enjoyed the whole process of unearthing his skeleton. It's a great introduction to palaeontology for children.

The models are really lovely in their own right. They fit together nicely and are quite sturdy. Freddy took them into school for Show & Tell as he was excited to share his excitement with his classmates.

I really liked that this set not only had the fun of excavating the bones, it also then allowed Freddy to build the models, which are now on display in his bedroom. The set also includes some dinosaur fact cards and an informative instruction booklet, which explains about fossils, giving some scientific background to the toy.

Find out more about this exciting toy brand at Clementoni.com.