Djeco Jigsaws In For Christmas 2006

We have added some of the most beautiful jigsaw puzzles from Djeco to our range just in time for buying Christmas presents! All of the puzzles are very stylisha nd the drawings have more than enough detail to keep a child interested.

The Djeco Romantic Castle

The Djeco Medieval Castle jigsaw.

The Djeco Ballerina and Flower Jigsaw. The Djeco Sorcerer and The Slamander jigsaw.

High Tea Time for this Wooden Tea Set

Role play is so important for younger children and we have taken two lovely tea sets from the Djeco range. They are simply the most georgeous sets and we find people will just not put them down - and the children haven't even got a look in yet!

Djeco Birthday Party Tea Set is a pink tea tray with tea pot, cups and saucers sugar bowls and a large chocolate birthday cake complete with candles. Where this set really stands out though is in the details, there are two wooden tea bags, four wooden sugar lumps and two spoons complete with flower decoration. Perfect for birthdays, or Mondays, or Tuesdays or...

Djeco Lunch With Friends set consists of a of a cute little table and two place settings - a knife and fork, plate, fabric napkin and wooden napkin ring, beaker, bread roll and one jug.

You can buy the wooden tea sets by Djeco at the kidEstore.co.uk educational toy store where you will find them in the wooden toy section.

Stylish Wooden Construction Set for Younger Builders

For younger builders we have taken two items from the Mecano range from Djeco. They are a great alternative to Lego and other plastic construction sets. Both sets have a lovely cartoon quality and they really do make you want to play with them.

Djeco Super Mecano is a 36 piece wooden construction set with simple colourful instructions for five different models - three wooden cars, a wooden helicopter and a wooden plane. The pieces connect via slots, magnetic joints or wooden pegs which are fitted using the supplied wooden hammer. Super Mecano is suitable from 4 years.

Djeco Duo Mecano is another wooden construction set which comes with instructions for two vehicles - a fire engine and a tow truck. This set comes with a wooden screwdrive to help teach fine motor skills.

Both sets come in a lovely hard case with magnetic catch and carrying handle to allow you to take your constructions on the road or just for neat storage.

You can buy the Mecano sets by Djeco at the kidEstore.co.uk educational toy store where you will find them in the wooden toy section.

Read our press release.

Funky Kids Knitting Kits for Long Winters Nights

With the long winters nights approaching we have added two new items from Alex Toys to our needlecraft kits.

Cool Spool Knitting is a bright and colourful French Knitting kit with which you can make bracelets, broches and other fabulous accessories with yarn.

The kit includes yards of yarn in 5 colours, wooden buttons, pony beads, easy instructions and comes with a wooden French knitting tool.

My Chunky Funky Scarf is a more traditional beginners knitting set. With simple instructions you can learn to knit a scarf and a hat - the chunky needles and fat yarn make it easy for little hands. The kit comes in red ot blue and includes set of wooden knitting needles and lots of wool.

Both items can be found with other needlework kits in the creative section at kidEstore.co.uk.

Funky Little Wooden Baby Walker at kidEstore.co.uk

For people looking for a great little wooden baby walker to encourage their children to keep on walking, but also want them to get some fun when they need a bit of a rest we think we have the perfect item.

The wooden activity baby walker from Pintoy is a bright and colourful with a great twisty clicker, push beeper and colour spinner. Not only do they provide entertainment for your little one they develop hand eye coordination too!

We even sell a great little bag of wooden blocks to fill it with - the perfect cargo!

You can buy the Pintoy Wooden Baby Activity Walker at kidEstore.co.uk.

Music training boosts the brain

A study published in the scientific journal Brain (http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/awl247v1) demostrates an improvement in memory and learning ability in children who received music lessons over a period of just one year.

The children were aged 4-6 and showed improvements in brain function in just 4 months.

We believe this is another study which appears to show that children should be exposed to a wide range of stimulating activity to fully develop their mental potential.

We carry great musical instruments from Melissa and Doug to help your children give their brains a workout!

The Melissa and Doug Band in a Box set is a full band, er...., in a box! Comes complete with tambourine, pair of colourful maracas, a triangle, wooden clacker, 2 cymbals and a set of tone blocks.

The Melissa and Doug Beginner Band set is a smaller set of wooden musical instruments again packaged in an attractive box.

Bead Frame is a Great First Wooden Toy For Toddlers

We think our wooden Beadframe from Smartframes is one of the best first wooden toys for toddlers.

It is bright and colourful to retain attention - it even has a smiley caterpillar face for extra play value! The three twisted wires provide plenty of challenge without being over complicated.

At approx six inches by three it will always sit neatly on the shelf if junior ever finishes playing with it!

Cambridge Brainbox Electronics Kits at kidEstore.co.uk

We have just added some Cambridge Brainbox electronics kits to our Science section.

The kits are very educational, supporting key stages of the curriculum and are also bright and fun for children to play with. They all come with a clear perspex backboard onto which circuits are built.

All of the connectors and switches in the kits are pre-built (so no assembly required) and are usually on a plastic bar with press studs for simple connection to the backboard. There are no fiddly wires, nuts and bolts to work with here.

Our four kits cover a range of subjects such as sensors, controlled vehicles, switches, lights, motors and fans.

We have the Cambridge Brainbox Cars and Boats Kit, Cambridge Brainbox Primary Electronics Kit, Cambridge Brainbox Primary Plus Kit and the Cambridge Brainbox Sensors and Controls Kit.

We think these are great educational toys and our chief toy tester has not stopped playing with his!

New toy information blog features Didicar

Our Didicar was featured over on the new toy news blog 'Toyology'.

The blog features details of the latest toys and games. It will also feature reviews and competitions in the near future.

Read Toyology here.

Environmental Blog Lists Pandabo

Environmental blog treehugger has listed the environmentally friendly Pandabo bamboo toy from kidEstore.co.uk.

Read the article here.