Fun and educational toys from Jaques of London #review

* Review - #gifted items

My boys are at different stages, being five and a half years apart, and Sullivan has certainly benefitted from having a bigger brother passing down toys to him to play with. He's been very good with sharing and it's quite lovely to see Ethan becoming excited again about old favourites now that his brother is interested in them.

At the same time, it is nice to get Sullivan some things just for him; every child is different and has different interests and favourites. If it's possible, Sullivan LOVES dinosaurs even more than his big brother did!

I was excited to be introduced to Jaques of London - a UK toys and games manufacturer, first established in 1795. The company is family-run, having been passed down from father to son for over 220 years. They have a brilliant range of wooden toys and games to suit different ages, many with an educational element to them.

I picked something for each of my boys to review and a few weeks in, they are still being used - which I think is the best testiment of all!

For Sullivan, I chose the Dinosaur Car Park. It's well-built, colourful and combines cars and dinosaurs - what more could an almost three year old want?! He squealed when he first saw this and loves watching the cars zoom down the slides, and even lines the dinosaurs up at the end to be knocked over.

This set is the perfect gift and a great value set, with the ramp, four cars and siz dinosaurs, at just £11.99 (current sale price).

For Ethan, I opted for the Magnetic Reward Chart. Ethan does well with structure and has expressed interest in doing chores to earn some pocket money - plus we can do with all the encouragement we can to get him to brush his teeth every morning without moaning!

We have this chart hung in our kitchen / dining room, and Ethan can add the magnetic thumbs up and star counters to the chart when he completes an activity. It comes with some specific tasks but you can also write on the wipe-clean surface, to tailor it to your child and the things they want to do - and how you wish to reward them.

I like how this gives you a clear template to work from, but with the options to customise it to suit your needs. Ethan has really taken to it, so the look, design and concept is very much working for us. Long may it continue!

Another great idea, for your own child or as a gift, it also comes beautifully packaged and is worth the price of £10.99, hands down.

Here's a big more background on the company:

Jaques is the oldest games company and sports manufacturer in the world. Passed down from father to son for eight generations, Jaques have been responsible for inventing many well known games, such as Croquet, Ping Pong, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Tiddledy Winks, The Staunton Chess Set, Happy Families, Snap and many more.

It's been great getting to find out about Jaques of London and seeing the wide selection of toys and games on offer. I will be visiting the site again for Christmas gift inspiration for my friend's children, as the quality is great and there's a lot of great ideas to choose from.

Special offer: you can recive 15% of your order from Jaques of London simply by following this link!

* Items featured were #gifted for purpose of review, but all opinions and content remain my own.