Two Toys Your Child Will Like Better Than The Box They Came In

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OK, hands up if you’re currently sitting in a house crammed full of toys… but, no matter how many you have your child still just wants to play in the box they came in, instead? [*Raises hand*] Playing in boxes has been something of a theme of our parenting life ever since Max was old enough to crawl into one; which is why, when Wicked Uncle got in touch and said they reckoned their toys might just tempt him back out, I was intrigued. And, well, doubtful, let’s be honest. I mean, just look at how much he was having in that thing:

Did he ever get out, though? Well, yes, he did:

At four-and-a-half, we’re finding Max is at a bit of a tricky stage when it comes to toys. He’s outgrown a lot of his “toddler” toys now (Although any suggestion that we have a clear-out and pass them on to someone else will instantly have him insisting how much he loves them…), but is still too young for some of the “big kid” things he sees.

His longtime passion for building, however, is still going strong, and no matter what we give him to play with, he’ll just try to build with it (Leave him in a room for a few minutes and I guarantee you’ll come back to find he’s gathered every moveable object in it and used them all to make a “house” for himself…), so we decided to lean into that with this Intro to Engineering kit, which allows him to build until his heart’s content:

This kit is aimed at age 5 and up, so he did need some help from us to figure it out, but he had a huge amount of fun letting his imagination run wild and finding out what he could create, and I think it’s the kind of toy he’ll be interested in for a long time to come, rather than just using once and then forgetting about it, as is so often the case.

For our second pick, we decided to go with these Silly Faces Bathtime Stickers, which, I mean, you can totally see why a four-year-old would love these, can’t you? I quite liked them myself, to be honest.

(That’s supposed to be Terry on the far right. An excellent likeness, I’m sure you’ll agree…)

Although these are referred to as “stickers”, they’re only actually “sticky” when they’re wet, so they stick easily to the tiles around the bath, but come off easily, too. So don’t worry: no bathrooms were harmed in the making of this post. Needless to say, Max absolutely loved them: there are endless combinations of faces to make with them, and because they’re so easy to use, they’re a great way to persuade your child to get into the bath.

As for getting them back out again, though, well, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that one. Max is currently going through a phase where he refuses to do both – so, we have to beg and wheedle him into the bath, but, once he’s actually in it, he’d happily stay there until he turned into a prune – and while these definitely made him excited for bath time, let’s just say there were some strong complaints made to the management when it was time to get out again.

You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Both of these would make excellent gifts for the 4-5 year olds in your life, but Wicked Uncle sell a huge range of other gifts, covering other age ranges, too: take a look at their website here!