I’m a huge, huge fan of encouraging imaginative play. I think it so important for kids to use their imagination and get creative when they are playing. Harrison, Alex, and Benjamin have always loved role play – their toy kitchens, pushchairs and toy shops have always been up there as some of their favourite toys.

When this selection of Casdon toys that mimic everyday activities such as cooking, cleaning and shopping turned up, they were dead excited aNd got straight to work testing them out.

The Casdon shopping trolley ( £14.69  from Amazon) is quite fiddly to put together, taking Graham a good fifteen minutes or so with the help of a screwdriver and a hammer. We found that one or two of the wheels wouldn’t stay on properly, so we ended up using a blob of superglue to hold them on. Other than that, it’s a good, robust toy. It’s aimed at children aged 3-8, but to be honest, I don’t think that Ben (aged 3, admittedly tall, but not that tall!) would have long with it before he was too tall to play comfortably. It comes with a couple of pieces of plastic fruit, a couple of plastic tins and a fair few cardboard play food boxes that do need putting together. These aren’t particularly sturdy and won’t last long, but they’re all household brands that most children will recognise, and it adds to the authenticity of play.

Something which has gone particularly well with the shopping trolley is the huge box of Casdon Play Food (£17.89 from Amazon). This set contains 44 pieces of play food and is perfect for toy shops and kitchens. Whilst it’s probably not the best quality play food I’ve ever come across (if you squeeze it, it sort of collapses), for the price it’s well worth it. There’s fruit, veg, meat and tins, and all the compartments to put together a burger or a sandwich, which the kids really enjoyed.

The final thing that we had was a mop and bucket, inspired by the iconic Henry Hoover We have one of these already, in the cleaning set we reviewed a while back. The kids absolutely playing with it, so having a second one to stop the arguments has been a blessing. It’s almost, almost, encouraged them to clean up after themselves. Not quite though – it’s not a miracle worker It’s a great little toy though – you can buy it from Amazon for £10.09.

Whilst Casdon toys aren’t the sturdiest toys on the market, they’re purse-friendly, encourage role play and imaginative play and are great fun!

*We were sent these products free of charge for the purpose of this review. All words and thoughts are our own and have not been influenced in any way. Contains affiliate links.

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