Kidizoom Video Camera

We love the VTech Kidizoom video camera! While the film quality is not going to rival a 'proper' camcorder it is good enough to keep children entertained and they can add silly effects to their films too. The camera is also capable of taking still photos and there are a few basic games to up the fun factor. It is perfect for 5 year olds, being very easy to use (both in terms of holding the camera and recording functions) and virtually impossible to break. You can read our full review here.

Lego

Lego is almost universally popular with boys of all ages. If you want to encourage their imagination then a big box of miscellaneous Lego bricks is an excellent buy. But boys of this age tend to like the themed sets too. Lego Cars 2 and Ninjago are currently very popular but City, Harry Potter and Star Wars are enduring big hits that they will be playing with for years to come.

We buy all of our Lego - and we have enough sets to rival the Lego Shop - from Amazon, who are almost always significantly cheaper than everywhere else for Lego, especially during off peak buying periods (i.e, most times other than Christmas).

Frustration is a slightly updated version of Ludo, where you have to move your four pieces around the board and get them home without any other players landing on you and sending them back! The 'slam-o-matic' in the centre is handy because you don't have to worry about the dice getting lost/rolling under a sofa and my boys both love the addition of the genie, getting overly excited when the second dice comes up with the genie icon. Lots of fun and good practise for introducing taking turns, strategy and not sulking when you lose.

Hungry Hippos

Simple, straightforward and fun for all the family (as well as silly and frantic!). One of the nice things about Hungry Hippos is that there is very little skill involved so everyone has a chance to win. A must have game for the family toy cupboard.

Rush Hour Junior

Rush Hour Junior is a puzzle game, with four levels of difficulty, where the object is to slide the various sized vehicles around the board until you are able to release the ice cream van. The recommended age is 6 to 8 years, but I'm recommending it as a toy for 5 year olds because 6 year old Tiny Toy Reviewer #1 (who is admittedly quite logically minded) didn't find it a great challenge. He did, however, really enjoy it and sat solidly for 2 hours working his way through the cards and I'd highly recommend it to other parents. He now uses the board and pieces to try and come up with his own puzzles.

Doctor Who toys

Doctor Who is very popular with Tiny Toy Reviewer #1 and his peers, and there are some nice products available which make great presents for 5 year old boys. A Doctor Who sonic screwdriver (read our review) is a must for role play of course, and Dr Who action figures are good for imaginative games.

For households with a Wii, I really rate the Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Wii remote (at present, it's only £10 at Amazon). This robust and impressive looking wii remote has all the same buttons and functions as a 'normal' one and can be charged by attaching it to the console with a USB cable.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter gifts are good for 5 year olds because it is something that is likely to retain its appeal for a few years. Both of my boys love their Harry Potter dress up kit (review here) and it was reasonably priced too. And naturally there are plenty of good Harry Potter Lego sets for 5 year olds just getting into the world of Hogwarts too.

Dinosaur Toys

Dinosaurs are still popular with this age group and there are some well priced gifts available. The dinosaur wooden construction kits cost less than £3, are simple to put together with a little supervision, and the finished product can be proudly displayed in their bedroom. Or a Dig it Dinosaur kit will give them the chance to play palaeontologist as they excavate their very own dinosaur fossil skeleton from a block of fake rock.

There are some great art books available for kids. The scratch and sketch books (read our review here) are really good and are themed on everything you could possibly wish for, from pirates and princesses to Spongebob and Batman. Talented young artists would probably cope well with any of the books in the series, but if you aren't sure if they can draw confidently enough to make a good freehand copy of a picture then there are 'trace along' books in the series too. Scratch and Sketch Dino Dudes, for example, has white outlines for the children to scratch away and has lots of interesting facts about dinosaurs too.