Lego

If you are a fan of Lego, then 6 years old is a great age to be buying for because they are much more able to cope with the bigger, more exciting Lego sets at that age. Like most families, we tend to ignore the guided age on the box (I've yet to meet a 6 year old who couldn't cope with a recommended for ages 8+ set), and personal favourite themes in this house are currently Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lego City and Pirates of the Caribbean. You can read our Lego reviews to get a better idea of which sets we rate highly (more reviews to be added soon).

For the best deals, we almost always buy from Amazon. The Lego Hogwarts Castle, for example, has a recommended retail price of £102.99 but can be as low as £69 on Amazon (prices fluctuate though and really exceptional deals can be harder to find towards Christmas).

Sea Monkeys

Who doesn't love sea monkeys? At 6, a child is able to follow the instructions to hatch their own aquatic pets with minimal supervision. Most sea monkey kits work very well (it takes about 10 days to hatch them) and it is both entertaining and educational to watch them get slowly bigger each day. You will need to feed them small quantities of food through a pipette every couple of days, so it also makes a good early introduction to pet ownership.

Transformers

In my experience of 6 year old boys, there is a sudden resurgence of interest in Transformers at this age. There are plenty of different figures available with prices from £10 to £60.But there is real variation in how good the toys are, so if you are buying online take advantage of the online customer reviews to avoid disappointed children!

Star Wars

Star Wars is another genre which seems to be almost universally popular with boys. As mentioned, we have plenty of Star Wars Lego because the smaller more child-friendly sets are all very well priced and we've received many as gifts over the years. They are enduringly popular with Tiny Toy Reviewer #1 and have received consistent play time. I would also highly recommend the Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary and the Lego Star Wars: The Character Encyclopaedia. These beautifully photographed and illustrated books will keep any Star Wars fan interested for hours (great for encouraging independent reading), and come with exclusive Luke Skywalker and Han Solo figures which on their own are probably worth the cover price!

If you want to avoid Lego, then a toy lightsaber makes a great gift. There are fancy ones available with lights and sound effects, but I would recommend the basic ones you can pick up in the supermarket toy aisles for about £8. We have a couple of extending lightsabers and they are durable, do the job and are fantastic for role play.

Bananagrams

Bananagrams is a little like a simpler, faster paced and more child-friendly version of scrabble. Brighter 6 year olds will really enjoy it and it is an excellent way to encouraging their spelling skills. The customer reviews are universally good and it is the winner of many awards. Most retailers have it for full retail, which is about £16, but we bought ours for £8 on Amazon (where Bananagrams has over 200 5 star reviews).

Paper Jamz Guitar

I'm sure I am not the only parent whose 6 year old son has dreams of being a rock star. A Paper Jamz guitar is an affordable and fun way to give them a little experience of what it is like to play a genuine electric guitar. There are a three pre-loaded songs and there is a freestyle mode where they can make their own compositions using real chords. Read our big review here.

Dig a Dinosaur

There are some really great Dig a Dinosaur kits available which will give aspiring palaeontologists a taste of what it is like to unearth a dinosaur fossil. While the recommended age is 8+ many 6 year old boys will be capable of using the digging tool provided to unearth a 20cm dinosaur skeleton from a plaster block. Dinosaurs currently available are a triceratops, stegosaurus and a T-rex.

Wooden Dinosaur Kit

These easy to assemble wooden dinosaur skeletons are fun to put together and will look great on display afterwards. At about £3 each they are a nice, affordable gift. If your child isn't into dinosaurs then there are owls, spiders, snakes, vehicles and many other wooden construction kits available too.

Galt Connecta Straws

My boys have never experienced the joy of Connecta Straws, but I spent many happy hours playing with them as a child and was pleased to see this toy still exists. Since the premise is simply using different shaped plastic connectors to make 3D structures out of long straws I can't imagine it has changed much over the years! At £6 for a 200 piece set, Connecta Straws are a good value kit for the amount of imaginative playtime children will get from them.