Halilit Toddler Music Orchestra Review

Reviewed by Cath Joyce

I have yet to find a child that doesn’t enjoy making a noise and musical instruments are a great toy to give to a toddler. Whilst it may sound like they are just making an almighty racket, playing a musical instrument can really help with a child’s development, singing helps both vocabulary and speech to develop, and playing the instrument helps with motor skills, memory function and coordination. Lots of children’s songs are about animals, transport, colours and numbers and singing these songs helps them learn without them realising they are doing so. Music is even more entertaining when you can play along and the Halilit Toddler Music Orchestra is perfect for this with five brightly coloured musical instruments that will give hours of fun to any budding musician. The instruments are chunky and well made and are very easy for little hands to hold to shake, bang and rattle. The set includes a nice selection of instruments which will appeal to all children.

• Ocean Drum – This small drum was a favourite with my 12 month old God daughter, probably because it made the loudest noise! It is a round drum with a background picture of fish and sea creatures. There are colourful beads behind a clear top and the beads make a lovely sea sound as you swish them around. The top and bottom can also be tapped like a drum.

• Baby Xylophone – The brightly coloured xylophone is easy for little hands to hold and is surprisingly tuneful, when you hit the notes you get a nice crisp clean note and it sounded really good. I dug out my old nursery rhyme music and we had a lovely time singing and playing along to nursery rhymes. For those who aren’t musical it does come with a card music sheet which has four colour coded tunes to play so even if you can’t read music you can hit the coloured notes and play a simple tune for your child. The tunes are Jingle Bells, Old McDonald Had a Farm, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Little Jonathan. There is a plastic mallet to hit the notes with and there are handy clips on the back of the xylophone to store the mallet when it is not being played. The mallet is quite thin and won’t cause much damage if your child decides to hit other things with it!

• Ring My Bell – This is a toddler sized bell musical instrument that has three bells securely fixed in a round plastic case. It is easy for little hands to hold and although we are a little early in the year it was the perfect accompaniment to Jingle Bells!

• Rattle Roller – I hadn’t seen one of these before, but the rattle roller is a chunky instrument with a yellow and orange roller in the middle. You can roll the roller along the floor or with your hands to make a nice clicking sound.

• Shaker Maraca – This bright yellow instrument has coloured beads inside that can be shaken in time with the music.

We had lots of fun playing with these instruments, as well as singing songs and accompanying ourselves, we played along to music and used them to add sound effects to my God daughters favourite books.

I think this is a great little set, having five instruments means siblings or Mum and Dad can join in in the fun too and you can create your own little band. The instruments are suitable for children 12 months + however as there are no small parts I would feel happy letting a younger child play with them under supervision.

Halilit Toys pride themselves on the quality of their toys which are built to withstand the rigors of the toughest play environments. They put their toys through their paces with thorough laboratory and hands on playgroup and school testing. At £34.99 these instruments aren’t cheap but it is easy to see that they will last a very long time and give hours of fun to young musicians.

Rating: 4.5/5

RRP: £34.99

This product can be purchased from Halilit here