VTech Touch And Learn Activity Desk Review

Reviewed by Jo Tebbs

It’s that time of year again whereby the long, warm (ish! – this is England after all) summer evenings with our children busy playing outside in the garden are slowly drawing to a close, signalling that the end of the summer holidays are fast approaching and they will soon be heading back to school.

For some parents, the last 6 weeks have been an exhausting, hair pulling out survival experience, whilst they desperately try to keep their little munchkins entertained and out of mischief all day. It’s also been a long old year with some people having to do home schooling. The looming start of the Autumn school term can be a welcomed relief for some, but with the cooler weather (quite frankly miserable, wet and dreary for usually 9 months of the year) and with evenings seeming longer and darker, this also poses a new set of challenges for us parents – how to keep our little ones inside and entertained once they finish school for the day?

Well, VTech may just have the answer for our younger children… the Touch and Learn Activity Desk. This fantastic product assists with not only keeping a child highly amused and ‘busy,’ but it also provides additional educational reinforcement from what they have learnt during the school day, so your child continues to learn whilst playing! For me as a parent, this is a highly desirable toy!!!

I have to admit, we own a number of VTech toys for varying age ranges and we have always been extremely pleased with the ability of this brand to manufacture not only high quality products, but more importantly, toys which our child thoroughly enjoys playing with over and over again (never seeming to get bored!). Every product we own from the VTech range, always has an array of ‘learning’ elements associated that are fundamental to a child’s educational needs and development.

The Touch and Learn Activity Desk is designed for children aged 3+. However, I strongly feel that some of the activities and features could even be used by younger toddlers (they may just require further supervision and support to assist with successful playtime).

If your child is just about to start school heading into reception class, year 1 and potentially even year 2, then this desk is ideal for them and will certainly keep your darling little cherub occupied for hours on end. The desk combines 4 main features and can act as;
1. A desk and matching stool – perfect for when little one comes home from school with home work like spellings or reading. They will have somewhere to quietly sit and do their work. Alternatively, it also acts as a nice little table for them to eat at. I believe many school encourage a dedicated ‘home learning’ area to assist a child with focusing on the task in-hand whilst at home.
2. An art station – if you lift up the desk lid, it sits in place and acts like an easel with a clip whereby a piece of A4 paper can be neatly held in place so your mini Picasso can create their next master piece. There are also little moulded cup like holders on each side of the base for holding any pencils, crayons, felt tips, chalks as well as a tray like section under the lid too.
3. A black board – similar to the art station, on the reverse of the desk lid, is a plastic rough surface acting like a blackboard so your child can either draw, practise writing or play games on it.
4. The interactive desktop with lots of fun activities and toys (I’ll explain in more depth below regarding this because for me personally, it is my favourite of the 4 elements to this desk).

What I deem to be the main feature of this VTech Touch and Learn Activity Desk, is the interactive desktop with 4 double sided touch pages as well as the fixed alphabet touch page. Like with most toys these days, you’ll need to invest in some AA batteries (4 to be precise) to enable the ‘interactive’ element to come to life. There are an array of exciting toys attached along the back of the desk, including a pretend phone and a light up electronic note pad with stylus like pen.

The double sided touch pages and toys combine music, words and numbers on key topics such as the weather, months of the year, musical instruments, animals and parts of the body (to name just a few), to help teach your child about the world around them and it provides a basic starting point into general education (like learning to count, read and practice phonics).

One of the activities which I think really helps with any child just about to start school or who is in the early school years, is the alphabet/writing and phonics lessons it provides. Using the note pad and pen, you can press the ‘a’ on the alphabet interactive sheet, hear the sound of the letter and then practise writing the letter on the note pad. As the pen touches the note pad screen, little led lights switch on and reinforce the shape that’s been drawn so the child can clearly see if they have copied it down correctly. Obviously, once a child progresses, they can then switch to the blackboard where they can freely practice writing letters and start combing letters to make words as they get more advanced.

With over 20 songs to chose from (which are located in the toy bar along the back of the desk along with the volume buttons), your child can draw and play along to one of their favourite tunes too!

The size of the desk is ideal if you’re short of space. It’s approximately 46cm (wide) x 67cm (long) x 57cm (high), so it’s perfect to pop in the corner of a bedroom or lounge.

The desk can either be used whilst your child stands or alternatively they can use the stool provided. My only issue with chair is that it’s a stool with no back support and being made of plastic, it can be a little slippery when used with clothing on, so there is the potential for child to slip off of it. It all depends on your child’s balance and whether they are a wriggly little worm like mine, who isn’t good at sitting very still in one place!

Everything related to the desk is made of plastic so it’s super easy to keep clean and wipe down – especially as we all know how messy little ones can get with food/ art and this essential when the blackboard is used.

Overall, we are extremely pleased with the VTech Touch and Learn Activity Desk and I love to see my little one getting so excited and having so much fun whilst they play and learn simultaneously! It’s a great accessory for starting back at school and reinforcing what they have learnt during their school day.

Rating: I would rate this product 4.5/5

RRP: £49.99

You can purchase the VTech Touch and Learn Activity Desk here.