Priced around £22.74, the set consists of a set of 200 double-sided clue cards. The cards contain two clues and the answer to each clue is a single word.

The questions can be quite challenging, but since you know that both words will sound very similar (‘tee’ and ‘tea’, for instance), you can sometimes arrive at your answer after working out just one of the clues first.

Suitable for children aged seven upwards, the game also comes with four 8cm buzzers, each of which make a different fun sound to indicate which player thinks they have come up with the homophone first. The answers are on the back of the clue cards and there are two levels of play for increasing vocabulary and listening skills.

This authentic moonscape will scroll automatically through 12 phases, or you can set it to whatever phase you want. It even acts as a night light.

With an automatic shut-off to conserve battery power and a colour booklet to teach youngsters more about our real moon, the Illuminated Moon is priced around £29.99 and is suitable for children aged six and up.

The Primary Science Set is priced around £29.99 and aims to make basic science both easy and appealing to children aged from three to about seven.

Included in the set is a variety of brightly-coloured and durable pieces of science equipment such as a beaker, flask, pipette and test tubes. A set of tweezers, a magnifying glass and a funnel complete the mini-scientist’s laboratory set up.

Ten double-sided activity cards provide lots of ideas for practical experiments for children to try out using their new set. Pre-schoolers will also learn about safety thanks to the included goggles and should get up to speed with early science in the most exciting and hands-on way.

It would seem that there is; The Deep Space Home Planetarium and Projector from Brainstorm’s Eureka Toys range brings the beauty of the outdoors to the comfort of the indoors. This planetarium has two domes and projects stars or constellations onto the walls and ceiling of any room. As the module rotates, the stars rotate around your room, giving a wonderful, dreamlike effect.

Priced around £29.99, the planetarium is also a high-quality slide projector and has three different slide disks that you can play on it. The images on the disks are full colour pictures from NASA and the Hubble telescope, showing astronauts, planets, spacecraft and nebulae.

If you want to know more about what you’re looking at, an educational booklet full of space facts is included, and at night time the planetarium can also be transformed into a gently glowing night light.

Just one word of warning – don’t try to catch an actual Gruffalo in it. They don’t take too kindly to that sort of behaviour, and unless you have the cunning of the little mouse in Julia Donaldson’s classic book, you might find yourself falling victim to those ‘terrible tusks and terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws’.

Pictures of this terrible (but actually strangely cute) monster decorate the outside of the Woodland Creature Cabin from Rainbow Designs too. This is a little house to accommodate any beasties that you find on your nature walk, and it’s priced around £19.99.

Measuring 20 x 13.5cm this cabin is made from painted wood and has a plastic mesh to keep the creatures contained (and alive!) while you study them.

This pocket-sized game consists of a pack of letter cards and is played in the same way as traditional snap, the ‘snap’ happening when two letters match.

It’s not quite as simple as standard snap though, as you can’t simply add the cards to your pile, you have to earn them! Whoever wins each round has to read a tongue twister from each of the cards they have acquired before the timer runs out.

As well as creating a lot of babbling and probably a good deal of laughter too, the game actually claims to improve speech and encourage literacy skills and reading.  Two versions are available – Sensational Sporting Superstars and Animated Animal Antics – and they are priced around £5.99 each.

The LeapPad features a built-in video camera and has a library more than 100 games and activities (it is compatible with all existing LeapFrog Explorer and Leapster Explorer cartridge games and downloadable apps).

Controlled via a touch-sensitive screen or stylus, the LeapPad also has motion sensors, so some games can be played by turning, twisting or shaking it.

The LeapPad also offers different skill levels for its users – so, for instance,  text in a story can become more complex as a child’s reading skills develop.

Educational games reinforce mathematics and reading skills, as well as developing an interest in music, art and languages. As with other LeapFrog products, the LeapPad can hook up to the online Learning Path system, allowing parents and carers to monitor their child’s progress.

The LeapPad is priced at £79.99 and will be available from August 15.

Part of Playmobil’s 1.2.3 range for the very young, children aged 18 months and over can play with the six animals (dog, sheep, cow, horse, pig and chicken) in the bright green plastic countryside surrounding the colourful barn. Other accessories include a farmer figure, flowers, a barrel, a sack of potatoes and a bale of hay.

The interactive elements are battery powered, and the toy talks your child through different lessons, teaching them about the names of each animal. They will learn the corresponding animal sounds as they slot them into the correct locations, too.

Four interactive function buttons help to teach your child about numbers and colours, while the roof of the set actually doubles as a shape-sorter. You can set the farm to any one of eight different languages, and it’s priced around £29.99.

LeapFrog is probably onto a winner, therefore, when it comes to the Count and Scan Shopper, because while grown-ups stand impatiently in the checkout queue, waiting for the contents of their trolleys to be scanned, kids are probably gazing in awe at the scanner and wishing they had one themselves.

Now they can have their own play scanner, a selection of items to be scanned, an interactive shopping list and a bag to take it all ‘home’ with them after they’ve finished their shop.

With songs, fun phrases and educational games, this is much more fun than a normal scanner and will help kids learn about numbers, colours and shapes.

The Count and Scan Shopper (which connects to LeapFrog’s online Learning Path) is priced around £19.99 and is suitable from the age of 24 months.

Tangrams is priced around £2.25 and filled with many brightly-coloured shapes. How you play with them is completely up to you.

Young children can work on their shape and colour recognition on a basic level, while slightly older ones can start to put the shapes together to make any number of different patterns and pictures.

Shape Snap is a more structured game, priced around £7.25. Two to four players aged three to six can use a set of chunky and solid cards to play a game of snap, matching coloured shapes together.

The tough cards can also be used for a whole host of other shape-based activities, and the shiny, wipe-clean nature of the cards should mean that they survive well even in the hands of young players as they explore all the learning opportunities the game has to offer.