Your BasketThere are few things better than playing with your kids. This is true. There are few things worse, however, than playing with your kids and a really bad toy.
Then they have all the fun while you resist the urge to poke out your own eyeballs just to relieve the boredom.
Fear not. Dad Info has rounded up ten toys and games guaranteed to provide fun for the kids and, whisper it quietly, for dad as well....
1. Scalextrix
Still the Daddy. Somehow, no matter what techno-leaps are made.
The sight of a little plastic car sailing smoothly round a metal slot in a black plastic road never fails to thrill.
From small beginners sets to huge 
raceways - somehow the fact that it takes ages to set up, and you have to shift the furniture to do it, only adds to the appeal.
Playing with Scalextric is an event.
Browse Scalextric
2. Hornby train sets
Superficially similar to Scalextric sets, but actually the appeal is very different. Racing cars is all about thrills, competition and trying to make each other crash.
Planning, building and maintaining a train set is different: calming, contemplative, serene. Again, the range is huge and specialist sets such as the Hogwarts Express should appeal to most tastes.
Browse Hornby train sets
3. Cranium
A genuine board game for all the family, in which teams compete to move round a board by completing tasks in mime, drawing, acting, trivia questions - a combination of any party game skill you care to mention. Although advertised as being for ages 12 and up, younger kids can join a team and take part in the simpler tasks. And when it comes to plasticine modelling, they'll probably wipe the floor with you.
Buy Cranium
4. Bop it
An object with four prongs, each bearing a different lever - one you have to pull, one you twist, one you flick and one you hit. Turn it on and the game tells you what to do - "Twist it", "Flick it" etc. Hesitate too long and you're out. A test of hand-eye co-ordination, speed of thought and manual dexterity which will have entire families addicted to trying to beat each other's top scores.
Buy Bop it
5. Nintendo Wii
The games console that dares to speak its' name. The motion sensor control system means that you have to get up and actually swing that arm if, for example, you want to play tennis. With a range of sports and family-friendly games, this is one you'll play with the kids and after they're tucked up in bed.
Browse Wii
6. 20Q
It's a hand-held spherical device. You think of an object, any object and, on a small screen, it asks you twenty questions, animal, vegetable or mineral style. No matter how bizarre the questions seem ("Is it larger than a loaf of bread?") or how obscure your object (a black hole) 95 per cent of the time it will guess right first time, leading to gasps of shock, wonder and the repeated question "How does it know?"
Buy 20Q
7. Silverlit Radio Control PICOO Z Helicopter
Remember when radio-controlled toys, particularly those that fly, used to be eye-wateringly expensive and frankly not that good? The Silverlit Indoor Helicopter puts an end to that. Small enough (17cm long) to fly safely round most rooms, it's controls are accurate enough to make steady flying and slick manoeuvring both do-able and immensely satisfying.
Buy Silverlit Radio Control PICOO Z Helicopter
8. Guitar Hero
Another computer game that isn't just a computer game. Instead of a hand control you have a mock electric guitar, and instead of killing aliens you play along to a selection of rock classics. Yes, it's air-guitar for the 21st Century. The kids will love watching you make a fool of yourself. You'll be secretly convinced you can play them off that stage.
Browse Guitar Hero
9. Cosmic Jet Racer
Sometimes the simplest toys can be the best. Not a micro-chip or battery in sight in the cosmic jet racer kit, enough to build and race two cars powered by blowing up a balloon attached to the back. And that's it. Younger kids will want to go again and again. Dads will want to build a ramp and channel their inner stuntman.
Buy a Cosmic Jet Racer
10. Shut the box
An old-fashioned dice game consisting of a wooden box, a row of nine numbered, swivelling flaps and a pair of dice. Roll the dice and flip over the pegs that add up to the total. A six can be a four and a two, a five and a one or just the six. The first to turn them all over wins. Playable as soon as kids can count, quietly educational and subtly addictive, it puts many expensive board games firmly in the shade.
Buy Shut the Box
Oh and...
A ball
Really. Nobody ever grows out of catching, throwing and kicking a ball.
Author
Steve Cochrane is a freelance journalist and scriptwriter who is married with three children, varying in age from 17 to eight. As well as writing he has worked as a full time househusband, unofficial family childminder and has spent many years trying to come up with a better word for househusband.
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