Early Learning Centre’s 8 Pack of Plasticine is half price at Amazon, selling for just 50p instead of £1, and free delivery to boot.

• Shape and mould for 50p

Actually, I’m terrified of this stuff – if I look at how much playdough our sofas have absorbed over the last six months, I can just imagine adding plasticine to the mix and needing a new sofa in the next six months, but I do re remember having tons of fun with plasticine as a child myself. I must ask my mother if she ever had fits over the armrests of the furniture being covered in the stuff.

The Plasticine 8-pack contains basic colours like white, black, red, yellow, green, blue and purple and but don’t worry too much about that – it’ll soon be a big grey mess!

Suitable for ages 3 – 8 years, the up side to this over play dough, is that it apparently never dries out.

Thanks to linny13 at HUKD 

Amazon are having a bit of a sale on Early Learning Centre arts and crafts bits and pieces - there are 75 individual items included in the sale and plenty of them have, or are close to having, 50% off their full retail price.

• Click HERE to take a look at the art bits and pieces over at Amazon

The thing with arty bits and pieces is that they often need replacing - paints and felt tipped pens run out, pencils get broken so you are forever sharpening them (which is pointless because the 'lead' inside has been shattered into a million pieces from being dropped on the floor), paper gets used and scissors (at least in my house) have the disappearing skills of Houdini!

Taking advantage of arts and crafts sales, like this, makes sound economic sense - especially when you can have everything delivered for free.

Pens, pencils, paints, paper, chalks and chalk boards are included in the Early Learning Centre arts and crafts sale, along with painting aprons (in both red and blue for boys and girls) and scissors for the right-handed masses and the minority 'lefties'.

Some things are selling out quite quickly, so if you have plenty of things to stock up on then I suggest you go over to Amazon sooner rather than later.

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD

It is January. You probably already noticed that. Hard to miss it when all the telltale signs are there. Grey skies, dark afternoons and empty bank accounts. Another clue is all the signs up announcing January sales. Although that's not quite as much an indicator as it used to be. Nowadays, the January sales seem to start in December.

However, here we are coming into the tail end of the sales, and anything that is left is going to go bargain basement. Also, there are stores that do GASP start their sales in January, and others that refresh the stock in the sale section each week. Here's a roundup of the big retailers of baby stuff who are still running sales. Boots, for example, have finished their sales so we've not included them here. Likewise, JoJo Maman Bebe still has its sale section, but the winter sale with up to 75% off seems to be finished now.

The same with the Mothercare Clearance shop, although the usual reductions you'll find year round are in there so it is still worth having a look. Such as the 50% Off Top Products section.

Click here to read more...

Amazon have 50% off the Early Learning Centre Electronic Cash Register and Scanner, which normally sells at £22 but is now reduced to £11. It's the same price at ELC, but you'll have to pay postage too.

• Build an empire starting with an ELC shop

According to the blurb, this cash register is the perfect inspiration for playing shops, pretending to be the customer or shopkeeper and enjoying real-world imaginative play.

This version has a beeping scanner (for which you need 3 AAA batteries), a chip and pin machine and a working microphone with which to drive the family crazy make important announcements.

The Electronic Cash Register and Scanner comes with 12 pieces of food, play paper money and coins and a play credit card, card reader and of course, the till and microphone.

Reviews on it are generally positive, though some complain that the drawer jumps out too enthusiastically.

One reviewer (at ELC) says, “We've used it's calculation capabilities to teach some basic adding and subtracting whilst she plays which is great too. The play money resembles real notes and coins which is helpful. The scanner generates random numbers which won't teach value (when it can cost £7000 or £7 for the same item) but it is good fun.”

She felt it was money well spent.

Thanks to retail_therapy at HUKD

The Wonderland Castle is half price at Early Learning  Centre, reduced to £42.50 from £85.  Delivery takes 4 days and costs £4.95.

• Get lost in a magical Wonderland of imagination

The Wonderland Castle has three towers, a royal balcony and a garden all around.  It’s the ideal place to create magical fairy stories, full of fairy tale creatures.

The Castle is a good size for sharing too at 78cm high, 88cm wide and 64cm deep. It does require some assembly and comes with 30 screws and instructions.

There’s really little limit to the add-ons you can bring in to the game with this. Unfortunately none come with the set and you have to  buy them separately or use what you have.

Customers have rated this 3.4 out of 5,  with the lowest score being 2.3 for durability, but a good 4.3 for fun.  The main complaint from reviewers is that it is quite difficult to assemble. Another reviewer says that you can’t really move it very easily once assembled as the base isn’t solid.

Overall, however, they all agree that it is beautiful and that the children absolutely love it.

We were given the Waterslide Playset as a gift because my daughter loves bath time and has a bath full of toys, but nothing with slides and gadgets, so we were thrilled to receive it. The person who bought it had clearly not read any of the reviews on it, and I’m afraid I’m in full agreement with the reviewers – it’s the worst toy we’ve ever had.

On paper is sounds great: “Watch the bath time friends whizz down the slide and make a splash in the tub. Pour water in the wheel and watch it spin. It comes with suction cups that attach firmly to the bath.”

What I can say for it is that it looks like it’s going to be fun, and that the suction cups do attach firmly to the bath.

Unfortunately that’s about it.  The whole thing comes apart really easily, but isn’t as easy to put back together.

Every time one of the ‘bath time friends’ comes through the flap at the bottom, it falls off, needing to be reattached. (Can you say annoying??) And that’s if the friends get that far. There’s little to no whizzing as they  pretty much get stuck all the way down.  It’s clearly a design flaw as the most important part of the toy is the fact that the ‘friends’ slide down it.

The waterwheel works well, and if you pour water into it, it tips out and the water runs down the slide, but that’s not enough to make the hippos on tubes slide down.

Overall, this is a very disappointing bath toy and I wouldn’t bother with it at all. If it worked it would still be pricy for what it is (at £14) but without working it’s an absolute waste and definitely not the quality you expect from ELC.

A great stocking filler for any Happyland fan, the Happyland Christmas set is £5 at Early Learning Centre, reduced from £10. If you add the promotional code: SANTA Lynley wrote about a week ago, you’ll also get another £1 off, although the free delivery doesn’t seem to work anymore. You’ll be better off collecting in store, as £4.95 for delivery is pretty rough when you’re only paying £4 for the set.

• Bring Christmas cheer to Happyland

Happyland sets have been around forever, haven’t they? I saw a display once of all the Happyland ‘special’ characters and it was rather impressive, actually!

The Happyland Christmas set is a 5-piece set, consisting of Santa, his sleigh, Rudolph, a snowman and a Christmas tree and they are suitable for children from 18 months and up.  The single reviewer on ELC says his daughter plays with it all the time and that it would be great to see more Happyland Christmas figures to add to the set. S/he also says that it’s worth the money and makes a great stocking filler.

The Happyland Christmas set has also been awarded a Mumsnet Best 2010 award.

Thanks to Luckypie at HUKD

Use this ELC promotional code to get 20% off your order. One advantage of this code is that it works with sale items AND the site has a 50% sale on selected toys. You'll also get free delivery with this code as long as your basket comes to £50 or more. That's £50 after the 20% is taken off so you'll need to take that into account.

Click here to use your 20% ELC promotional code

• Discount: 20% and free delivery
• Promotional code: SANTA
• Expires: Unknown

To use the code, go to the Your Basket page and enter it in the Promotion Code Box. If it won’t work with the items in your basket, it will simply say that the promotion code has been applied, but it wasn’t valid for your order.

When it does work, you'll see Christmas 20% added to your order. Look on the totals column and you'll see that the delivery has been marked as FREE. If it hasn't then you need to up the total of your order. Standard delivery on the site is normally £4.95, and as far as I could see there's no option to collect your items from a store for free, as other retailers with both a high street and an online presence do.

The Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer is pretty much at the top of every Christmas must-have list. It is a sort of iPad tablet style toy for children. The Early Learning Centre, ELC, has the pink LeapPad Explorer's in stock. All you need to do is use the code SANTA to get 20% off AND free delivery, so you can get the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer toy delivered to your door for £63.99.

• Click here for your Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer at the ELC

Personally, I thought that at £79.99, and even £63.99, this is an expensive toy. But, if you've got an iPad you may think it worth every penny to keep the kids off your much much more expensive computer!

It has been sold out several times over at many retailers, with some devices going for silly prices on eBay. Seriously, did anyone actually buy at that price?

The Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer is suitable for children aged 4 to 9. It has a camera and video recorder. You do get a few apps on the device, and a game. There's also more than 100 games and apps available online. Children can choose from games, videos, e-Books, flash cards and they can even take photos or record videos. The Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer is fully compatible with the existing Explorer games library.

Thanks to rainey4731 at HUKD!

I have great memories of my sister and I playing with felt when we were children. We had a huge range of felt characters and my dad made spanned a stretch of felt over the back of a fingerboard board so that we had what was to us a vast expanse of space to create our scenes on.

I bought the ELC Felt Farm set for my daughter in the hopes of getting her creative story telling juices going too, and have mixed feelings about it.

The felt pieces make up a farm scene, and overall I’m pretty happy with them. The painted bits don’t stick very well, but it’s not like I was expecting Velcro so it’s fine.

Where it does fall down a bit is the story board. Actually, there are two story boards, but they are half the height of an A4 page, but a bit wider. They are made of something that feels like a mix between sand paper, and the loop end of Velcro, so you’d expect the felt to stick, and it does initially, but after a very short time it stops doing so.

The felt pieces are still nice to play with, but honestly I’m totally so-so about this set and don’t think it’ll give my daughter the same memories I have of felt. I have wondered if a larger story board, also made of felt (which could easily fit into the box) wouldn’t be better, but haven’t had a chance to try it.

Overall, I don’t think £5 is too expensive, but I’m glad I bought it at less than half price.

Use this ELC promotional code to get 20% off your order. The best thing about this code is that it works with sale items AND the site has a half term half price sale on. I'm not sure when the sale ends though, as half term does vary slightly around the country.

Click here to use your 20% ELC promotional code

• Discount: 20%
• Promotional code: christmas0511
• Expires: Unknown

To use the code, go to the Your Basket page and enter it in the Promotion Code Box. If it won’t work with the items in your basket, it will simply say that the promotion code has been applied, but it wasn’t valid for your order.

When it does work, you'll see Christmas 20% added to your order. I tried it out on a JCB Chunky Trucks set. This was in the sale, marked down from £35 to £17.50. A fantastic saving on something that would make a FABULOUS Christmas present. The ELC promotional code took this down to £14, deducting £3.50 from the price. Keep in mind that the delivery on this site is £4.95.

Thanks to gemwood at HUKD!

There’s a rather generous 50% off the ELC Wooden Garage at Mothercare right now.

• Park and play with the Wooden Garage

I’ve seen the ELC Wooden Garage at a couple of the mum and tot groups in our area lately, and must say they’re rather lovely and apart from the fact that they generally cause a bit of fighting between the kids who want a go, it is a toy that pretty much always has attention in the playgroups.

The giant garage has both entry and exit ramps – but explain that to a two year old – and a wind up multi-storey lift. There’s a helipad too, for those VIP visitors and conveniently and completely impractically for anyone who actually has a driver’s  licence, two petrol pumps at the bottom.

The Wooden Garage is politicallyl correct with well signed disabled parking bays, although no parent and child parking seems to be available.

Included in the set are a helicopter, a car and, of course, the petrol pumps, but you can buy a whole range of vehicles and accessories separately.

Thanks to beet0611 at HUKD

The folks over at the Early Learning Centre are offering you the chance to pick up Happyland toys for up to half price (most of them have 20% off).

• Click here to go over to the ELC

Christmas day is a mere 13 weeks and 2 days away - this is either bad news for you, or good.  It's good for me as I have family coming over from overseas; I'm very excited and, as a result, am already in FULL Christmas mood.

I've  never understood people who say, "It's too early to start thinking about Christmas!" WHY?!

It makes perfect sense to spread the buying of pressies, and other Christmas things, out over the next 13 weeks - you'll save yourself money by taking advantage of deals like this up to 50% off Happyland toys, and save yourself the stress of having to cram everything into the dying weeks before the big day.

There are 51 Happyland items for you to choose from, from the big sets to the little ones and something to keep all little ones happy, whether it's for Christmas, birthdays or 'just because'.

Thanks to brumblesmum at HUKD

The ELC (that's the Early Learning Centre) has reduced the price on this bubble machine from £12 to £6. We got one of these when my son was about one years old. It is really love to have a machine making bubbles, especially for smaller children. They can spend ages chasing them!

• Click here for your Bubble Machine at the ELC

From my experience though, these are best used in an outside area. Lots of bubbles coming out quickly turn the floor quite slippery! Outside where you've got a bit of a breeze to spread the bubbles around, and a surface like grass, works well. Best of all is in a park if you're having a big picnic.

I did find that you need to fill it up with a good amount of bubble mix, or it doesn't pick it up too well. Also, I got the giant ELC bubble mix with mine, and I have to say I wasn't that thrilled with it. Actually the best bubble mix I've come across so far has been Tesco's own brand!

The bubble machine has a handle, to make it easier to carry. It runs  for approximately 1 hour when used with 12 fl oz of ELC bubble solution, which you'll have to buy separately. The machine is available in pink and blue. You'll have to invest in four C batteries to run the Bubble Machine. It says that it's not suitable for children under 36 months due to small parts.

Thanks to bexjking at HUKD!

Right - you're going to have to be quick with this one; the sets with 50% off that are still in stock are flying of the virtual shelves FAST.

• Click HERE to go over the ELC

So the Playmobil sets that are still in stock with 50% off are:

• Playmobil Pyramid - now £7.50
• Playmobil Front End Loader (think JCB) - now £12.49
• Playmobil Excavator - now £17.50

There are LOTS more Playmobil sets that haven't had 50% taken off their price, BUT I have a code that will whip 20% off those prices for you at the checkout; hurrah!

The code is 6C5E - I've tested it, it works AND it works on the Playmobil sets and toys with the 50% already taken off the RRP, making them even cheaper than the prices I quoted earlier.

The Playmobil Hospital is a hefty piece of Playmobil kit and originally costs £129.99, using the 20% code brings the price down to £102.99 - this is the sort of major present that can be bought and given from everyone in the family for a birthday or CHRISTMAS!

There, I said it loud and proud - it makes sense to plan ahead for big things when there are decent discounts to be had.

DON'T FORGET to add the discount code at the checkout - 6C5E.

Thanks to sazzlebob at HUKD

This HappyLand starter set is £30 instead of £60 at the Early Learning Centre right now, with £4.95 postage to UK mainland addresses. Bought individually, this set will apparently cost over £120.

• Set the imagination free with the HappyLand Ready to Play Village Set

This half price starter kit is great for learning imaginative play and building social skills – assuming there’s more than one child playing.

The Ready to Play Village Set includes a whack of stuff. There’s:

• Cottage
• A Two-storey shop
• A telephone booth
• A market stall
• 3 Trays of Fruit and vegetables
• 1 car and 2 delivery vans
• A cat and two dogs
• Mr & Mrs Barley characters
• Poppy and Charlie Barley characters
• Mr Bun the Baker characters
• Delia characters
• Petula the Grocer characters
• Granny and Grandpa Bonnet characters

Suitable  for kidlets from 18 months and up, this was voted a ‘mumsnet best’ product in 2010.

Thanks to mariefindlay at HUKD

Early Learning Centre have up to 50% off on 99 toys for babies and toddlers, with free delivery on purchases over £50.

• Take advantage of up to 50% off

While most of the items have less than 50% off their original price, there are a few that do, such as the Blossom Farm  Sit Me Up Cozy which is down to £22.50, but we’ve already told you about that.

There’s also the Blossom Farm 3-in-1 Baby Gym which is down to £20 from £40 and for slightly older children – from 1 - 3 years old there’s such items as the VTech Baby Sing Along Musical Train which helps children learn shapes, animals, instruments and their sounds.

Another bargain – especially if you want to be a real cheapskate and split the gift set up into separate gifts – is the Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Gift Set which consists of 3 toys for babies from six months and up. The three toys are musical activity keys, stacking action blocks – which are three colourful stacking blocks with their own activities and actions – and a push and go action toy with music and lights that rolls along when the puppy is pushed down.

But, there are 96 other items to look at, so if you have half as many preggie friends as I do, you’ll be popping over there now too - especially since there are loads of things for under a tenner.

Thanks to kittycatclare at HUKD

The Blossom Farm Deluxe Sit Me Up Cozy is less than half price at Early Learning Centre, at £22.50 down from £50.00.

• Get your little one cozy with the Deluxe Sit Me Up cushion from Blossom Farm

At £50 I can’t imagine that I would have bought this for my daughter, but at £22.50 it certainly comes back within the realms of possibility.

The Sit Me Up Cozy is a two-in-one supportive play nest and prop up pillow for your new born, and a has a removable play arch and pillow.

The play arch is great for encouraging your baby to learn, play, move and so develop, and there are three activity toys included – a flower-shaped mirrors, a bee with crinkly wings and a butterfly rattle.

The removable tummy time mat is very useful, especially for encouraging your little one to move around on their belly, massaging out all the winds that cause colic.  While not intended for sleep time, the Sit  Me Up Cozy is useful for keeping baby occupied for short bursts of time.

Delivery is free on orders over £50, otherwise it is £4.95 to UK addresses.

Thanks to rustysusty at HUKD

Early Learning Centre has a pretty fab selection of Easter Craft items to keep your little ones entertained this Easter.

• Click here for Easter themed crafts from ELC

While everything in the ELC Easter crafts range is listed as being suitable for an age range from 3 years old, I'm pretty sure that with supervision even younger children might enjoy some of these fabulously fun projects.

Of course, you're still going to need to have the time and patience to sit down and do the crafts, especially with younger children, but I do love having goodies on hand to keep them entertained without me having to wreck my brain trying to come up with ideas. For £14, you could actually have a project on hand twice a day for all of the Easter weekend! Especially useful if, heaven forbid, we end up with a rainy weekend.

Kits available are:

• Easter Stickers for 50p
• Easter Foam Shapes for 50p
• Make Your Own Easter Cards for £1.75
• Easter Foam Masks for £1.75
• Make Your Own Easter Bonnets for £1.75
• Make Your Own Easter Basket for £1.75
• Easter Egg Hunt Game for £3.00
• Easter Collage Cards for £3.00

Delivery from ELC is pretty pricey at £4.50, but you can order it for in store pick up which is free.

Thanks to hillsbills at HUKD

Time to learn the alphabet? This Alphabet Learning Owl is £12.50 at ELC – half price from the usual £25.

• Get to know the A-B-C's with the Alphabet Owl

I've been astounded by how my little girl has picked up words from her 'computer'. Dog, cat, bird and all their associated sounds, as well as aeroplane, boat and car – so I can just imagine how well this Alphabet Owl would work.

As you can see, it's an owl plush toy which is easy to hold and carry. He plays eight melodies and has five fun interactive games which help to familiarise your child with letters, sounds, words and melodies. The Alphabet Owl games also include word spell, first letter, find it and musical fun.

Your child can sing along with simple action rhymes which younger children can clap to and older children can join in on the actions.

Two reviewers gave it five stars each, with one saying: "She also likes the fact that he says hello and goodbye to her and this is a clever way to start the interaction. The games are well put together and play randomly, and if a mistake is made the Owl will assist after 3 or 4 attempts and provide the answer to help the learning process. There are still things that I am discovering that he can do! I would thoroughly recommend the Learning Owl - he's fab and very good value for money."

The Alphabet Learning Owl takes 4 x AA batteries.