I've bought enough children's toys over the years to know that how exciting something looks online has surprisingly little relationship with whether my children will actually play with it.
Some things are amazing for approximately eleven minutes and then disappear into a cupboard forever.
Others somehow keep coming back out.
Mine are five and seven now, and these are some of the things that genuinely get used in our house.
Nothing particularly clever. Nothing requiring me to spend an hour preparing an activity beforehand.
Just things they actually like.
The magnetic fishing set
This is such a simple one, but both of mine really enjoy it.
In summer I throw the fish into the paddling pool and let them fish them out with the little rods and nets.
But you absolutely don't need a paddling pool.
Sometimes I just fill one of those big clear plastic storage boxes with water, dump all the fish in and give it to them.
That's it.
Activity sorted.
It's particularly good on a warm day when I want them occupied but don't particularly fancy engineering some elaborate children's activity I've seen online.
Why it's stayed: ridiculously easy to set up, both kids can play together and a box of water suddenly becomes entertainment.The Minecraft-style magnetic blocks
These are a massive hit with my little boy.
He can sit with them for ages, but what I really like is that he doesn't just build with the blocks themselves.
We have what feels like a small zoo's worth of Schleich animals and a lot of dinosaurs in this house, so the blocks tend to become part of whatever world he's creating that day.
He builds landscapes, caves, enclosures, houses and whatever else his five-year-old brain has decided the dinosaurs require.
Sometimes it's a Minecraft world. Sometimes it's a dinosaur habitat. Sometimes a collection of completely unrelated animals appears to have moved into a block-built village.
I really like toys like this because there isn't one correct thing to do with them.
They make the toys we already own more interesting rather than simply adding another completely separate thing to the cupboard.
The Floor Is Lava
This one requires very little explanation.
They love The Floor Is Lava.
They jump around the room, take the whole situation extremely seriously and generally burn off a decent amount of energy.
It's particularly useful when the weather is awful and they've reached that point where sitting nicely indoors is clearly no longer going to happen.
It is excellent.
Until they start arguing.
At which point The Floor Is Lava occasionally becomes The Floor Is Mum Has Had Enough.
Still, it comes back out regularly, which is the important bit.
Why it's stayed: active, silly, screen-free and gets them moving without requiring us to leave the house.Skillmatics Foil Fun
We didn't stop at one of these.
We have the animals. We have dinosaurs. We have Disney.
Both children absolutely love doing them.
What I like is that it's a craft activity they can actually get on with themselves rather than one of those children's activities that somehow results in Mum doing 80% of the work.
Does it make a mess?
Yes.
But it's an acceptable mess.
We're not talking paint across the table, glue on someone's sleeve and glitter appearing in the house six months later.
So I can live with it.
Why it's stayed: both ages enjoy it, they can do it fairly independently and it's a genuinely successful quiet activity.The rechargeable walkie-talkies
These have turned out to be surprisingly good.
The kids love disappearing into different parts of the house and talking to each other through them.
Sometimes when I'm working from home, one child will be downstairs watching television while the other is upstairs playing, and they'll still be chatting away to each other on the walkie-talkies.
Obviously, they could simply walk into the other room.
That would entirely miss the point.
Being able to radio each other is approximately 400% more exciting.
I also really like that these ones are rechargeable because toys that constantly require replacement batteries are one of my least favourite genres of parenting.
Why they've stayed: easy imaginative play, they work all over the house and rechargeable is a very big win.The pop-up tent and tunnel set
This might actually win the prize for longevity.
I've had ours since my eldest was crawling.
She's seven now.
And it still comes out.
On nice summer days the kids take the tunnels and tents into the garden, carry blankets and cushions outside and create their own little world.
Sometimes they'll potter around with it for a couple of hours.
Sometimes it becomes their base for practically the whole day.
I love that it's something I originally bought for a crawling baby and somehow, years later, it still has a place in their games.
The play has completely changed. The equipment hasn't needed to.
Why it's stayed: years of use, works across completely different ages and encourages the sort of play where they disappear into their own little world.