Post office
The Letterbox (Galt, 94.95, tel: 08702 424477) is a freestanding, durable letterbox which has an official-sized slot for posting letters.
Post Office (NES Arnold, 199.95, tel: 0845 120 4525), see above, is a self-contained post office with a letter box, posting timetable, Perspex divider, shelving for storage and display, a chalkboard and even a public telephone.
Career puppet set (NES Arnold, 40.95) is a collection of puppets (about 30cm), including a postman.
'Postie' jacket and bag (Philip and Tacey, 14.95, tel: 01264 332171).
Telephones
Push button phone (Galt, 6.99) is smartly designed in red and grey plastic and looks like the real thing.
Mobile phone (NES Arnold, 9.95) is a pretend wooden mobile phone.
Press the mouthpiece and the phone will ring and press the dial buttons for individual notes to be played.
Teaching telephone (NES Arnold, 28.75) is a touch-tone telephone featuring programmable memory. Programme in the telephone numbers that a child needs to learn, for example, family and emergency numbers, then use the digital record facility to record a reply. When the child dials a correct number, they will hear the reply message.
New style telephone kiosk (NES Arnold, 199.95) is a very authentic looking BT-approved kiosk.
The Galt telephone centre (Galt, 119.95) has four interconnected telephone points. Two booths have push button phones and children are able to talk through handsets that are linked to receivers in the other two booths by sound-carrying tubing.
The Geemarc answering machine (Littlewoods Index, 27.99, tel: 0870 1604807) lets children have fun operating and recording and listening to messages on a real telephone answering machine.
If setting up an answering machine in the nursery is problematic, let children record messages for their friends on Fisher Price's cassette player (Pounds 19.99, tel: 01628 500000) which comes with sing-along microphone.
Mobile phone walkie-talkies (Early Learning Centre, 12.50, tel: 01793 831300).
TV and radio
Give children the chance to see and explore radios of various sizes and styles such as the JMBprogrammable CD stereo radio (24.99), the Sony retro-style battery operated radio (14.99), the Sony AM/FM pocket radio (10.99), the Bush Nostalgic radio (29.99) (All Littlewoods Index).
TV/video unit (Hope, 34.95, tel: 08451 202055), see above, allows role-play TV with video, remote control and an 'empty' screen so that a child can appear on TV.
Signs
Traffic signs (Galt, 64.95) are useful for the outdoor area.
Large (25 x 28cm) social signs (Hope, 12.99) are double-sided strong cards showing replica signs that children may have seen in the environment such as 'post office' or 'telephone'.
Floor robots
Pixie table-top robot (www.swallow.co.uk, 122 plus 9.25 p&p plus VAT) is an easy-to-operate robot aimed at younger children.
Valient Roamer (Hope, 89.95) is a floor robot that can be programmed for distance and direction.
Remote control Beetle (Tomy, 20-30) has a remote handset that controls the direction of the car, and has a high and low gear.
Sound the alarm
Babylink monitor (Tomy, 16.99, tel: 020 8066 2600).
Books
The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg (Viking Children's Books, Pounds 11.99) contains envelopes for the Jolly Postman to deliver. Children will love to discover what is inside each envelope.
Kipper's Birthday by Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books, 3.99). It is the day before Kipper's birthday and he is very excited. He writes invitations to his friends and prepares for the party.
Dear Zoo (Picture Puffin, 4.99) by Rod Campbell may inspire children to write letters of their own to a zoo.
Tales from Acorn Wood: Postman Bear by Julia Donaldson (Campbell Books, Pounds 3.99). Children will enjoy finding out what the special occasion is as Postman Bear delivers invitations to all his friends.
Katie Morag Delivers the Mail by Mairi Hedderwick (Red Fox, 4.99).
Everyone gets their mail eventually when Katie Morag plays postie.
So Much by Trish Cooke (Walker Books, 5.99) is a story about happy and warmrelationships.
Noisy Farm by Rod Campbell (Puffin Books, 4.99)encourages children to think about the noises animals make to communicate.
Globes and atlases
Inflatable globe (Philip and Tacey, 4.99) comes complete with hanging loop.
Children's world globe (Hope, 14.95) is ideal for younger children, sturdy with pictorial references.
The Oxford Infant Atlas (Oxford University Press, 4) by Patrick Wiegand starts with a view of the planet earth from space and clearly shows children how a globe represents the earth.
Feelings and emotions
Feelings posters (NES Arnold, 9.99) are A2 laminated photographs.
Feelings and faces lotto game (NES Arnold, 20.95) includes eight different facial expressions.
Emotions masks (Hope, 26.50) are four wooden masks, ideal for role play.
Emotions puzzles (Galt, 19.95) - each puzzle in the set of six contains 36 pieces and displays a facial expression such as happy or sad.
Emotions hand puppets (Hope, 49.95) are child-sized puppets with surprised, frightened, angry, happy, upset and sad expressions.
Feelings finger puppets (Galt, 18.95) provides ten finger-sized puppets to help children explore feelings.
Unbreakable mirrors (Galt, 3.99 for ten, 9 x 6.5cm) are flexible mirrors which can be displayed around the nursery. Children will enjoy looking at their own and others' facial expressions.
