Japanese Best Friend Dolls

When you have a tween daughter you will be familiar with how important Best friends are,  because when you're an 8 year old girl having a BFF (best friend forever) is just about the most important thing ever, someone to giggle with and chatter too in the dinner hall, someone to send notes back and forth too and someone to team up with when you need a partner in the drama class, but being 8 years old means  there is that ever increasing surge of emotions and that quite often results in  the relationships between groups of girls being volatile to say the least!

Friendships can be extremely strong and certain friends will be mentioned over and over again, then suddenly friendships break, its a tough time and a stage that all children have to learn to deal with, finding a way to master the ability to be friends with more than one girl at a time, trying to fit into a new group and not being too heartbroken when your BFF doesn't sit next to you isn't easy.

My daughter has had numerous trouble in the friendship department over the years, having to deal with a new girl coming into her friendship group which upsets the balance; to moving schools and being the new girl herself. I've had times of tears and upset as she says she has no friends, and moments of anguish as I hear stories of her excluding others from her circle.

The need to be accepted by someone can be overwhelming when your in this stage of development, and finding ways to bridge the gap and make friendships is sometimes difficult and it can really seem that you have no friends at all if you don't have that best friend.

So when we were sent a Japanese Best Friend Kit to review I knew Chloe would instantly see the appeal, friendships are important and she spends much of her life penning notes to her friends, scribbling secret messages to each other.

This lovely kit is based on a old Japanese tradition called Kokeshi, where wooden dolls are hand painted and passed to friends to treasure.

The kit contains 3 lovely little wooden dolls, and everything you need to paint them. The designs are simple and delicate with stickers for the details making it very easy to achieve the designs.

Included is secret message paper and gift cards to add to the dolls which have a small hole underneath them to hold the secret note.

 Chloe loved painting the dolls, taking her time and putting in the effort to make a fitting gift for her friends, this is a really lovely kit and I'm sure girls of all ages would enjoy the creative nature of it and its appealing friendship building motive.

 The Japanese Friendship Doll Kit is from MyStyle and aimed at girls aged 8 and above, there is no reason why younger children wouldn't enjoy this kit. This kit retails around £9.99 which I think is good value for the quality of the wooden dolls and extras.

We received this kit free to review, but all opinions are my own.