My daughter was extremely excited when she found out this was coming in the mail and asked every day till it arrived. I have to say that it was smaller than I expected and I also thought it would move a bit on its own. My daughter is 6 and she was in love with it for about 2 days... I thought that it was a bit to explain to her over and over how to control it but she got it down, just wasn't enough to keep her interested. I believe it is a good concept to teach them about having a real pet considering my 14 yr old found out that if you hold her nose down it suffocates her... which was interesting a bit disturbing but teaches a lesson I guess.