I have been looking for some reasonably prices gloves for my son that would keep his hands warm and dry and I found these. They are okay for the price, they are not amazing by any stretch of the imagination but they work well. If it's been a wet snowy day than his hands do end up getting very wet. If it's that powdery snow than they seem to last longer for keeping his hands warm. My son love to play outside in the snow for over 2 hours sometime so I guess you would call that "hard" play I don't know. They are perfect for simply keeping his hands warm though from the house to the car or any kind of walk or on the playground at recess.As far as size...I bought him a large because I knew his hands were going to grow, my son is 6 and kind of tall for his age but he does have large hands and feet for his age so if your child has normal sized hands than go for what you normally would buy. In other words I think they are true to size maybe a bit bigger than normal but not bad.