hi emmski, we took our daughter to costa teguise when she was 4 and had a fabulous time, it was april when we were there and it was pretty chilly the first week, but lovely the second.
this part of lanzarote, although a purpose built resort , is very family orientated.
great beaches, very shallow for little legs, interesting little rock pools, lovely restraunts to try at night, nice little bars, one in particular was called chispaz and they had all board games in, we went in most nights and usually got free choc milkshakes for our daughter from the barman !
we caught the bus a few times into playa del carmen for the day, and also arricife.
would deffinately reccoment lanzarote for a family holiday.
having said that , we went ot tenerife in may ( our daughter is now 6 ) and , like you, hadn't been for 10 years, and what a different resort pdla has become !
very upmarket bars, restraunts, loads for kids to do, again, very family orientated, they have really vastly improved the area, you would be surprised !
my daughter cried coming home from tenerife as she had loved it so much, so the testament of a 6yr old must be right !
hope this helps you to decide a little bit emmski, please feel free to ask any questions , be glad to help !
juby

I would probably go for Lanzarote as a first taste of Canaries with a young family. It was the first island we tried with the youngsters and it converted us to the Canaries and we've been once or twice a year since. No high rise hell like some parts of Gran Canaria and Tenerife (thanks to Cesar Manrique) and some good gold sand beaches. Would recommend Playa Blanca in the south, and I believe Costa Teguise is good too.

Of the other islands"¦

Gran Canaria - Maspalomas has an upmarket feel, nice bars/restaurants, huge beach and some great hotels.

Tenerife - Costa Adeje/Fanabe end of PDLA. Possibly Los Gigantes/Playa La Arena area too, though the beaches are black sand.

Fuerteventura - have stayed in Corralejo and Caleta de Fuste and frankly can't recommend either. The beaches are good, but there's nothing to see/do and the island has a pretty soulless feel to it. Plenty of people like it though, so don't let me put you off.