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TAGGIES Grabby Elephant by Earlyears

Oh, how kids love to make toys of of things not resembling toys in the least. Cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes… and of course, several years ago, someone turned clothing labels into TAGGIES, one of the hottest baby items to hit the stores in a long time.

I, for one, love the fact that Early Years has turned Taggies from more than just a blanket into actual, wonderful, toys! They make some of the cutest stuffed animals, stroller and crib toys, and even puzzles, all with the signature, multi-colored and multi-textured tags all around.

We bought this adorable blue elephant for our youngest child. It’s one of the softest plush toys I’ve come across in a long time, and like many kids, she loves the tags. It jingles when she shakes it, and she loves that too. Just recently, though, as her motor skills developed, she discovered how to pull the little pink mouse face from the inside of the ball, let it go, and listen and feel as it “vibrates” back into place. She was so funny - it took all of her might to stretch the mouse’s cord, and you could see her head and shoulders literally shake with the effort! But as she practiced, she grew stronger with the technique until it finally became quite easy.

So this has been a favorite toy for over eighteen months now. Many things don’t even last that long in our household, but this one has, and it’s definitely a winner!

Approximate Retail: $19.97
Buy it Online

Posted 17 February 2009 † Mom § Earlyears ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Butterfly Garden by Insect Lore

The Butterfly Garden is actually one of my favorite toys of all time. I studied entomology for several years, so when I got the chance to introduce live insects to my kids I jumped at the chance. They were afraid of “bugs”, but butterflies are pretty and relatively un-scary so they were open to the idea.

Waiting for the caterpillars to arrive was hard…for me! But it was downright unbearable for the kids. We had to walk down to the mailbox every day to check for them, day after day after day. Hint - if you get this for your kids, don’t tell them about the caterpillars for a couple of weeks or they will drive you crazy! So finally we got this jar full of golden goop with 5 ugly caterpillars inside. Painted Ladies are not one of God’s prettiest caterpillars, but they are fascinating to watch, especially considering how fast they grow. They were also very easy to keep, since the golden goop is both a material for them to crawl around on, as well as food. So you don’t have to worry about feeding them while they are still caterpillars.

Once they get big enough, they crawl up to the top of the container and spin their cocoons or cases (which contain the chrysalis, a term for the pupal stage of a butterfly or moth). These cases hang from the lid. Not all of them do this at the same time, so you have to wait until all 5 do. Then you open the container, remove the plastic next to the lid, and put it into the Butterfly Garden itself.

As the caterpillars turn into butterflies, you can see them changing color inside of the chrysalides. Right before they are ready to emerge, the chrysalides are very dark. Some of what you see is called “meconium” (yes, the same word as a baby’s first poop). Some of it may stick to the butterflies after they emerge or may drip down the side of the habitat.

Feeding the butterflies is pretty fun. They eat nectar, so you can mix boiling water with sugar, let it cool, and then drip it into flowers you put in the bottom. (I went to the grocery store and asked them for free wilted chrysanthemums.) You can also “treat” them to orange slices.

Letting them go is the fun part. i expected them to fly away immediately after we opened the habitat, but they wouldn’t leave! We finally had to coax them out on our fingers. We saw them around the yard all afternoon, but eventually they were gone. They kids loved it though, and the best part is that you can order replacement caterpillars separately and reuse the habitat.

Approximate Retail: $19.97
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Posted 22 October 2008 † Mom § Insect Lore ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

K’Nex 400-Piece Bucket

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time reading my two favorite “books” - every volume of the World Book of Knowledge, and the Sears Wishbook. For those of you who group up in rural America like me, the Wishbook represented childhood utopia. Our town didn’t have a toy store, or even a chain retailer like Wal-mart. So I’d spend the better part of the year looking through the Sears Wishbook for what I wanted to ask Santa to bring me come Christmas.

There’s not much about the Wishbook itself that I can remember - except the HUGE Ferris Wheel made out of K’nex. I love construction toys - still do, in fact - and that Ferris Wheel stared up at me from glossy pages day in and day out. So when my son came home from school this year and asked for K’nex, I called up his grandmother and gave her a birthday present idea. Then I sat back and waited (and waited and waited)!

The big day finally arrived, and my own eyes glazed over when he opened the K’nex. It was a huge 400-piece bucket (I think the same one I’ve linked here) and sure enough, one of the designs in the instruction book was a Ferris Wheel. (On a side note, it’s either smaller than the one in the Wishbook, or my mind had grown the size each year since I was a child!)

This thing was really cool! My son and I got some good bonding time while we worked together on our construction project. My older daughter wanted to play too, so I helped her build some of the seats while my son built the second side of the wheel. Then we all worked together to hook up the two sides of the wheel with the seats between each junction.

Although the specialized sets offer a lot of options, I like this giant tub because there were a lot of sample designs, and it has so many basic pieces that it also leaves a lot to a young imagination.

Approximate Retail: $19.97
Buy It Online

Posted 02 October 2008 † Mom § K'nex ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: ,

Indiana Jones and the Jungle Cutter Legos

These are not your mom’s LEGOs! These building blocks have really grown up since we were kids. My son got the Indiana Jones and the Jungle Cutter set for his birthday and holy cow…he hasn’t had a moment of peace to play with the Wii because I always want to play LEGOs!

My favorite part are the “tracks” that go around the wheels. They act like bulldozer tracks. You snap all the little pieces together, position them around the wheels on one side of the vehicle, and snap together on top to complete the loop. And you can actually push them along and the tracks run like the should. Awesome!

The parts are a lot smaller than the kits I had as a child. REALLY little pieces. So we’ve had to keep it out of sight when the baby is around. And…to turn a phrase…I start Jonesing for naptime when we can play with the LEGOs!

Buy It Online
Approximate Retail: $39.99

Posted 05 September 2008 † Mom § LEGOs ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , ,

Mom Blogs - Free Ad Space Contest

I can’t wait to tell you about The AdSpace Contest I found!

The idea is simple and easy: Get as many entries as you can (very easy to do) over the next 30 days. The more entries you get, the better chance you have of winning! At the end of the 30 days, they announce the winner.

The prize?
A 125×125 pixel ad spot (above the fold) on at least TEN DIFFERENT BLOGS that will run for one month. That’s at least a $100 value!

Who is co-hosting?

How do you enter to win?
1 Entry - Subscribe to any one of the blogs above via email.
10 Entries - Write a post about the contest (must include links to all 10 hosts OR use the suggested text)
25 Entries - Offer up an ad spot on your own blog for one month as part of the prize package

Simply put, you could subscribe to all 10 blogs, write a post and offer up your own ad spot for a grand total of 45 entries!

Posted 05 September 2008 † Mom § Contests ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

Moon in my Room

Moon in My RoomMoon in my Room is the coolest nightlight on the planet. It’s a great-sized plastic moon that you hang on the wall. It’s remote control lets you change the phases of the moon from new moon to full moon, with a total of 12 different phases. Additionally, it’s packed with other cool features such as an audio CD that talks about the moon, a calendar, phase charts, etc etc.

My kids have been fascinated with this toy. Even before taking it out of the box, I could see the excitement on their faces. It’s very realistic, and a great way to get a “close up” view of something that seems to always fascinate children.

Some of Uncle Milton’s toys are a bit flimsy in nature, but this one met my expectations (at least, given today’s average!) and has lasted quite awhile. In fact, I think we ran through the batteries twice already, even given the fact that it turns itself off after awhile to preserve the batter life.

Approximate Retail: $29.97
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Posted 27 August 2008 † Mom § Uncle Milton ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

Summer Bridge Workbooks

Summer Bridge Workbook

This summer we’ve been working especially hard with our three-year-old daughter’s development. Her language skills have lagged behind her classmates, and some of her pronunciation is still very toddler-like. However, she’s a smart kid with a great imagination, and just needed some direction to channel that mental energy into some other task than drawing on her bedroom walls.

We gave her a copy of the Pre-K through Kindergarten version of the Summer Bridge Activities workbook at WonderBrains. The book focuses on basic logic problems (color 3 of the items shown below, in a list of 5) and letter recognition and writing. It gives her plenty of opportunities to color and be creative, which she loves.

To keep her older brother occupied during this time, we got him the 2nd-3rd grade version and he did very well with it too. Like many of us, he still refuses to show his work while doing math problems, but it definitely kept his attention.

It probably didn’t hurt that we bribed them with a Wii for finishing their books!

Posted 22 August 2008 † Mom § Carson-Dellosa ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Sticky Mosaics for Boys!

Sticky Mosaics Dinosaurs

I’ve loved the Orb Factory line of Sticky Mosaics craft kits, but although their designs are awesome, they were mostly aimed at girls. There are kits for mermaids, unicorns and ponies, princesses, and even a 3-D princess palace and a jewelry box. But my son, who’s really the only one old enough to do these kits without close supervision, was not interested in the girly themes. But finally they’ve come out with some really great designs for boys.

The Sticky Mosaics Dinosaurs and Dragons kits are exactly what you could hope for. They are vibrant and colorful, attractive for boys who are interested in these great, fanciful creatures. As with all the kits, they do a great job of combining creativity with the same kind of logic you find with paint-by numbers kits.

The sticky mosaics are made in China, but Orb Factory has gone through extensive quality control and safety testing, and The Orb Factory welcomes calls from customers wanting further information; their phone number is 902-477-9570.

Approximate Retail: $14.97
Buy Dinosaurs or Dragons

Posted 21 August 2008 † Mom § The Orb Factory ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Wobble Deck is a Sturdy Toy Choice

Wobble Deck

The Wobble Deck gets my vote as the new favorite toy in our household. I’ve been looking for good toys to get the kids up and off the couch. Summertime in Florida brings warmth and sunshine, which is great for water toys and trips to the pool. But summer also brings daily afternoon showers, since we’re far enough south that we actually have a rainy season. So in the search for an active toy that could be used indoors, I came across the Wobble Deck.

The basic idea is to balance on the toy and complete one of 3 games (Memory Match, Speed Play and Freestyle). That’s right - this board is ELECTRONIC, so that alone got my kids’ attention pretty quickly. It helps them develop balance and coordination, and is great for fitness, although it is a little bit loud. It’s only suitable for children 5 years and up, but I’ve used it with my 3 year old while holding onto her to help. (Note that I am not endorsing this for use below the product recommendations! Just sharing my experience.

The construction is good and the design is really nice. It’s a little pricey at almost $40 but I’m really glad we made the investment.

Approximate Retail: $39.97
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Posted 01 August 2008 † Mom § Diggin ‡ Comments (0) °

Water Symphony Bath Toy

4267.jpgI thought it was time for a review of something that I DON’T like so much. It was pretty easy to pick out; I think Water Symphony is the worst toy I’ve ever paid money for. This one probably looks familiar - I can remember actually wanting to play with this after seeing commercials for it as a child myself. So I finally had an excuse, 5 years ago, when my son was old enough to play with toys in the bathtub. Off I headed for the store! Got my plastic dolphins and hurried home to what I imagined was a symphony of sound.

Right?

Wrong.

It’s darn near impossible to get any sound out of these dolphins at all. I tried it for YEARS - with both of my first two kids - and got really proficient at getting a sound about 10% of the time. So that was really disappointing. But it doesn’t stop there. The most annoying thing is that the “floats” that the dolphins sit in, won’t stay linked together like they are supposed to. Forget it!

I think the most value this toy brought was helping to review colors when my children were learning them. And my older daughter enjoyed pretending that the floats were bracelets. I tossed the dolphins and just kept the rings for her, until she outgrew them…at which point I was delighted to chuck them, too.

Approximate Retail: $19.99
Buy it Online (If you want to…)

Posted 21 April 2008 † Mom § Tomy ‡ Comments (3) °

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