There’s something especially cheerful about this latest cooperative game from Peaceable Kingdom! Sunny Day Pond was a hit with our preschooler testers. They loved that they were working together to make three puzzles that feature an orange duck, a purple fish and a green frog. Players use the spinner to determine which color puzzle piece they’ll be using. But beware, there are raindrops! If six raindrops are collected, the round is over! Very sweet. Designed for 2-4 players, ages 3 and up.
eeBoo Carnival Glitter Glue
Next to glow-in-the-dark toys, glitter glue is on my personal top hit parade of great playthings. There’s just something so satisfying about glitter glue. We just got in the new line of Carnival Glitter Glue from eeBoo. Each of the 4 tubes look like peppermint sticks with two tones. At $5 a pop, this is a fun activity craft that won’t break the bank.
For reviews/ratings of Carnival Glitter Glue, visit us at www.toyportfolio.com
My glitter glue masterpiece.
While there is certainly room for novelty this time of year, it’s also important to bring home toys that have lasting play value. The toys that make the cut tend to be the classics–and often more open-ended. These toys place your child at the center of the play experience. So instead of dolls that do all the talking, dolls that say nothing will be enjoyed for a longer period of time because they will say whatever your child wants them to say! (The doll to the left is from Corolle Doll’s Calin line). We’ll be talking balls, blocks, trains, art supplies and games!
Take a toy inventory:
1. Does your child have a variety of playthings? Having a lot of one type of toy (whether it’s dolls or trucks) will often lead to a chorus of “I have nothing to play with.”
2. Gender Free- Is your child’s play experience only pink? only blue? We want boys to know how to be nurturing parents–so dolls are an important part of role playing “dad”. On the flip side, we want our daughters to excel in math– so blocks and construction toys should be part of their play world as well.
3. Art supplies – Encourage their creative side. With budgets being cut in many schools, kids have fewer opportunities for painting, using clay, and drawing. Whether it’s a juicy box of new Crayola crayons or an interesting set of watercolor pencils from Faber Castell or eeBoo– find a way to bring them back to the arts.
4. Games– One of the best ways to unplug your family is to play a game together. We have dozens of great suggestions on our list. Find a couple that become part of your family’s entertainment. I’m personally really a fan of Connect Four Launchers and Joanne’s favorite is almost anything with letters. She’s a beast at Upwords. (Never quite referred to my mother that way–but you know what I mean).
When I posted our list today of the Best Toys for Kids with ADHD on our website, I had no idea that the American Academy of Pediatrics would report its new findings that ADHD can be diagnosed and treated in children as young as 4. The group had, in the past put the threshold at age 6. Notably the nation’s leading association of pediatricians suggested that these children did not necessarily need to be placed on medicine, but that identification and treatment could be started at this age.
I’d recommend taking a look at the findings on the APP website. http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/adhd.cfm
Here’s an article about the findings from the LA Times.
Buying toys for the kids in your life should be fun. Yet, we often hear that toys purchased for kids with ADHD don’t always go over very well–games are too frustrating, construction sets have too many pieces and directions…all leading to frustration for everyone.
We have updated our tips for buying toys for kids with ADHD– what to look for and, perhaps more importantly, what to stay clear of when you’re shopping. This handy list is on our website at www.toyportfolio.com along with a specific list of toys we’d recommend. The list is meant as a starting point–you’ll see that there is a theme in each category for what is more likely to be hit. If you find certainly toys that work–we’d love to hear from you.
And to help well-meaning grandparents and other family members make wise choices–we’d suggest sharing the tips and list with them as well.
Crayola's New Color Wonder Metallics
I love Crayola’s Color Wonder. It’s really magical. You take a clear pointed special marker on the special paper–and voila, color emerges. The markers also don’t stain. All in all–a great product. So we were really excited to get the new metallics –and they deliver. (Some metallics are dull–these are really pretty and vibrant). Watch our video.
The Metallic set comes with five markers, 18 sheets of paper and stencils.
Each year we l
ook for toys that would be appropriate for kids with ADHD. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are all very well-meaning gift givers during the holiday season–but often the “dream” gift turns into a nightmare for kids with ADHD. We have reposted our basic guidelines (to share with the whole family) as well as a list of toys to be enjoyed!
After two very intensive weeks of looking at what seemed like a boat load of plastic toys…I finally decided we were ready for a treat. We opened the box from blabla kids. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against plastic toys per se – many are on our top list this year- but there’s something really special about this collection of dolls. They’re both deliciously retro and fresh in design and spirit.
Take a look at just two of the new dolls that we’re reviewing this morning.
We had a preview today of LeapFrog’s new toys for 2010. I’ve seen many of them at an earlier showing (I think I may have blogged about having seen so many promising toys–but they were all embargoed). I’m not big on keeping secrets so showing me toys I’m not allowed to write about for months really doesn’t work for me. Today I was assured that I could write about everything…
New for 2010, Leapster Explorer
Leapster Explorer
If you’re looking for a hand-held game console for younger kids, this will probably be the one to get. We haven’t tested it yet–that said, it’s faster, the graphics are amazingly clear and bright–and the games are varied and interesting. The Leapster Explorer will retail for $69–and while your preschooler will probably still want to play with your iPhone, they will also be more than satisfied to play with the Explorer. In the photo below you can see a demonstration of Sugar Bugs–where you are given the task of getting the sugar bugs out of the person’s teeth. For some reason this really grossed out my mother when we saw it a few months ago–it doesn’t bother me too much–we’ll have to see how kids react. The company will continue the existing Leapster line (at a lower price point) and continue to bring out a few games a year to support it). Some may be disappointed that the Explorer will not play your existing library of Leapster titles.
Demonstrating Sugar Bugs
What I did think was really promising was the on-line expanded experience of LeapWorld….it’s FREE (once you’ve purchased your Explorer)…and the content is not just more ABC drills…there’s lots of wonderful new concepts to explore — a weather app where you can set the temperature, the humidity, etc. and then see how your settings impact the weather on the little town. Maybe because my older son was obsessed with the Weather Channel as a preschooler – this seems particularly fun. There are also educational games that aren’t about right or wrong–but exploring. For example, there is a scale –and you can add more objects to each side to see which weighs more. From what we saw today–there seems to be a happy revival of the what many refer to as the Golden Age of Children’s Software of the ’90s–where technology embraced educational games with innovation and creativity. From a safety standpoint–this also has advantages since your child gets to LeapWorld by plugging in their Explorer to your PC–not by surfing the web. We sat so quietly during this presentation (we’re normally a noisy group) that one of our pr buddies thought we had already left the showroom.
Of course, our intention to behave and be relatively quiet was completely blown when we got to the new baby toys. There were many interesting toys…pretend lap tops (with a blog and email feature) for two year olds, new drums, a new activity table…but then we all saw the following toy. I don’t know why I always think I’m being punked –but today I was sure this was it. So I decided to say nothing at first. I heard a little chuckle from my niece Ali (assistant extraordinaire) and my brother James was leaning an elbow into me in just that way that older brother can…and then I just lost it. I looked around…was this a joke? (My mother was on deadline with another project so she wasn’t with us today – but truth be told I think she would have laughed as well–but she probably would have told us to behave ourselves!)
LeapFrog's Learn & Groove Magic Wand
Here’s the photo and you can watch the video.
Ok, we got over it…
I really liked this new interactive pot, called Potty, –that comes with veggies..my favorite part?…the lid says “open” and “closed’…this will be great fun for toddlers. 
Watch the video!
We also saw more extensions on the TAG and TAG Jr. reading lines (both Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award winners). More titles are promised for both and there will be an interactive USA and World Map to go with TAG that looked like fun for both kids and parents. While there were more licensed titles–we were assured that there would still be more classic storybooks in the growing collection of the TAG libraries– we hope so.
We look forward to testing the new products with kids — and I have a sense that the folks in toyland know that as a family, we take what we do very seriously, but with an appropriate sense of humor…
TAG Interactive World Map
We received this update on Guidecraft’s Magneatos from one of our imaginative testers! In this picture he has created a garage with Magneatos- one of our all time favorite open-ended building sets for preschoolers. If you’re looking for something fun and not structured, we highly recommend these sets. 
For a full review of this Platinum Award winning toy, click here. Our suggestion, put one of these sets in a basket in your family room…building with them is really fun, no matter how old you are! Because there is no right or wrong way to play with these over-sized colorful magnetized pieces–they are also a great choice for kids with ADHD.
