Reviews for Toys & Games
So many families with young children end up having to buy extra beach pails and shovels when they arrive at a vacation destination. In fact, I recall buying a brand new set, then immediately “donating” it to local children when our trip wrapped up, simply because we couldn’t fit our existing one in a suitcase or carry-on. Of course, they aren’t expensive, but just think about all of that plastic! Well, we were thrilled to learn about the new eco-friendly SandSac foldable travel beach pail, designed and sold by a mom and dad team who understand the challenges of traveling with young children, as well as the responsibility we all feel to help protect and conserve our environment. The SandSac comes in three sizes, is foldable, and includes a large spoon-like bamboo shovel. The SandSac itself is made of 100% cotton canvas and it actually holds water. My kids couldn’t believe it (and my husband and I couldn’t either!). One nice little bonus I found is that because the SandSac is canvas and soft, my kids didn’t get bumped or bruised like they sometimes do from carrying hard plastic pails full of water around. SandSacs also include 4 non-toxic fabric markers so your grandkids can decorate them and make them their own. If they wish, they can also use fabric paint, appliques, beads, and anything that holds up to sand, beach water, and wash cycles. It’s this decorative customization that makes the SandSac a perfect summer or vacation gift for young children. It’s a beach toy, craft project and keepsake all rolled up into one! And, when your grandkids and their parents are neatly packing their SandSacs and enjoying them at the beach, they can feel good about the fact that MESCO Associates (SandSac’s official entity) is planting a tree (via Mokugift) as a result of that purchase. And planting trees for each sale isn’t the only thing MESCO Associates is doing to help the environment. You can read more about that on their website. In the meantime, know that the SandSac is a unique new product from a small shop doing big things — fulfilling functional and environmental needs, while promoting fun and relaxation. Hooray!
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Whether you and your grandchildren are in the heat of the baseball season and loving every moment of it, or muddling through the off-season, Ballpark Classics is a wonderful way to celebrate the game together indoors. Ballpark Classics is a finely crafted 3-dimensional hardwood game resembling a ballpark and equipped to simulate just about any scenario possible between pitcher and batter. Fastballs, sliders, walks, strikeouts, home runs — anything’s possible! The “pitching pipe” allows you to adjust your thumb and fingers to throw different types of pitches — and as with any game, practice makes perfect. When hitting, there is a mechanism that actually lets you feel the ball hitting your bat, so whether you hit a single (through a gate in the fence), or a home run (over the fence or back up the pitching pipe), you can actually experience the satisfaction of it as you might experience it playing the actual game in an actual park. The game is fast-paced and realistic, which makes it appealing to the younger generations (great for kids 8 and up). And older generations love the heart and soul that was clearly put into the design of Ballpark Classics — it takes just one look to realize that a long-time baseball fan conceived it. In fact, Doug Strohm developed the first version of the game as a teenager in 1976. Thousands of hours of product development time have passed and what you have is a beautifully nostalgic game with a design inspired by some of our country’s beloved ballparks. It even includes some vintage advertisement decals so you can personalize your park. There are no batteries or electricity needed, and it’s made in USA! So connect with your family members face-to-face, and enjoy America’s great pastime year-round. And as of Spring 2009, you can now special order some of your favorite ballparks! Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium and Busch Stadium. Surprise the baseball fans in your life — not just for grandkids!
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WheeGo Home/Indoor Quest$9.99 at Wheego |
WheeGo Home/Indoor Quest is a new indoor treasure hunt activity created by a resourceful mom and dad team. Cold winter days and long stretches of spring and fall rain can mean antsy grandkids looking for action. Nothing a good old-fashioned indoor treasure hunt can’t cure! WheeGo is designed for kids ages 4-7. It’s small and portable, and is great for visits with grandparents. Each package comes with supplies for two hunts – ours came with Cody the Country Singer’s and Jilly the Jouster’s quests. Most often, you or another caregiver will be Captain WheeGo, following the instructions enclosed and setting up the hunt. Each hunt includes color-coded and well-labeled envelopes containing: a Captain WheeGo Card that tells you (Captain WheeGo) where in your home to place each of the clue cards (out of site from your grandkids); a Character Card that gets the quest started and tells players where to find Clue #1; 10 Clue Cards; a little Treasure that is placed in the Treasure Box; and a Character Trading Card. Each of the Clue Cards is written in poetic verse and the clues are fairly easy for 6 & 7 year-olds to figure out – less so for 4 and 5 year-olds. They are not intended to stump any player. I found that the game became more interesting when I made the Clue Cards a little harder to find. In other words, once your grandkids figure out the Clue Card and know, in general, where in the house to look for the next Clue Card (for instance, the pots and pans cabinet), you may want to make things a little more challenging (like placing the card in the pot they’d least expect, or not in a pot or pan at all!). Your grandkids will be up and moving and excited to find each clue, and eventually, the treasure. My kids were literally out of breath, dashing through the house to each Clue Card destination. I should note that some kids will need help reading the Clue Cards, and some, if not most, will need clues read to them completely. Either way, they will have loads of fun – you all will!
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We wash infants’ clothing in special detergent and boil baby bottles and pacifiers before use — in order to protect our littlest kids and grandkids. But as we’ve learned in the past few years, we often don’t know what chemicals are used in the manufacture of many children’s products, including everyday baby gear. DANO2, a new toy designer and manufacturer, has eliminated this anxiety, at least when it comes to baby teethers. Their Circus Teethers are made with non-toxic, medical grade materials that are free from harmful substances such as Lead, Phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA). They are tested by independent, ISO (International Organization for Standardization) laboratories to ensure compliance with all U.S. and EU safety regulations, and are made right here in the U.S.A.! DANO2 was started by pop-art toymaker, Daniel Monahan (for his daughter) and his entrepreneur father, and the company is advised by a top-notch pediatrician and chemist. Monahan’s designs are slick, yet practical. Three teethers come in a handy round carrying case, which can fit in any diaper bag, or purse, for that matter. The yellow “monkey” teether is flexible, the blue “seal” is firm, and the green “lion” is tough — all easy to grasp, and, thankfully, easy to trust.
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HEXBUG Micro Robotic Creatures$9.99 - 19.99 at HEXBUG |
We were delighted — and not the least bit squeamish — to be introduced to our little HEXBUG friends at Toy Fair in New York last month. HEXBUGS are beautifully designed and affordable micro robotic creatures appropriate for ages 8 and up. Currently there are three models available for purchase — the “bug,” the “inchworm,” and the “crab” — while the newest “ant” will be available this spring. We’ve fallen hard for our green inchworm, the only HEXBUG that is controlled by a tiny infrared remote control unit. What’s fascinating about it is its steering capabilities, and its ability to pirouette in place when stopped on its center pod foot. The HEXBUG crab reacts to light and sound, hiding in shaded areas until a loud sound or exposure to light chases it out into the open. The original bug reacts to touch and sound, and the newest ant has legs and wheels that allow it to move faster than the others. Each HEXBUG comes with button cell batteries included and are available in a variety of fun colors. Your grandkids don’t need to be robot fans to enjoy HEXBUGS — anyone, including adults, will have fun with them. Their affordability makes them great surprise gifts, and, unlike real bugs, anyone would be happy to have them roaming around the house!
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Hoppers Jr. is a fun and challenging peg solitaire game designed for kids ages 5-7 to play on their own — although I’ve been having just as much fun with it as my kid testers! Once again, Thinkfun has done a great job with the design of this game (as with most of their games). The square sturdy board (along with a handy travel bag to carry the pieces and hook onto the board) is intended to mimic a lily pad pond, and the object is to have the chunky little frogs hop over each other until only the red frog remains. The green frogs can hop over each other in any direction, and the 1 red frog can also hop over the greens, but the greens can not hop over the red. Like many of Thinkfun’s games, Hoppers Jr. comes with a Challenge Book with game board setups ranging from Easy to Super Hard. Some of the challenges actually start getting “challenging” in the medium range, so somewhere along the way your grandchild will likely require some friendly encouragement and assistance. At the more difficult levels it will be necessary to navigate the board more than once, possibly many times, in order to crack it. Similar to Chess, it helps to study the board and try to see all of the remaining moves, or hops, ahead of time. However, there is only one player so there are no surprises — just good mind-stretching fun! Thinkfun also sells a version of this game for older children (ages 8-12).
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We recently took our first long car ride with the Snack & Play Travel Tray by Star Kids. Our trip was more relaxed than usual because our 4 year-old daughter was able to entertain herself without as much reaching, dropping, and asking for help. The Snack & Play Travel Tray was created by a entrepreneurial mom who wanted to address a problem recognized by most parents — how to keep young children occupied, self-sufficient and happy, with toys, snacks, etc., during extended travel in the car, plane or stroller. What’s novel about this tray is that it is just firm enough to color or roll toys on, yet is still soft and comfortable on a child’s lap. It can be used with any car seat, booster or stroller, and has a mesh pocket hanging from each side so your grandchild can store toys, cups, snacks, etc. This, in conjunction with the fact that the tray itself has a border around it, means a lot less reaching back to hand-over or pick-up hard-to-reach toys. The Snack & Play is manufactured in accordance with European standards, the strictest regulations in the world, and has been crash tested by a federally recognized testing facility — the tray system’s softness makes it much safer than other trays in the case of an accident. The fabric wipes clean and is certified lead and phthalate-free.
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Recently my kids and I have had the pleasure of playing with some of the wooden toys handcrafted by Tom Seal, of Bearded Seal Woodcrafts. We especially appreciate fine handcrafted wooden toys, and these are some of the finest we’ve seen. Tom custom-makes each product entirely by hand. He received his earliest inspiration as a child wandering the forests of his native Pacific Northwest. By high school he was crafting wood, and then honed his skills studying fine arts in college. He applies this appreciation of wood, as well as his knowledge of how to expertly craft it, into each of his products — from vintage wooden cars to classic wooden tangram puzzles. My kids have been vroom vroom’ing around non-stop with a gorgeous classic Ford mustang crafted from Makore & Bolivian Rosewood ($32). The tangrams set is crafted using American Black Walnut, and comes packaged in a decorative silk travel pouch, along with plenty of suggested tangram puzzles ($17 for domestic wood or $22 for exotic). We love tangrams, and what a treat it is to be able to play on such a beautiful set. If you and your grandchild enjoy logic puzzles (and also have some pretty good fine motor skills!), Tom also sells several other logic puzzles, such as a Sword puzzle and 2 Ring puzzle (both $7), as well as games, such as Marble Solitaire ($18). Tom’s signature pieces are his line of beautiful handcrafted wooden rocking horses. The Rocking Thoroughbred can be custom-ordered and made with any of the woods Tom uses (average price is $460). Or choose from various designs crafted from Pine and stained as light Golden Pecan to dark Walnut colors ($134). For a small fee, Tom can add a personalized inscription on many of his pieces. All of Tom’s wooden creations make fantastic kids gifts and, incidentally, are sure to delight all of us grownups, too!
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Hop To It! by Playroom Entertainment offers a new twist on memory games. It’s fast paced and appeals to kids of all ages (recommended for ages 5 and up), as well as parents and grandparents. 21 picture tiles are arranged in a row or a circle — although you need to be sure to have a beginning and an end. Then 3 discs are used to cover the first, second, and third (for advanced play) picture tiles. Each player is allowed to briefly view all of the tiles before beginning play, and when ready, the hourglass timer is set and the player must remember what the object on the first tile is. If they guess correctly, another player quickly moves, or “hops” that cover disc onto the third object tile. Then the player must quickly recall and say what the object on the second tile is, and so forth. When the time is up each player collects the picture tiles they’ve recalled and when each player has had a turn the tiles are counted and whoever has the most wins. The next time the game is played the object tiles are mixed up and rearranged. This is definitely one of those games that can be challenging for both children and adults (a great intergenerational activity!), requiring one to exercise and train the part of the brain that controls visual memory. It’s certainly been challenging for this game reviewer and her family! We also like that it’s small and portable — and the affordable price makes it a great gift idea for anytime!
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Idbids is a beautifully conceived and designed eco-friendly educational kit for kids 3 years and up. It makes learning about how to protect and preserve our environment fun for young children. The Idbids storybook included in the kit (Iddy Biddy Steps for a Greener World) is a sturdy small square book with vibrant photo-like illustrations showing each of the Idbids plush toy characters (Scout the Cloud, Waverly the Water Drop and Lola the Flower) engaging in a earth-friendly activity. It also explains in very simple kid-friendly terms why we should practice what the Idbids preach and the difference each of their recommendations will make to our environment. The storybook then refers kids to the kit’s Field Guide, that touches on more iddy biddy steps (10 total) they can take to make even more of a difference. The steps include: turning off the water while brushing teeth, turning off the lights when leaving a room, recycling, and using both sides of the paper when creating artwork. The guide then suggests that every time your grandchild takes one of these iddy biddy steps, they should color in one of the footprints that appear in the guide. Then, when all of the footprints are colored in, they can go to the Idbids website and print out a certificate of completion. The kit also includes an adorable Idbids character plush toy handcrafted from 100% organic Egyptian cotton and an organic fabric cinch sack that anyone (regardless of age) would enjoy. Of course, the Idbids kit’s packaging is made from 100% recycled paperboard. Idbids’ company motto is “Iddy Biddy Steps Make a Biggie Big Difference.” We predict that kids implementing the principles they learn from this gift (as well as what they learn from their parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.) will begin to understand what this motto means and will have some lots of iddy biddy fun in the process!
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