This is a game that requires a lot of hands on, trial and error learning. I feel like no matter how I describe it, you need to really play to understand it – but I’ll give it my best shot.  There are three levels: easy, medium and hard. When the game starts – one square, or any combination of colored squares will light up. After you touch the check button at the top. it will rearrange the lights into a different pattern to show you the puzzle. It’s your job tomaneuver the squares by  pushing the top of the Rubik’s device to the left, right, up, down, or rotating it to the right or left, to move your squares to the correct location to solve the puzzle. When you get it right, the blocks will blink and make a cool sound. There is also a timed setting to see if you can quickly solve 10 puzzles in a lighting round fashion.

With all of the toys I review, I try to use them with different children to gain their perspective. It was a big hit amongst a few young elementary school aged boys. Keep in mind that as parents you know your children best; this game appealed more to those types of children who are puzzle wizards and love a good brain challenge. The only downfall to the Rubik’s Slide, was there is initially a little bit of a learning curve, but once they figured it out, they were hooked! Though it is marketed for children 5 and up, and each child is different, I think it would probably be too difficult for a Kindergarten student, but I did have quick success using it with children first grade (6 years old) and up. This was a very motivating game for kids with limited hand strength to build the endurance of the small muscles in the hand.  I also thought it was a great tool to help children learn the concept of right and left while learning the game.  One quick hint: I do wish their was a tutorial level, so young children could really practice a fair amount of easy ones before progressing to more challenging ones.  However, I would often stop and re-start the device a few times until they got the concept.  It also took me a few days to figure out that there is an adjustable volume setting, so the sound can be turned off for quiet play at home or during travel.

Rubik’s Slide is available online and in stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Toys “R” Us, K-Mart and JCPenney.  Technosource provided this Rubik’s Slide free for review.  All opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

The Clay Center with Play-Doh comes with LOTS of items that include: rolling pins, scissors, molds, stampers, extruders, body part pieces, sculpting tools and 4 cans of Play-Doh in its own tool kit.

So how does the Clay Center with Play-Doh help with Back to School? Easy, use it to help your child review their skills before they return in the Fall:

- Any smooshing, squeezing, pinching and pulling will help rev those hand muscles back into shape for better endurance during pencil/paper tasks

- For preschoolers, use the body part pieces to review body part awareness by making a person. Encourage them to draw a person after they have made their own Play-Doh person to reinforce the positioning of head, body, feet, arms, etc.

- Roll out the putty into long “snakes,” using the scissors with a “thumbs up” position, cut the snakes up into several pieces to get those hands ready for scissor cutting control!

- If you have older children who know their letters, encourage them to make different letters with the Play-Doh, have an alphabet strip nearby from them to look at to help their memory, or push the playdoh onto a letter tracing card.

- Use the purple sculpting tools and hold them in a tripod fashion (using thumb, index and middle finger) with a good grasp and draw letters or words into the Play-Doh.

I would also recommend adding some Ziploc bags to this kit to help keep some of the smaller pieces sorted. If this kit ever got dumped over, the pieces would be everywhere!

Make sure to check out the Constructive Playthings website for other back to school and learning toys.

The GIVEAWAY this month is a Clay Center with Play Doh for one lucky person!

Mandatory Entry-

1. For a mandatory entry go to www.toyqueen.com and click through the blue Constructive Mom button on the right hand side to enter the Constructive Playthings website.  Leave a comment under this post about another great back to school toy that you saw on the Constructive Playthings website. Remember, anytime you click through to the website using this button, you will get 15% off your entire purchase!

Extra Credit Entries- Make sure to leave a comment under this post if you complete any of the following.

1. Follow @ConstructiveMom and @Toyqueen on Twitter

2. Like Constructive Playthings on Facebook and ToyQueen on Facebook

This Giveaway will end on Wednesday August 18th at 11:59 p.m. EST

I received products from Constructive Playthings in return for review. All opinions are my own.

My little “Lego Lover” friend was very eager to help construct the pyramid.  With only a bit of cueing for placement of the pieces, after 20 minutes, we had maybe put together 1/4th of the game, so thinking we’d have time to play the game faster, I began assembling the pyramid in super-speed, giving him a few suggestions of bricks to find along the way. It took us a solid 45 minutes to get the pyramid together, with me hustling for about half of it.  Due to time constraints we had to postpone playing the game, but my friend was happy to play with the pyramid.

A week later we got together to play the game. I started to read the directions and initially got seriously confused. The goal of the game is to move your LEGO adventurer first around the base of the pyramid and then ultimately up and down the pyramid, trying to get to the top to defeat the mummy King Ramses. Along the way the adventurer collects colored crystals and looks under the secret temples to guess what color crystal is hiding underneath. Players will need to use their memory so that later on they can remember what colored crystals are hiding underneath each secret temple.  With each turn guessing the correct color of a crystal will allow them to move  move up, down and laterally to different levels on the pyramid.  Simultaneously, with a roll of the dice, mummy’s are released from the top of the pyramid, preventing your adventurer from accessing different levels on the pyramid, as well as allowing for rotation of the levels of the pyramid to change the path to the top. Once the first adventurer reaches the top of the pyramid and rolls the dice to a mummy, they defeat King Ramses and get access to the treasure room hidden in the base of the pyramid.

In the manual I found a link to games.LEGO.com, where there were animated tutorials providing the directions using a visual demonstration.  They made so much more sense, I would recommend this over trying to read the directions.  If your child has difficulty with multi-step directions they will most likely need some assistance in remembering the sequence.

So as is typical of LEGO’s in general, fine motor skills and hand strength are required in the process of building the pyramid. This particular game includes visual memory, as each person has to remember the color of the crystals located in the secret temple to gain as many crystals as possible to make moving up and down the pyramid easier. Visual spatial skills are involved to determine exactly how many spaces are between the edges and temples when building the pyramid. Though I was not successfuly in learning this game right out of the box, after 30 minutes of play, we became much more confident. I think this game would appeal very highly to the 8-12 year old boy. Not only does it include the ability to recreate a very detailed and cool Egyptian pyramid, but this game does promote customization with changing the rules and team building through cooperative group play.  At the very least, this makes a rather cool pyramid where children can create their own imaginative play.

Though LEGO provided a free copy of Ramses Pyramid for review, the opinions are purely the bloggers own.

Review of Toy Story 3 game called Woody’s Run Around Round-up. For ages 3 and up. Price: $34.95 at www.wildplanet.com .

It unfolded very easily out of the box, after I installed the three AA batteries (batteries are not included), I let Gavin, my 8 month old loose. He has just started to crawl on hands and knees, so he was happily crawling up and down the mat, using his hands to activate the different sounds on each square in good old cause and effect fashion!

Then we brought the mat to our friend’s house over the 4th of July holiday to see what their 3 year old twins and 5 year old thought of the product. We tested out the games, though truthfully, we had some difficulty understanding most of the audio directions. When you step on the mat it makes a crinkly sound and with any other background noise, we found it hard to hear and follow at times because it sounded a bit muffled and spoke too quickly.  The twins enjoyed simply hopping on one and two feet from start to finish in hopscotch fashion without the audio. We then tried to think of some different ways to use the product without the sound, so you can continue to promote the color, shape and number recognition the mat is designed to teach.

So we had more fun using the mat in “Twister” format! If your child is two or three, you would want to encourage color recognition. Encourage them to stand on a color, put their nose on red, crawl to blue, etc.  The twins knew their colors, but hadn’t learned all their numbers. So I encouraged them to find the number 9 by looking for either a green space or a triangle. For older children preschool and school age who are working on  shapes and numbers, give them more than one direction at a time, sit down on 7 and a put your foot on a rectangle. This allows you to use the mat with different age groups at the same time.

When it’s rainy, snowy, windy or too hot outside and you have kids with extra energy, this is quick indoor way to relieve some wiggles. It can also be helpful for children learning to advance their motor skills for hopping on one foot and improving their motor coordination. Though I would suggest being with your children when they play it to repeat and modify the directions to meet their skill level.

Constructive Playthings is a family owned business who, since 1953, has been striving to provide botheducationaland developmental toys to consumers.  They will also be offering a $50 gift card this month to a US or Canadian reader, 18 and older with a valid email address who completes the following three steps:

1. Visits http://www.constplay.com and takes a look at the website. Come back and tell me a toy you think your child would really enjoy. (The toy mentioned in this review does not count!) (COUNTS AS ONE ENTRY)

2. Follow @ToyQueen on Twitter (FOLLOW COUNTS AS ONE ENTRY) and post a comment here.( POST COUNTS AS ONE ENTRY ONCE A DAY)

For Extra Entries: (Please leave a comment on this post letting me know what you have applied for regards to extra entries)

- Post a comment on our Facebook page (COUNTS AS ONE ENTRY)

- Post this contest to your facebook status (COUNTS AS ONE ENTRY)

- Follow @ConstructiveMom on Twitter and Facebook (COUNTS AS TWO ENTRIES)

Giveaway will end in three weeks on Monday July 26th, 11:59 p.m. EST

Remember, if you plan on ordering any toys or products, use the blue discount button for the Constructive Moms program on the sidebar of my blog, it will get you a 15% off discount on any purchase!

Canadians – Constructive Toy is just on the verge of launching in Canada.  If you win, you will be one of the first people to shop on the website with your gift card when it launches later this month

Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/3/da8l53

So from a motor perspective this game gets kids moving whether they play indoors or outdoors while it facilitates hand/eye coordination.  Boochie also promotes visual spatial concepts of near/far/close, encourages simple math through it’s basic point system, and is most of all quick, fun and easy to play in a short time frame. Another tip over the summer to keep kids current in their measuring and math skills would be to encourage children to use a ruler or yard stick to measure the distance between items when it’s too close to call!

I had a great time using this game with children first grade and up.  I did need to repeat various directions and assist with point scoring, so it would be beneficial to have an adult or older child who understands the point system nearby to act as a facilitator.

Gamewright provided this item free to facilitate my review, the opinions expressed are the bloggers own.

Constructive Playthings/US Toy Company is a family owned and operated business for the last 57 years whose vision is to provide high quality, unique products designed to inspire learning, creativity and fun!

With my background as an occupational therapist working with children with disabilities, I hope to assist the vision of Constructive Playthings so together we can promote the key benefits of their products, so parents can continue to assist their children to grow, learn and develop new skills!

Follow the program on Twitter: @constructivemom and Facebook: www.facebook.com/contructive-playthings

Here is a comprehensive list of the 11 other outstanding moms that were chosen for this fabulous program!

Lee: http://www.mysentimentexactlee.com (Program Leader)
Allie: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com
Karen: http://3garnets2sapphires.com
Brittany: http://thegreerfive.com
Dwan: http://www.mommadjane.com
Tennille: http://www.feistyfrugalandfabulous.com/
Jody: http://www.mommymoment.ca/
Lisa: http://www.crazyadventuresinparenting.com
Gina: http://www.wrestlingaddictedmommy.com
Bridgette: http://www.thenotsoblog.com
Kimberly: http://www.raisingolives.com

In conjunction with writing posts on many of their products there will be giveaways and all sorts of great surprises in store! So make sure to follow me on twitter: @toyqueen and Facebook: www.facebook.com/toyqueen so you don’t miss any information!

P: Pen! First we filled the small pen like dispenser with colored beads. I found it helpful to take a pair of tweezers from the medicine cabinet to help fill the dispenser, as the beads were very small, and sometimes challenging for the kids to pick up.

I: Index Finger! I encouraged the kids to hold the dispenser, as they should their pencil or marker, with three fingers in a tripod position. We used our index fingers to push down the button to release the beads onto the template.

X: Xylophone! Okay, so we didn’t make a xylophone, but you could easily do this with the create your own template feature online at www.pixos.com!

O: ORGANIZE! Make sure you are organized prior! This is definitely an activity that you may want to do sitting nearby your child to assist them as they need it. PixOs has a key on the back of each product, identifying whether the kit is easy, medium, or hard, so be mindful of this with younger children. There was a sorter in the box for the kit I reviewed, that allows you to separate out the beads by color, but there was not a cover to this particular container. I would encourage you to put the entire container in a sandwich size ziploc bag when you are finished to prevent the beads from escaping all over the place. However, after looking more at other great PixOs Products online, some kits do come complete with sorters that have a cover.

S: Spray Success! I successfully used this in a small group with two children at the same time. They alternated taking turns between filling the dispenser and placing the beads onto the template. We created one design in about 1/2 hour, then needed another 1/2 hour or so for it to dry. It says to let it dry for 10 minutes, but the kids got a little excited about the water spraying, so it took a little longer. We also needed to spray some of the designs twice as some of the outer beads did not attach when they were sprayed.

Other thoughts:

- Considering their price points, these would make excellent birthday and holiday gifts!

- Don’t stop with just making your creation! After spraying the design with water and waiting for it to dry, we made a story together about our creations and wrote them down in a journal to promote the academic skills of learning letter formation, as well as the visual spatial skills of writing with good spacing, formation and size of the letters. Children working on social skills and social language can have their PixOs interact with a friend’s creation.

- Parents consider PixOs for a fun activity over the summer. Teachers and therapists always encourage children to continue with their writing to keep their skills current, why not take a fun activity like PIxOs and bring it to the next level by promoting your child’s fine motor coordination and keeping their academic skills fresh!

Spinmaster provided a free sample of PixOs to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed in this review are purely the blogger’s own.  If you are wondering about the safety of these beads, visit www.pixos.com for all information. PixOs meet and exceed all current international toy safety standards.

Keri Wilmot (ToyQueen) shows the benefits of using a Svan Chair for feeding

Being a full time working mom who happens to specialize in feeding therapy, I only have a few hours of the day to spend with Gavin, one of which is typically dinner. This post highlights one of my most treasured products for our mealtimes, the SVAN High Chair.

When considering purchasing a high chair or feeding seat for your child, thinking of their posture and positioning should be your first priority for safety when eating. Consult with your pediatrician regarding your child’s readiness if you have any questions, but typically when first foods are presented, the child should have begun to develop head, neck and core (tummy) strength to sit upright.

Remember back to your geometry days and abide by the 90-90-90 rule. When looking at a child’s posture, there should be a 90 degree angle at the child’s hips, knees and ankles. Features of the SVAN High Chair that make it an excellent choice for feeding and playtime include the footplate/footrest and the safety guard with tray attachment that provides good side support for the child’s belly and midsection.

Most traditional high chairs do not have a footrest in general, and without this we couldn’t abide by the 90-90-90 rule! So for optimal positioning this is such an important feature that is a main part of the SVAN High Chair. When a child’s feet are supported, they have more stability in their midsection making it easier to concentrate on using the small muscles in their mouth for chewing and the fine muscles of their hand for good hand/eye coordination to eventually pick food up and bring it to their mouth. With young infants, as you see here with Gavin, he does prefer to kick his feet out when he’s happy, so don’t expect them to remain in a beautifully seated position for the entire duration of the meal.

Secondly, what the SVAN High Chair has, that I have NOT seen in similar chairs, which is the reason why this is now my high chair of choice, is the amount of support that is provided by the safety guard and tray to an infant’s midsection. Young children can get tired when eating over the course of a 20 minute mealtime so the more their body is supported, the more energy and attention they can channel into safely managing and chewing the food inside their mouth.

We set this chair up for Gavin around the age of 5 months. Before we began to introduce foods to him during mealtime, we put him in the chair several times a day with toys attached to the tray to allow him to play so he could get used to the chair, and I could make sure that he was appropriately positioned prior to presenting any food.

I enlisted the help of my husband to put this chair together prior to its use. During assembly he felt the chair was made of great quality, including both the wood and the screws provided. The holes were pre-drilled making it easier to  assemble using an Allen wrench. There was a sign stating, “Do Not Remove Tape Until Chair is Fully Assembled.” However, he felt that it was difficult to insert the seat base without removing this sign. Overall, it took him about 1 hr and 15 minutes to assemble, though he took his time and did not rush.

Due to the many finishes of the wood and colors of seat cushions, the SVAN High Chair fits completely with the decor inside my home. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even know I had a high chair at a quick glance. It is a well thought out design, and when the tray is removed, it can be attached directly to the back of the chair for storage. When Gavin is older, with the tray removed he will be able to sit directly at the table with us for family meals. He is now safely secured in the chair with a three point buckle. As he continues to advance, I’m sure eventually wanting to be a “big boy” in his own chair, the safety guard can eventually be removed. So as he grows into adulthood (seriously!), he can continue to eat, complete homework, play family games or participate in arts and crafts projects at the kitchen table with the best posture possible. If you have multiple children, due the specific adjustments that allow for a customized fit, you would most likely need one chair for each individual child.

Though this chair retails for about $240 for the chair with support guard/tray and $35 for the cushion, given all of its outstanding features it is well worth the investment for a chair that is well crafted to withstand the test of time.

The SVAN Chair was provided free by Scandinavian Child for my review. The BEABA feeding spoon seen in this post were purchased as a Christmas gift for Gavin by my mother, which was how I came to even know the brand existed as SVAN and BEABA are both Scandinavian Child brands. The Baby Bjorn soft bib Gavin is wearing was provided as a complimentary gift by Isis Parenting at an event that I attended promoting their services.

Photo Credits to Derek Wilmot, www.derekwilmot.com

In terms of passion, Larry Balaban, the creator behind Baby Genius® is the first person to come to mind. At Baby Genius®, Larry has developed a line of musical DVDs, CDs and toys that use music to encourage “children to communicate, connect, discover, and express themselves.” While speaking with Larry, he was happy to crank the music to personally sing us the tune he wrote for an upcoming product! Aside from the Baby Genius® product line, Larry is working on an initiative with San Diego State University called the Circle of Education, creating songs to support the preschool and Kindergarten curriculum to teach children the routines in the classroom such as raising their hand, pinching their pencil and washing their hands. The Baby Genius® Baby’s Favorite Songs CD (2 CD’s are included: Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies) has become a daily favorite in my car on the way to bring Gavin to daycare. It is a beautifully composed music only CD that starts our day off so calmly that I will admit I frequently play it when I’m alone in the car and need a stress relief!

In terms of one stop developmental shopping, I could have spent the whole Toy Fair at the International Playthings, LLC booth.  Peter Smith, an inventor who has developed a variety of science kits, personally demonstrated the Ant-O-Sphere an interconnecting ant farm that children can utilize their motor skills to design themselves and eventually complete science projects of their own. International Playthings has also created many developmental toys and games as part of the iPlay Games® line such as Red Light Green Light. In this game, children learn about stop and go.  Children need to understand these words when parents use them in the community when navigating parking lots, the mall and crossing the street.  Stay tuned for more reviews on a variety of products from International Playthings, LLC where I found many developmental toys for children of all ages.

We also spoke with Jim Engle who initially created Little Kids, Inc.® with a product designed to stop children from over squeezing their juice boxes. The company is now well known for its development of the No-Spill® Bubble container. Jim was happy to share his enthusiasm for creating toys and bubble experiences that make children smile.

So who’s heard of the Wubbanub™? It’s an adorable, innovative product created by Carla Schneider, where a pacifier is attached to cute, cuddly animals that “prevents the pacifier from being lost, dropped or even forgotten.” These pacifiers are sold commercially, but are also used with premature babies in the neonatal intensive care and special care nurseries to teach young babies how to self-soothe. They have become a must have for any new baby I know entering the world and we surely don’t leave home without ours!

The passion and enthusiasm these creators, inventors and designers exude for their companies and products is infectious and inspiring. These are only a few of the stories we uncovered, flying through the exhibition halls of Toy Fair 2010, while hunting for outstanding toys that will enhance child development. What made my Toy Fair experience unforgettable was conversing with the everyday people whose passion and heartfelt dedication involves creating quality products that enhance any child’s educational experience.

Baby Genius®, International Playthings, LLC, Little Kids® and Wubbanub™ have provided samples of their products for review, but the opinions expressed in this entry are purely the bloggers own.

When a game begins, the child uses the Zippity bopper and play mat to interact with the characters as they learn how to match colors, recognize letters and identify the concept of left and right. It’s also great for motor planning, which is a fancy way to describe a child’s ability to follow unfamiliar, multi-step directions.

When reviewing the product, I used the Zippity with two children, ages three and six, who both enjoyed the experience in different ways. There are 8 games provided in the original console, each game has two levels of play. There is also an ability to purchase different game cartridges with other Disney favorites such as Cars and Princesses.

The Level 1 games were perfect for the three year old. Whether she chose to play with Handy Manny or the Little Einsteins, because the directions to both games were similar, she could generalize a skill she had learned from one game to the next with almost immediate success.

As an adult, don’t get frustrated with the speed of the directions being slow, this is a great feature that makes it easier for children to understand the directions! For younger children I would encourage an adult to play along so that you can repeat the directions again if they have a hard time remembering them. Level 1 did include some directions such as using left and right, which can be difficult for children this age to understand, so you may want repeat the direction and encourage them to step on red for left or green for right instead.

The Level 2 games were easy for the six year old, but remember all children learn at different paces. He was able to feel successful immediately by quickly following the directions and operating the console completely by himself. We worked on the concept of turn taking, which worked out well and can be a good skill to promote amongst siblings and friends during playdates.

As is typical of many Leap Frog toys, you can use the Learning Path to experience in more detail other developmental skills your child is learning.

What I really like about the Zippity is that it provides dynamic learning in both the physical and mental sense. I personally love games that incorporate whole body movement and the Zippity is perfect for providing stimulation on a rainy day when children aren’t able to play outside. It’s a great game to buy for families with multiple siblings or children of different developmental levels.

The Zippity retails for $79.99, for more information visit www.leapfrog.com

Leap Frog provided the Zippity free for this review, but the opinions expressed in this review are purely the bloggers own.

Hasbro ToyFair 2010 Event

Today we had the pleasure of being invited to the Times Center in New York City to preview Hasbro’s newest products for 2010. Though I always knew that Hasbro represented a multitude of brands, seeing them all under one roof and in one room was exciting to think about all the fun to be had in the upcoming year.  I never expected to feel so nostalgic since many of the toys I grew up enjoying are still on the market for our children to play with, in a new and improved, up-to-date version for today’s market.

The day began by presentations from Brian Goldner, Hasbro CEO; Jane Pitson Parsons, Hasbro’s Global Consumer Insights Leader; and Jerry Perez; Hasbro Senior Vice President Global Brand Leader Preschool Marketing. They all spoke about Hasbro’s plan to Reinvent, Reimagine and Reignite the brand. Not to mention their commitment to the social media space and to parents and caregivers worldwide, to maintain an open dialog, so that Hasbro can be the best they can be to provide an immersive play experience, as well as to foster innovation, ideation and creativity.

I was on such a high after taking a walk down memory lane remembering all my childhood experiences with Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, the Easy Bake Oven, Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh, and Candyland. After all that excitement, don’t forget the brands that exist in Hasbro’s effort to encourage family social interactions with Family Game Night such as Monopoly, Life, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Battleship, Boggle, Guess Who, Connect 4, Sorry, Jenga, Yahtzee and Scrabble. Who knew GI Joe and Transformers were part of the Hasbro family either, as my brother and I also were able to play with these together.

However, working with young children on enhancing their development, there isn’t a day that goes by where that I don’t use Play-Doh or engage children with one of Hasbro’s awesome preschool games. Over the next few posts I’ll plan to highlight some of my 2010 favorites with Hasbro brands.

There are 3 toys per category including Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Elementary School Age.

Birth to 12 months

1. Fisher-Price Stack & Roll Cups

For infants, not only do these cups stack and nest, put them together to make a rolling ball! When children get older, these cups would make great sand and tub toys!

2. Crayola Drop & See

A great infant toy that combines a marble track with a fine motor activity box!

3. Mega Bloks Lil Dump Truck

What infant doesn’t love dump and fill play, with the ability to generate early social skills by pushing the truck back and forth to a parent or sibling? Trucks will always last a lifetime!

12 months through 2 years

4. Cranium Cariboo

Toddler’s will initially enjoy using the key to open all the boxes to work on foundational skills such as turn taking and vocabulary development.  As their thinking skills improve, this game advances with them to teach skills such as color and number recognition into the preschool years.

5. CAT Ride-On by Mega Bloks

This is a 3 in 1 toy that is a stable push toy for children learning to walk and a ride-on toy for older children. Children can drive their blocks to different locations before stacking them up and crashing them over.

6. Crayola Color Me a Song

Children love to scribble and color, but do not always have the attention span to do so for long. This product incorporates coloring along to music where the music will speed up and slow down based on how fast or slow the child is coloring.  It comes with triangular crayons which are great to enhance grasp development.

Preschool Age (3-5 years)                                                          

7. Leap Frog Tag/Tag Jr.

Depending on  your child’s abilities, either the Tag or Tag Jr. is a great way to foster reading, vocabulary development, the ability to answer questions and to develop reading comprehension.  The Tag Jr. Book Pal is appropriate for children up to 4, the Tag Reading System is geared for children 4-8.  I’ve successfully heard many times that parents have used the Tag with younger children, though they require more supervision and assistance. If you are looking for an independent toy for a young child, the Tag Jr. incorporates board books with a more basic level of operation.

8. Zippity by Leap Frog

Jump and move with your favorite Disney characters! I am a huge fan of the moving to learn concept. There are multiple games with multiple levels included in the console, which becomes more difficult as children advance their skills. You can also purchase other games more specific to the child’s interest.

9. Uno Moo by Mattel

This preschool game involves color matching with round barnyard animals that can be played with separately from the game but builds on the skills needed for Uno at an older age.

Elementary School Age (5 & up)

10. Goblet Jr. by Blue Orange

Awesome take on Tic-Tac-Toe that involves strategy as you can gobble up your opponents so the game can continue with a different strategy. Kids and adults love this game!

11. 1,2,3 Stomp by Wild Planet

Number and math game that pops the pieces all over to incorporate speed and movement!

12. Candyland Sweet Celebrations by Hasbro

New version of Candyland with the same concept of turn taking and color recognition but children can constantly change the game board to play differently every time!

ToyQueen at Megabrands Toy Factory

A few weeks ago, I learned I had been one of 5 bloggers chosen to attend the Mega Bloks Rocks Mommy Blogger Event! On Tuesday, as we boarded the Air Canada flight from Boston, Montreal bound for Mega Bloks, the excitement was “building” thinking of what the factory itself would look like, as well as the curiosity of what some of the new products in development for 2010 would be.

When entering the family owned business, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, there was such a buzz in the air!  Being only three weeks away from Christmas with an intense snowstorm brewing outside, many of us felt like we were at Santa’s Workshop!  Never mind that we spent the day in the showroom, seated amongst all the new products for 2010! Talk about the ToyQueen being in toy heaven! Our name tags were even built out of micro blocks!

Megabloks

Though Mega Bloks is the number one creator of preschool construction toys worldwide, other brands included in the family are Magnext, Battlestrikers, Rose Art and Streetz. Simply, Mega Bloks is so much more than a preschool brand.  Though some products are manufactured in China, many are created 350 days a year, 24 hours per day, right at the plant in Montreal, Canada before being shipped worldwide.

In my opinion, some of the great design elements of Mega Bloks toys allow children to not only use their fine motor and thinking skills to construct with the blocks, but to then interact with the creation in fun, unique ways to promote their imagination!

For the child 6 and older, one of the greatest surprises of the day was the Streetz brand – where children construct a whole city using micro blocks! After it’s complete, miniature cars can maneuver the city.  Children are encouraged to use their fine motor skills to engage their cars in a variety of stunts like launching through donut holes.  Follow Mega Bloks on Twitter – @Megabrands