In the Mega pack I reviewed were a few foam shapes (guitar, peace sign, butterfly, moon and a star), as well as different colored fabric squares. First the child chooses a foam shape. Next they place it on top of the yellow crunch art foam block. Using the blue, Crunch Art tool, they simply push the colored fabric square where ever they desire, into the foam block.  This is not an easy activity for kid’s with weaker hands, and it’s great as an alternative to help develop the smaller muscles of the hand in a fun way.  Want to put your fabric square in a different location? No problem, just pull it out and replace the same fabric square in a different location.  The only downfall is that there was only one tool in the pack, so if you have more than one child, they would have to share the tool or get creative with designing their picture while the other person crunches away. It’s very cost effective, starting with some smaller sets at $5.99, this set retails at $10.99. It’s recommended for ages 4 and up.

Want an even better way to help your children develop a more mature pencil grasp, place the yellow crunch art foam block resting on an 2 inch three ring binder turned sideways. A slanted surface helps the fingers remain in a better position, that promotes a more mature grasp pattern needed for endurance writing. Encourage your children to delicately hold the tool with their fingertips, rather than having a death grip and pounding away. For kid’s that have difficulty with planning, let them trace the outer foam shapes onto a piece of paper and have them pre-draw their design on a piece of paper and then use it as a guide to finish the plan to completion.

Little Kids Inc provided crunch art free to facilitate a review. The opinions expressed are my own.

This year we are highlighting what are my Top 12 Interactive Toys and Games (I-TAG) of 2010.   These are toys and games that not only provide the child with pure fun, but can be utilized to promote their education and learning in many different ways over the course of time.

1. Twinkle Twinkle Little Scout/Violet by Leap Frog (newborn and up)

These adorable plush toys play music and are great to incorporate into a child’s bedtime routine from infancy.  Scout is blue for boys and Violet is pink for the girls. This toy plays both environmental sounds and lullabies, while also promoting counting skills and body part recognition.

2. VTech 3 in 1 Zebra Scooter (12 months to 36 months)

When children are learning to walk, the VTech 3 in 1 Zebra Scooter starts the fun as a push-toy and as the child’s skill progresses with a few simple clicks, turns into a ride-on toy and ultimately a scooter. There are several buttons on the Zebra’s mane that engage the child in learning as well.

3. Mega Bloks Pirate Ship ( 1 year and up)

This musical pirate ship promotes interactive building at a young age with Mega Bloks. However, incorporated into the pirate ship are multiple compartments to store blocks which are great for children learning dump and fill play in infancy.  As children learn to walk they can also pull the pirate ship behind them.  As their pretend play and imaginative skills blossom, these pieces can be designed into new play schemes.

4. Pop on Pals by Spinmaster (2 years and up)

Not only can children have fun popping their people into a bus, airplane or amusement park, they also have the ability to personalize their person along the way making combinations like a fireman ballerina!

5. Play-Doh Sesame Street Shape & Spin Elmo by Hasbro (3 and up)

3 things I love – Elmo, Play-Doh and learning! Elmo encourages children in a turn taking game to find and make different shapes                                                                        with Play-Doh!

6. Stinky The Garbage Truck by Matchbox (3 and up)

I fell in love with Rocky the Robot Truck last year and this year I love his pal Stinky the Garbage Truck. He says over 90 sounds and phrases and encourages preschoolers to sing, feed him and play along.

7. Velcro Kids Pirate Ship and Royal Princess Castle (ages 3-8)

Using patented Hoox technology by Velcro brands, using fine motor skills and imagination, your child can design their own 3 dimensional pirate ships and princess castles!

8. Zoobles (4 and up)

These cute little animals curl up into little balls and when they are used in their interactive playset, spring to life from magnetic action! Built by Spinmaster for little girls which grew from the design of their Bakugan lines for boys, they appeal to many age groups and encourage both pretend play and imagination.

9. Lego Games (ages 5 and up)

Starting at ages 5 and advancing all the way up to 10 years of age and beyond, Lego has created a variety of new games where children use Lego blocks to create the actual gameboard.  The dice is changeable and so aren’t the rules along the way in these creative games! Some of my favorites include Robo Champ, Creationary, & Harry Potter Hogwarts.

10. Perplexus by Plasmart (ages 6 and up)

We met the inventor of this cool spherical game back in October! There are three different tracks where you maneuver the small marble throughout with the twists and turns of your hands! Encourages attention, logic, memory and lots of problem solving!

11. Rory’s Story Cubes by Gamewright (ages 8 and up)

I have had so much fun with these tiny cubes over the past year encouraging children to create and write their own imaginative stories.  Each dice has different pictures on them and groups of people work together to develop wacky, and creative stories. Many children have really enjoyed working on the daunting skills of writing by creating their own unique silly stories.

12. Rubik’s Slide  by Technosource (ages 8 and up)

I was not a very successful Rubik’s cube user, until we fell in love with Rubik’s Slide at our house! Lights on the cube will flash to indicate what the puzzle to solve is.  By pushing and twisting the Rubik’s Slide you maneuver the lights into the proper locations to solve the puzzle.  Addictive for sure and since it has volume control, great for travel!

So “I-Tag”ged these toys – your turn to now bring the fun and education to all the children you love!  Did any of these toys make your child’s holiday wish list this year?

These toys have been provided by the above companies free to facilitate a review. The opinions in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Isis Parenting store at the Prudential Center in Boston, MA to film a video promoting some of the new educational toys Isis Parenting is selling in their stores. Cindy Meltzer, Community Manager at Isis Parenting and I discuss some of the educational benefits of these great toys. Toys featured in this video include: Green Toys Blocks which are great for stacking, taking to the beach and for use in sand, water and sensory tables; Educo Wonder Walker that is a sturdy wooden push-toy with fine motor activities on the side where kids can push around their favorite toys; Educo Switchback Racer a wooden racetrack that promotes cause and effect play for infants and toddlers; and the Mini kickboard Scooter, a stable scooter that helps young children gain the concept and balance of scooter riding!

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Isis Parenting store at the Prudential Center in Boston, MA to film a video promoting some of the new educational toys Isis Parenting is selling in their stores. Cindy Meltzer, Community Manager at Isis Parenting and I discuss some of the educational benefits of these great toys. Toys featured in this post include Skip Hop Stroller Toys, the Sassy Wonder Wheel, Alex Jr. Stack a Cake. All of these multi sensory toys are great for infants and young children to encourage the development of a child’s vision, sense of touch and auditory discrimination.

The Fisher-Price iXL Learning System is a portable, hand held learning tool for children ages 3 – 7. This is a combination device! It will play downloaded music, store individual photos, read digital story books and allows children to practice writing letters, words and numbers on the notepad. The drawing stylus allows children to draw and stamp on their own download pictures. There are learning games that promote academic skills of reading comprehension, counting, creativity, phonics, math, vocabulary and spelling. Even better, there is a headphone jack (though headphones are not included), so this is a great portable device for travel. An internet connection and computer operating system (Windows or MAC) is required to download the pictures, music and additional software. Other educational software programs with character licenses such as Dora, Sponge Bob, Disney Princess, Handy Manny, and Toy Story 3 can be downloaded on to the device. The basic device is rather simplistic and I would recommend purchasing some additional titles for your children to learn and explore from to keep their interest. You will need to install computer software to download additional titles and also access printable learning activities.

Fisher-Price provided the iXL free to facilitate this review. The opinions in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

Last week, I saw a lot of children smile playing Sumo Ham Slam. Who wouldn’t have fun feeding funny looking Hamsters food pellets before placing them in a center ring where you use a magnetic wand to try to knock the opponent back into their corner on the game board? I think as adults it was just as fun for us to have a little comic relief, for sure.

So what did we work on with Sumo Ham Slam?

The understanding of new directions, fine motor coordination to plan how to use your magnetic wand to guide your hamster without being able to really see it, and planning on how to win by wrestling him back into his respective corner. Not to mention turn taking and social connections with peers. You all know me by now if you read my posts regularly, I’m a big proponent of encouraging children to write but my biggest roadblock is finding a way to motivate them. So here were some creative writing topics we identified after playing this game by writing a story on your Sumo Hamster:

What’s his name?
What kind of pellets does he like to eat that makes him so strong?
Where does he live?
Why is he wrestling in the ring?

Please comment under this post with any other creative topics you can think of to make this game educationally fun.

Gamewright provided Sumo Ham Slam free for the process of a review. The opinions expressed in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

Fisher Price Brilliant Basics™ Stack and Roll Cups™ Review by ToyQueen
These are the Stack and Roll cups by Fisher-Price. These cups are great for children 6 months of age and older as they work on grasp/release. Kids can improve their coordination to stack the cups. Older children can use them to learn both colors and numbers. The cups fit together to make a ball, so you can roll them back and forth to each other or across the floor to encourage crawling. Children are also working on the cognitive skill of nesting, where they can place the cups inside each other from biggest to smallest. These toys are great to use in a sand and water table as well.

Review of Rory Story Cubes by ToyQueen. Is a game that promotes several ways to inspire creative play. Ages 8 and up. Price $7.99 at www.gamewright.com

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 .

Baby Goes Pro speaks w/ ToyQueen in NY at ToyFair

Gigi Fernandez and Valerie Stern developed Baby Goes Pro. Gigi is a two time olympic gold medalist in tennis. She has two year old twins and wanted a creative way to introduce her children to sports. Baby Goes Pro introduces young children to sports like tennis, golf, baseball, basketball and soccer.

Through repetition, sing a long songs and music, the movements of the sports are provided in video format to children. Abbreviated movements are provided, paired with the verbal direction so that when the child goes to play, for example, soccer, they have heard the words and seen the movements. Children can watch, which helps them break down the motor skills so they can generalize skills with success to the activity on the field. This product also encourages parents to get out and move with their children,.

Tisha from International Playthings demonstrates toys from the Ecotronic Brand. Kids love toys with electronic features, but batteries contribute a ton of toxic waste into the environment so Ecotronic brand includes the lights and sounds without batteries! It uses the power of kids play to power the toys. The monkey flashlight is activated by squeezing the handle and this powers the rechargeable battery inside. The monkey’s nose will then light up and it’s an LED flashlight. Perfect to put in a handbag, works on hand strengthening and is great for Halloween, camping and to place in a child’s bedroom.

The Rocketship is activated by cranking the handle. To power it up you hit the button and it’s a NASA recording of a space shuttle lifting off. It has long lasting LED lights.

The EcoRadio is easy to charge up. It’s an FM radio but it also comes with adaptors for cell phone charging! It’s entertaining at sports games, the beach or picnics! It’s good for safety and great for on the road when you need to charge your phone!

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.

Disney Consumer Products has developed the Flix Jr. which is a video camera accessible to children with the use of just one hand. After the child records, they push the same button to stop the action and it will repeat what has just been taped. The video can also be uploaded to the computer and watched on television.

The Pix Twist is a digital camera where the viewfinder can also be flipped around so the child can take a self-portrait.

The In Scene Video Cam has a blue screen that comes with it so children can play out their favorite scenes, tape themselves and import the video into the background that is already in the camera. All of these great digital products allow children the sense of empowerment to create their own individualized media!

Leapfrog Tag Junior is a great way to foster the love of learning and reading for 2-3 year olds. The Tag Jr. set comes with the book pal and a board book. 5 different books can be downloaded to the same book pal through the use of a USB cord that comes in the package. The software is Macintosh or Windows compatible. The book pal is easy for young 2-3 year olds to hold due to it’s size. Wand the book pal over the pages to promote interactive learning. If you wand it over the words, it will read the words. You can also place it over different pictures like, for example, the sun. It assists with learning vocabulary, preposition development, rhyming words, and colors. It is also interactive in that it may ask the child to find different pictures. Find the the Tag Jr. at www.leapfrog.com

The Scribble & Write by Leap Frog is a great educational tool to assist young preschool and elementary school age children in writing upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet. What’s great about this toy is that there is a drawing tool to help children over the age of 3 who are not developmentally ready to write letters, with imitating all the prewriting shapes that are a prerequisite for handwriting such as a vertical line, horizontal line, circle, diagonals, squares and triangles. Children learn to write the letters of the alphabet in Kindergarten. Make sure to discuss with your child’s teacher whether the school’s handwriting curriculum begins with upper or lowercase letters. Developmentally it is easier to complete the uppercase letters first before lowercase letters. Make sure to start with easier letters like L, P, B that incorporate the straight line letters and leave Z, X, Y for the last ones as they include diagonals and are more challenging to imitate. A nice stylus attaches in the back that is thick and easy for small hands to hold. Make sure to encourage your child to watch the formation and listen to the directions before completing it to learn good formation habits. Encourage top to bottom letter formation. Consider holding the toy up in the air, so that it is in a vertical plane as this is also helpful to enhance grasp development.