One of the most amazing things I find working with children is how much these little minds and hands take in during their first year and a half of life. At such a young age, they are able to match shapes and colors, as well as to learn to complete simple puzzles.

What makes the Ambi Lock A Block different than some traditional shape sorters, is that not only do children learn to match by shape and color, in order to get the pieces out of the box, a key needs to be inserted into the lock to open the door. Though this is hard for many toddlers, it’s a great feature that makes this toy great for a children at different developmental levels. I love how the key is attached to the box, no more missing keys in your playroom!

For young children under the age of one, who might be learning to put items into a container, but haven’t perfected the art of easily letting the pieces go, open the box with the key and use this wide open space for children to put the pieces inside.

The circle is the easiest shape to insert because it does not require any rotation of the pieces to fit. After children master this skill, next encourage them to match the square and triangle.

You might need to help your child by placing your hand over their hand to teach them how to rotate the piece into the proper position. The same is true for learning how to insert the key and turn it to open the door. Small and portable, this toy has found a permanent home in my home visit toy bag for children under the age of 3!

Schylling provided this toy free to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

International Playthings provided this shape sorter free for the purpose of a review.  The opinions expressed in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

As I flipped through, I personally liked the way this catalog was organized with like items sorted by page.  Cute little sayings titled each page for different categories of toys such as – “Own Little World, The Perfect Gift, Building Imagination, Creative Minds, Little Wonders, Constructing Play, Just for Me, Explore Your World, Put on a Show, We’re on the Move, My Wish List, I Like to Pretend.”  I was much more aware of the great variety of imaginary toys sold by Constructive Playthings when I finished reading it for the 10th time!

One of the toys I picked out of this catalog I did not find when searching online that I’d like to try out is the Light & Sound Town,$39.99. I tend to always gravitate towards toys that promote fine motor skill and coordination, and this toy takes the busy box idea to a much more imaginative level as kids activate buttons that operate different vehicles.

Click the link to get your own FREE TOY CATALOG sent directly to your home so both you and your children can start your holiday wish lists early allowing plenty of time for customization if needed!

Guidecraft designer speaks with ToyQueen at ToyFair in New York city

Gary from Guidecraft previews some of their toys. Guidecraft is a creator of wooden toys and furniture for kids. They take pride in products that are more about dramatic and role play than they are about technology. There have a wooden cell phone without lights and sounds to role play being mom, dad, texting and a work environment. The laptop has moveable keys, a mirror and a magnetic background. Instead of typing, children can recreate the experience of being in an office to feel like they are involved in technology. It’s durable and a solid wood product that kids love.

Guidecraft has developed a number of wooden block sets for children. The blocks are made out of rubber wood and have round soft edges. They are an open ended construction toy. Children can play collaboratively and imaginatively together. Guidecraft has designed specialty blocks with tactile and sound experiences. They have designed mirrored blocks, as well as blocks with all different shapes and sizes. With Block Mates, children can take various pieces to add to the blocks to create animals like dinosaurs using the blocks. Blocks can be in the classroom and in the home.

They also developed fine motor and cognitive skills through the Construction Match Sort, to work on pattern recognition, shape sorting, sequencing and color matching. Children pick a card and they need to pick out the pieces that match from the pattern card and create it on the magnetic board. It has educational capabilities, but they can build with plastic pieces without the pattern card. The magnets are sonically welded in for safety.

Video Transcription:

Keri: Hi, this is Keri from ToyQueen.com, and we’re here today with Gary
from Guidecraft and he’s going to share with us some of the products that
Guidecraft has created that he has helped to design.

Gary: Hi, thank you for having me. Guidecraft is a creator of wooden
products and furniture, wooden toys and furniture for kids. We
take pride in some of our products that are more about the
dramatic play and role play than they are about technology. For
instance, we recently just came out with a wooden cell phone
that doesn’t have lights, it doesn’t have sounds, but what it
does, it has the ability to create an experience for a child
where they can role playing being mommy and daddy. They can role
play texting. They can role play a work environment.

To take it a step further, we have a wooden laptop, which also
doesn’t have lights and sound, but it has a magnetic mirrored
panel in it and it has moveable keys. When you give it to a
child, it’s an interesting experience. You and I might think
that they child is just going to type with the keys and try and
tap out words, but what they do is they recreate the experience
of being in an office, recreate the experience of creating
something on a computer. It’s a wonderful way for them to feel
like they’re involved in technology and doing what mom and dad
do without banging away on mom and dad’s keyboard.

It’s a solid wood product, and it has a nice magnetic panel and
it’s very durable. Kids love it.

Keri: What I like too is how actually they can see their reflection in it.
It’s a mirror. So it’s more important for them to also be able
to engage with the toy themselves.

Gary: Yes, they can see themselves in it. Guidecraft does a number of
wooden block sets for children. We make our blocks out of rubber
wood. It’s a very hard wood. They have round soft edges, and
it’s an open-ended construction toy for kids, which we like. We
like a toy that children can play with together. They can have a
collaborative experience and that is open to the imagination.

We make specialty blocks that I didn’t have when I was a kid,
and they’re a beautiful experience. There’s a tactile
experience. There’s a sound experience with these blocks. We
make mirrored blocks. We make many unit blocks. All different
shaped blocks that can go in a classroom or it can go in the
home.

Keri: Go ahead.

Gary: Okay. As part of the block play experience, we make a set of toys
calls Block Mates where a child can take various pieces and we
have different series. We have dinosaurs, we have farm animals,
and we have safari animals. They can create animals using the
different plastic pieces that have a connector.

What’s neat about it is, I might build a dinosaur using the four
pieces as such, but a child might take a horse’s head and put it
on here on the dinosaur’s legs and create fantastical creatures.
Keri: Guidecraft also has a nice series of fine motor toys as well.

Gary: Right. This is a set called Construction Match Sort. What the child
does, or what the parents does with the child or the educator
does with the child is they work on pattern recognition,
sequencing, shape sorting, and color matching. You take one of
the cards. I’m going to dump this. The child needs to pick out
the pieces. I’m doing this upside down.

Keri: Test your skills.

Gary: Right. Here we go. Pick out the pieces that match up on the pattern
card and create it on the board. It’s a great toy for kids to
play with because it has not only educational capabilities
inherent in it, but also the child can build with the plastic
pieces on the back. There are magnets that are sonically welded
in here for safety. They stick to the board so the child can
configure them in different configurations.

Keri: What I like too is, because it has the magnetic piece and it is safe,
there are all sorts of magnetic paints and things out there as
well, so it doesn’t even necessarily have to be a toy that works
within this particular box at the table. It’s something that you
can also move to another area of your home and play with as
well.

Gary: Yeah.

Keri: Great, Gary. Thanks a lot for talking with us today and I hope you
all like Guidecraft. This is Keri from ToyQueen.com. Gary,
really quickly, what is the website for Guidecraft?

Gary: www.guidecraft.com

Keri: Great. Thanks a lot.

In an effort to not become cluttered with baby items I put a lot of careful consideration into my choices.  I did not register for a full size high chair, borrowed a friend’s old travel swing and bought an Infantino playmat that folds up to be stored to save on floor space.

This morning I was thinking of a way to entertain my 2 1/2 month old so that I could get a few household chores done in his presence with the use of my own two hands! So I decided to open up the First Years “Infant to Toddler Feeder Seat.” Don’t let the name fool you, he’s not ready for food for another two months or so, but he’ll get a great deal of use of this item before then, I know it! Love it already and so doesn’t Gavin.

Within two minutes it was hooked up to my dining room chair with two straps. I would suggest a towel underneath it to cover your chair for later on when food is introduced. The seat has three positions, so I reclined it all the way back.  At 2 1/2 months, Gavin is doing well developing his trunk (midesection) strength, but he does not have the ability to sit straight up just yet without my help or side (lateral) support. Being reclined, this helps him to be well positioned so he can use his hands to play.  As his strength improves he’ll progress to a more upright position. I put him in the seat with the tray and put a few of his favorite rattles in front of him.

Voila! The recline of the tray puts the items in a better perspective for him to view them and he entertained himself for a good 20 minutes banging away at the toys.  Not to mention he played so hard and so well he’s napping and you’ve got the benefit of this blog post, too!

Check out the new rattle on the tray he got for the holidays.  Sassy has just revamped their infant rattle line and this is one of the three that I purchased at Babies R Us.  Love it! It has a spinning ball on the inside that lights up when you barely hit it, which is great for teaching simple cause and effect at such a young age.  He can easily spin the ball already if I hold it up for him and the light is great in my diaper bag when looking for smaller items that may have been hidden. My friend’s 6 year old enjoyed it as well over the holidays pretending it was an airplane and a rolling car!

So don’t let the young age of your infant and the name of the tools fool you, just because it is a “Feeder Seat” doesn’t mean it can’t be used for entertainment and fun too!

Play-Doh Burger Builder Review by ToyQueen. Your child is developing their hand strength, coordination and imagination to create hamburger combinations complete with toppings using Play-Doh!