©Spinmaster

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am a huge lover of Aquadoodle, especially when working with toddlers, because I think it’s one of the safest ways to teach kids about coloring without the worries or fears of damaging any walls or furniture. Using the water filled pen, kids draw on the large white mat, and their lines magically appear. In older versions of this toy, the lines drawn were always blue. Now, with Aquadoodle Color, colors magically appear when the child uses the pen to draw on the mat! Then, once the water dries on the mat, the drawings disappear. This is a great toy that can be used repeatedly, involves no mess other than water, and it folds up easily, so it’s perfect to take on an outing to grandparents’ houses, to the park or to playdates.

The mat itself has a variety of drawings on the side paired with their corresponding letter of the alphabet. The drawings are comprised of simple curves and shapes, making them easy for older elementary school aged kids, as well as adults to recreate. My toddler loves watching us draw the pictures and likes to guess what the picture is, which is a way to also build his vocabulary. Thankfully, I can actually use the drawings to create something he can identify, because drawing is definitely not my strong suit! We also like to draw a big race track on the mat, he loves zooming his cars on the path.

If you are looking for an even smaller travel alternative, Aquadoodle Doodle Buddy comes as either a bear, bunny or penguin, which children can use the pen to draw accessories onto the face or tummy.  The toy’s hand includes an elastic attachment which stores the small pen.

Spinmaster provided Aquadoodle Color and an Aquadoodle Doodle Buddy free to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.

In the Moon Dough Magic Zoo, children fill either a penguin, gorilla or bear mold with white, orange or purple Moon Dough to create their own zoo animal. First you decide on your animal and pop the molds into the purple magic cage and close it up. Then you loosely fill the magic cage with about a little less than a golf ball size amount of Moon Dough. Pop the magic cage into the zoo and put a winder walker into the bottom, making sure that it is correctly attached. While you turn the big crank to lower the magic cage, the winder walker feet will be spun so when the Magic Zoo door magically opens — your animal will walk right out towards you!

Moon Dough never dries out, is wheat free and is hypo-allergenic! As I mentioned before when playing with other Moon Dough playsets, initially, right out of the package, it is kind of a crumbly texture that once squished and squeezed is a light, airy dough. Since many kids are on wheat free or glutein free diets these days, and because Moon Dough is wheat free it can be a fantastic texture for them to play with without the worry of being exposed to this allergen. I find it to leave a powdery type residue on my hands, but it easily washes off.

This is a great set to help your child expand their pretend play, language, work on sharing with a friend, as well as a nice way to promote their abilities to manipulate small items necessary for good fine motor control.

Within minutes I had it cleaned up and returned back into the original box for storage. It did take me a few tries to correctly attach the winder walker feet and  to determine about how much Moon Dough was the best size to put inside the mold. You may want to play with your child for the first few minutes until they are proficient with the process on their own.

Spinmaster provided the Moon Dough Zoo to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.

Hasbro ToyFair 2010 Event

These snowy days in Boston have been filled with researching and planning our Toy Fair 2011 plan in New York City, starting February 12th through the 16th, 2011. Last year attending Toy Fair for the first time was such an exciting and overwhelming experience, as we were honored amongst the first to preview some of the newest and most exciting toys and games that had yet to hit production or the stores! You can read about my favorite celebrities of Toy Fair 2010 last year here.

As the days draw near, we are contacted daily by both large and small companies gearing up for one of the largest toy shows in the Western Hemisphere! Please let us know if there are specific products or companies you would like to know more about!

February 14, 2010 - New York, NY - Keri WIlmot from www.toyqueen.com at the Disney preview of Toy Story 3 in New York City gets shown some of the new toys for 2010 by one of the Disney executives

Like last year, we hope to bring you interviews with company executives and imagery of these new products to help you as a parent or caregiver make more informed decisions about the products that you purchase for the learning enhancement of the children you love.

Here is a link to some of the other Toy Fair coverage from ToyQueen.com in 2010!

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.

On Monday November 22nd I had a blast appearing on a segment of Digital Dads with C.C. Chapman on the Pulse Network! We talked about all sorts of holiday toys for different age groups Dads might like to purchase for their kids! Toys featured included Leap Frog Twinkle Twinkle Little Scout, Leap Frog Fix & Learn Speedy, Whiplash Scooter, Air Hogs Hawk Eye Helicopter from Spinmaster, Bakugan Dragonoid Collossus by Spinmaster, Zoobles by Spinmaster, U-Build Games by Hasbro, Mega Bloks Musical Pirate Ship, Rubik’s Slide, Tron by Disney, Helmtops, Sassy Baby Rattles, Lego Games, Paper Jamz, Stinky the Garbage Truck by Mattel, Zhu Zhu Pets by Cepia, Sumo Ham Slam by Gamewright, Battlestrikers by Mega Brands, Squinkies!

Here is an updated link to imagery for Helmtops and the Mega Bloks Pirate Ship!

Similar to Bakugan, a magnetic toy that pops open, popular among little boys, for young girls, Spinmaster has created Zoobles! Adorable little animals that pop to life once they are placed on the top of their hapitat! There are many different Zoobles to collect and different playsets like the Razoo’s Treehouse Playset.

So here is my developmental spin, not only are small toys like these good for fine motor skill and dexterity, many children benefit from small toys to work towards as incentives for a job well done at home with household chores, getting themselves dressed, or doing their homework for a certain timeframe without reminders. Though I’m not a huge proponent of constantly giving children toys as rewards for the simplest of things, most people are motivated by positive reinforcement, so as long as the expectations are reasonable to the parent, it can be helpful in assisting children with greater independence.

The Moon Sand Construction Crane comes in an orange, plastic storage case.  Inside there is a backhoe with a wrecking ball, and a few molds that will allow your children to create their own construction zone with brick walls and tiles.  There are two packages of  Moon Sand inside (gray and white), and your child will love to build structures and then use the wrecking ball and backhoe to tear them down and start again! In terms of pretend play, this is such an interactive set. Moon Sand itself is a bit crumbly at first. I did leave it out for a few minutes, as the directions suggested, before squeezing it into a ball and this did help make the sand a little bit easier to mold. However, when you slightly touch your creation it crumbles very easily. It did leave a thin layer of a sandy, gritty texture on my hands that easily washed off. It may be helpful to put down a large plastic tablecloth underneath the playset for easier clean-up. A feature I found on the Moon Sand website, is that these cool sand creations can be baked and then painted with water based craft paint! Make sure to check out Moon Sand online for different playsets to such as a bake shop and additional accessories for the construction zone!  Moon Sand is recommended for children ages 3 and up.

Spinmaster provided this Construction Crane Moon Sand set free for the purpose of a product review. The opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

This week I took along Aquadoodle. When you fill the small pen with water and draw on the mat, it gets wet and turns your markings blue. The mat is large enough for more than one child to pay with, though it only comes with one pen, so I may need to go purchase another as I tend to be in homes with multiple children! This mat is recommended for children ages 2 and up.

Parents have been loving this large mat simply because no matter what else kids try to color on with the pen, it leaves absolutely NO MESS other than drops of WATER! Once you wet the mat it does take a bit for it to dry, but since I have about 20 minutes in my car between visits, it’s usually pretty dry after that timeframe.

Here are some developmental ideas for this Aquadoodle Mat:

- Encourage your child to draw simple lines, curves and shapes after you draw them first

- Draw pictures and encourage them to use their language to guess the picture

- Draw half of a picture (left side) and have your child draw the other side (right side)

- I’ve even used this as a system where during mealtimes we draw a picture of what the child will eat first, followed by what they will eat next. This is a great way to get those picky eater kiddo’s to try something new first, when they can earn a few bites of something they really like after!

- When drawing children can lie on their tummies to develop more strength or the mat can be hung up on a wall to provide a portable easel. It can also be rolled for storage and is lightweight for travel.

- Older children may enjoy drawing a person, copying letters, writing numbers, making dot to dots or creating mazes!

Spinmaster provided this Aquadoodle Mat free for the purpose of this review. The opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

The Moon Dough Barn was very easy to quickly put together out of the box. Now what is Moon Dough? Initially, right out of the package, it was kind of a crumbly texture that once squished and squeezed is a light, airy dough. When using the Moon Dough Barn, small pieces of the Moon Dough are pushed into a mold in the top of the barn and when the handle on the back is cranked, a different Moon Dough animal emerges sliding down the ramp! There were a few molds included to make hay and a fence, and the details within the dough from the molds were excellent. Moon Dough is hypo-allergenic and NEVER dries out. A lot of children are on wheat free or glutein free diets these days, and because Moon Dough is wheat free it can be a fantastic texture for them to play with without the worry of being exposed to this allergen. I did find it to leave a powdery type residue on my hands, but it easily washed off. The only cons to me included a mild smell and there isn’t any storage container for these components included in this particular set.

ToyQueen’s helpful hint when using this particular playset, I would also suggest really making sure you push the dough tightly into the barn mold, otherwise the noses of the animals didn’t come out completely intact!

The kid’s have really enjoyed playing with this barnyard and which is always true of Spinmaster’s fabulous commercial marketing, all of the kids knew exactly what the product was because they had all seen it previously on television. They  were jumping out of their seats to explore it – so put it on your holiday gift list!

Spinmaster provided samples of Moon Dough free for the purpose of a product review. The opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

Keriann Wilmot from ToyQueen.com, pediatric occupational therapist, shares photos and videos of some of her favorite products showcased at Time to Play Magazine’s Holiday Showcase in NYC on Tuesday Septemer 28th, 2010. Products included from companies such as Leap Frog, Mega Brands, Lego, Disney Consumer Products, Blip Toys, Mattel, Hasbro, Jazwares, Jakks Pacific, Spinmaster, PlaSmart, VTech, Pinkalicious, Learning Curve.

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.

Being that it’s Gavin’s first Easter, for the first time in forever I was up and down the Easter  aisle at Target, searching for his very own basket. What I was so excited to see where many toys that would be awesome additions to your child’s Easter basket for children of all ages for only $5!

Leap Frog Tag Jr. Spring Time Surprise Easter Book – $4.99

At my Target this came with a coupon for $5 off a Tag Jr, so essentially free if you purchase a Tag Jr. This was a cheaper book than most of the Easter books available at the store, so even though Gavin’s too young to operate his Tag Jr. I bought it anyway to read in the meantime! Great for infants and toddlers!

Fisher-Price Doodle Pro Easter Egg – $4.99

Perfect for travel to the relatives or the restaurant for Easter entertainment! Great for any child ages 18 months and up!

Moon Sand by Spinmaster- $4.99

Cool sand that can be placed inside a chick mold! Great for ages 3 and up!

Pixos by Spinmaster – $4.99

Make Bunny and Chick creations using the Pixos pen and a spray of water! Great for ages 4 and up!

Play-Doh Bunny & Chick – $5.99

Great for ages 2 and up!

Little Kids No Spill Bubble Tumblers – $1.99 and up depending on size

What child doesn’t like bubbles? Great low cost idea for children of any age!

Ben from Spinmaster gives an overview of some of their great toys including ChixOs, Aquadoodle, Moon Sand and Glodoodle.

Ben describes that ChixOs is actually a part of a larger line PixOs. You can build all these different things with beads. Then you spray it with water and they stick together. ChixOs comes with a playhouse, girls, and the beads. It allows the child to design the characters any way they like. The kids can decorate items inside their house such as a chair, sofa and table using the actual Pixos. ChixOs gives kids a chance to be really creative.

Aquadoodle, is the ultimate no mess toy, and great for a first drawing toy for young children. There is a large mat. You fill a pen with water and multiple kids can draw at the same time and play together. After the water dries the mat is totally re-usable.

Moon Sand is the sand that never dries out! Kids can build all these different toys and take them apart.

Glodoodle was developed by an engineering graduate from Harvard where you can draw with light! You can use the stylus or your finger and can see through it to draw another person’s face which fosters creativity at a young age with no goal in mind.

Ben says, “as a kid you should never have a goal, you should just do.” Many of Spinmaster’s toys provide endless play opportunities.