As an occupational therapist, unfortunately we are often kept employed providing therapy to adults and children who have been involved in misfortunate traumatic events that have caused significant head injuries.

So there is nothing more important than encouraging your children to wear a helmet for their safety during bicycle riding, skateboarding, rollerblading, and skiing.

Now that Gavin is crawling on hands and knees at lightning speed, there were several toys that were instrumental in encouraging him to creep forward. Even better, they all retail for less than $6!

One of his favorites was the Sassy Pop n’ Push Car seen in the pictures above! When you pull the car back and release it, it will drive forward, popping beads inside along the way.  Such a simple toy that has provided him with minutes of “chase” play! Now that he’s crawling – our fun with this toy isn’t over. We are making lots of car engine noises and raspberries, while trying to push the car back and forth to each other!

So as part of a freebie in a Pampers Cruisers bin of diapers, we got a small little beach ball that has provided hours of entertainment. Not to mention, take the air out, they fold flat and are so easy to travel with!

Playskool makes Wheel Pals, several different animals or cars with wheels on the bottom. Stand them up and push them gently and they will quickly and easily roll over any surface, including carpet.

On your mark…Get Set…Go… pick up some simple toys, even better for only a few dollars, that will give your child enjoyment and encourage them to crawl.  Though many experts feel that crawling is not an important developmental milestone, as occupational therapists, we believe that a lot of your child’s shoulder strength and stability they gain when crawling can help develop the small muscles of the hand required for handwriting in Kindergarten.

Sassy provided a Pop n’ Push Car free to facilitate my review.  Hasbro provided a Wheel Pal. Pampers included  a promotional beach ball in a Cruisers diaper container that I purchased at Babies R Us. The opinions in this post are purely the bloggers own. Photo credits with Gavin and the Sassy Pop n’ Push Car to Derek Wilmot.

Cat 3 in 1 Dump Truck by Megabrands

So I have had this awesome truck, the Cat 3 in 1 Dump Truck by Megabrands, in the cue for review.  I’m constantly on the look out for push toys for the pre-walking age and saw this six months ago, counting down the days where I could put Gavin behind the wheel to take it for a spin. The best feature of this toy is that once kids learn to walk behind it working on their balance and motor skills, it serves as a great big dump truck for dumping and filling, as well as a ride-on toy. Not to mention, the CAT 3 in 1 Dump Truck comes with a small pile of Mega Bloks to build with and transport.  Though it is marketed for the child one and up, make sure you keep in mind your child’s motor skills as some children begin to walk with assistance around the 10 month range. It is still a great choice for a first birthday present!

Ways we have used this truck:

- Since Gavin is a big crawler, he loves pushing it back and forth across the living room while crawling on his hands and knees; I guess boys will be boys!

- He has been pulling up to stand for a few weeks and cruising furniture so we have been letting him practice standing at the dump truck as we hold it steady.

Cat 3 in 1 Dump Truck by Megabrands

As we have gradually begun to let go while he stands, it becomes an unsteady surface where he can work more on shifting his weight and balance in standing

- He likes to also push it from behind while on his knees moving forward

- Gavin enjoys walking behind it now as a push-toy, though I would recommend keeping one hand on the front to provide tension as new walkers can’t control their force and will most likely push it to quickly for their legs to follow, which may result in a fall

CAT 3 in 1 Dump Truck Megabrands

- We promote fine motor skills for picking up and letting go by filling the back of the dump truck with the Mega Bloks, books, balls

This is a great toy that provides a lot of value for your money as your child progresses through different developmental stages!

Though Mega Brands provided this toy free for the review process, the opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

Fisher-Price Bounce N Spin Froggy

Thank you Fisher-Price for making the Bounce N Spin Froggy! This is a combination device, it spins like an exersaucer that has many fine motor activities but it also allows the child to bounce up and down like a jumperoo. However, biggest selling point, it takes up HALF the space of a traditional exersaucer! Even better selling point, it provides a safe place for my infant to be for a few minutes while I haul in groceries, change over laundry, or god forbid actually use the bathroom!

Many therapists have had discussions on the use of exersaucers and jumpers. Some are not the biggest fans of these types of devices, because children can be encouraged to stand too early for too long, which can impact their hip development and balance when standing. Though I have always been a proponent of these for short timeframes, I never registered for one. So what have I gotten in return, an adorable infant who has learned to move so quickly with all his tummy time, I’ve been pulling him out from under ottomans, tables and chairs for weeks, making it merely impossible to get anything accomplished. So I decided I’d break down and look for something I could use that would keep him occupied and safe for a short period of time.

This literally took me 10 minutes to put together out of the box before I had Gavin in, enjoying all the activities.

Not to mention I now have 15-20 minutes of a safe place to entertain him so I can finally get dinner started, type a quick post and pay a few bills! It’s so light weight, we move it around the house as well without any difficulty.

I don’t want you to think I was anti any device, I’m not, but as many of us preach, your child’s time spent in these entertainers should be time limited to 15-20 minutes. Always consider your child’s positioning. When Gavin was initially positioned in this bouncer around 6 months or so, his allignment was much better when he was wearing his shoes and not barefoot, simply because he wasn’t that tall. When children are barefoot and up on tippy toes for too long, they can strengthen their back muscles more than their abdominal muscles, which can alter their balance later on when trying to walk. Always make sure to double check the bouncer is in the proper height setting for your child.

Fisher-Price Bounce N Spin Froggy

Another great feature of this bouncer is that it also rocks side to side, working on weight shifting and balance reactions in standing. Even better, now that Gavin is pulling to stand, he will stand up and hold on to the outside, so when it sways he continues to work on his balance holding on to an unstable surface.

Fisher-Price provided the Bounce N Spin Froggy free for to facilitate this review, but the opinions in this blog 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.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to review a few Tommee Tippee products.  Tommee Tippee was started in Great Britain and has within the past few months made a grand entrance to the U.S. market selling their feeding products at BabiesRUS.com, as well as all Babies R Us and Toys R Us stores nationwide.

I received 3 products from Tommee Tippee and the Mom Bloggers Club free for the courtesy of my review: the Non Slip Easy Mat, The Weaning Bowl with Spoon and the Spill Proof Water Bottle.

I have to say I was initially most excited about the Non Slip Easy Mat.  This mat is placed on a table or high chair and allows the Weaning Bowl or other standard plates/bowls to be attached to it.  By securing the bowl, it could prevent food from being dumped out of the bowl onto the floor and it also keeps the bowl in place when children learn to eat with utensils.  Though Gavin found a way to remove the bowl from the mat within a minute or so and his lovely dinner did end up on my floor, I do believe this mat could still be beneficial to older toddlers who are motivated to self-feed with a spoon or a fork, so I’m hopeful when he’s older we can give this another try!

I really like the weaning bowl and use it almost daily.  In the package I received there were two weaning bowls, one cover, and a spoon. In the cover there is a spot where the spoon can be inserted for on-the-go meals. What a great idea to first and foremost remind us all who are functioning on little sleep to make sure we actually put a spoon in the diaper bag!  I’ve sent Gavin with meals to my parents’ and friends’ houses using this bowl and we have not had any spilling in route (though I haven’t used it for liquid textures i.e. yogurt, cottage cheese).  I have put these bowls in the microwave and dishwasher without any difficulty; they are also BPA and Phthalate free. The bowl has a handle on it, making the bowl easy to hold when you are feeding the child.  This feature is also perfect for older toddlers when teaching them how to hold the bowl as they scoop with the other hand using a spoon. This bowl is also deep, which can allow for better success during these early self-feeding stages, making it easier to get textures like yogurt onto the spoon easier. The spoon was easy to hold, lightweight and great for being on-the-go. Though I have other spoons I prefer to use for more consistent infant feeding, this is a good alternative for travel.

Lastly, we tested out the Spill Proof Water Bottle. This water bottle has two pieces that fit inside the spout that make it spill proof.  It is not difficult to extract liquid when sucking from it, but if this is hard for your child initially, remove the two pieces that serve as the no-spill valve. You can put them back in the cup once your child has the idea of how the cup works. Try to encourage your child to also remove the liquid with their lips anddon’t let them bite on the spout with their teeth to stabilize when drinking.

I know how overwhelming the feeding aisles can be in local stores with row upon row of choices, but if you want to give Tommee Tippee a try:

Now through July 23:  Buy any Explora item (cups and toddler feeding), get the second 50% off at BabiesRUs.com.

Like Tommee Tippee on Facebook: www.facebook.com/tommeetippeenorthamerica

Follow Tommee Tippee on Twitter: @tommeetippee_na

Disclosure:  http://cmp.ly/2/c6zy7i

Though I received free products from Tommee Tippee and the Mom Bloggers Club to facilitate this review, the opinions expressed are purely the bloggers own.

Keri talks with Carla, the designer of the Wubbanub. The Wubbanub was designed initially as a soft cuddly attachment for the Soothie pacifier. The Soothie pacifier is very commonly distributed to parents for their infants throughout well baby nurseries, special care nurseries and the NICU. Wubbanubs come in a variety of different animals including a duck, giraffe, lamb, red dog, cow, monkey, bear, frog, pony, and kittens. There are beans designed into the limbs of the animals to help provide a calming effect for deep pressure while it rests on the infants chest. The animals are soft and also allow for fine motor development and hand eye coordination. While the child is riding in their carseat, the limbs of the Wubbanub can also be placed underneath the straps to keep the pacifier in place. Go to www.wubbanub.com to find a list of local retailers.

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 .

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

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!

Derek, Gavin and I have participated in many of their shop-a-longs at Target, completed product review testing, and attended marketing research events giving feedback on the designs of many new products. We have had a lot of fun doing these, so contact Ashley and sign up if you can!

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.

ToyQueen interviews Jane Ross from Buckley Boo at ToyFair 2010 in New York City.