Infantino Twist and Fold Activity Gym
The Infantino Twist and Fold Activity Gym is a great infant play mat. With the quick twist of the top, the gym folds up, umbrella style to be easily stored, moved and travelled with. Play mats are excellent for young infants to develop their visual skills for focusing on a toy, their upper body strength and coordination through reaching up for the toys while lying on their side or on their stomach. If you are developing a baby registry or buying a baby gift, this is a great option.

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.

Sassy Dunk & Clunk
For babies older than 6 months, working on basic grasp and release patterns is the Sassy Dunk and Clunk Toy. This toy works on basic grasp and release patterns. First, take the top off and release pieces right into the open container. With refinement and more precise skills, place the top on and developmentally encourage your child to complete the horizontal slots first before the vertical slots. These slots are easier, as they require less wrist rotation. Teach your child how to complete the vertical slot with hand over hand assistance if necessary. The newer version has a different toy, find this toy at www.sassybaby.com. www.toyqueen.com