Stacking Robots

Grant got these wood stacking robots for his fourth birthday and loves to play with them.  They are not a simple stacking toy. When adding a robot layer to the pile, you need to counter-weight by stacking the new robots a little off center. Otherwise, all of the robots will come crashing down.  I explained the principle of counter-weighting to Grant and showed him what happened with and without the counter-weight process. Once he understood this, he was able to stack the robots successfully on his own.  The toy comes with easy-to-difficult suggested ways to stack the robots.

I should mention that these robots are made of wood and often crash down onto the surface they are being stacked on. As such, the paint chips and the wood dents. This toy will not look brand-new for long.

Manufacturer recommended age: 3-7 years (per Amazon)

Wood Block Set for Building Castles

Finally purchased these blocks made by Maxim. I couldn't find them on the shelf at my local Target, so I ordered them online at Target, via Amazon.com, which added $13 in shipping to the cost.  There are 200 pieces to this cute, wood block set, which I think is very reasonably priced.  It may not be a super-exciting race car toy, but they do get used almost everyday to build whatever Grant is interested in at the moment. They function as a medium with which he can create and I am totally satisfied with that.

Recommended ages: 3Years +

Fun Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Kidlee Micro Blog

I'm nuts about Kidlee (http://www.kidlee.com/).  Since Grant was born, I've been great about taking digital pictures and saving milestone items. However, I am not a scrap booker or someone who keeps a journal. I also don't like the idea of my son's life being shared on Facebook, which tends to change its security functions too often for my taste. I didn't want an open blog for the security reasons, as well, but I didn't want to force family and friends to log into a secure blog.  We tried that when Grant was born and found no one ever logged in after the initial join.

Finally, I found Kidlee. It's the perfect solution. Parents are the only account holders.  They log into their account and record micro blog snippets of their child(ren's) lives, as often as they like.  For less than $20 a year, parents can also add photos and longer posts to their micro-blog.  The account set-up allows e-mail addresses of individuals you would like to invite to view your Kidlee updates to be entered. These individuals receive an invitation to receive weekly e-mail updates from your Kidlee account.  Family and friends then get to decide whether to accept the invitation or not.

I like that the site is still in Beta and improvements are still being made. I've sent many suggestions to the technical team and I always get a personalized response back.  They provide information about whether they are currently working on my suggestion and if so, an approximation of when the update will be available.  It's one of the most responsive sites I've ever used.

The feedback I've gotten from family and friends has been phenomenal.  This tool helps Grandparents, family and friends that are far away feel as if they are participating in the growing years of the child.  My parental guilt is abated, because I feel as if I am fulfilling my parental responsibility to record some of his precious moments, even though I don't scrapbook or journal. I cannot say enough about this site!

Language TV shows

Grant knows some Spanish and Chinese, thanks to pre-school and TV.  His favorite language based TV show is Ni Hao, Kai Lan. Parents probably need to watch and learn the words with their child, because we've found that occasionally, Grant slips them into his conversation, like asking for xī​guā (watermelon) or saying thank you in Chinese. 

Mo Willems

We love everything Mo Willems writes. The man is magic. Besides having won Emmy's for his writing on Sesame Street, he now has several different children's books series.  We own almost all of his books.  The Piggie and Elephant series is brillant, as are the Pigeon books. They make Grant laugh all the time, even though we've read them over and over and he knows how they are going to end.  Great for reading to a young child and my theory is they will be great for Grant to read to me as a school-age child.  Here are some of our favorite books:

Floor Puzzles

Our favorite floor puzzle is one created by Ceaco, that has 24-pieces and is 2-sided. One side is of jungle animals and the other side is an ocean scene of different fish. I bought this for Grant around the age of two. I was afraid he would get confused about the two-sidedness of the puzzle, but I liked the value of getting two puzzles for the price of one. To my amazement, this puzzle never confused him. I helped him put each puzzle together a couple of times. After that, he no longer needed assistance (although he still wanted my company while he put it together).  I cannot rave enough about the quality of the puzzle. It fits together well and does not pop out of place once it has been connected. We've taken this puzzle on family trips many times and it's
still in great shape.

We own a couple of Melissa and Doug floor puzzles, as well. They are sturdy and have great subject matter, but they do not seem to fit or stay together as well as the Ceaco puzzle. Still, they are a good value for the money and fun to do as a family.  Do you have a favorite floor puzzle?

Bubbles

I'm lazy when it comes to making bubbles. I want to push a button and have lots and lots of bubbles for Grant to giggle over and chase.  We've owned a couple of these animal bubble makers with mixed results. Our first one was a puppy, that worked splendidly. It made lots of bubbles and all I had to do was grasp a handle.  However, our new hippo has only made a couple of bubbles. I am not using the bubble liquid that came with the hippo and think this may be the problem.  Note: I only got rid of the puppy because we moved cross country and I didn't want it leaking in a box, while all our belongings were in storage. It had not stopped working.

New note: Over the weekend, I found the manufacturer approved bottle of bubbles.  The hippo was half full of the old bubbles. Rather than dumping them out, I just topped it off with the "right" bottle.  It took a few minutes of priming the pump, but sure enough, the manufacturers bubbles work like a charm. We had bubbles everywhere and Grant was excited chasing them around the patio.  So, if you are going to buy this toy, skip the cheap bubbles and keep this hippo fed with the manufacturer recommended bubbles!

Alex Paper Roll Dispenser

Grant loves to draw and paint.  I bought him a paper roll dispenser for his craft table, so he always has paper handy when he wants it. The cutting process using the built in cutter works well for an adult.  After every cut, I have to refeed the paper through the cutter before he starts his next painting. Because of the dexterity required in this process, Grant probably will not be able to do it himself until he is school-aged.



  

Dot-Paint

I was fortunate enough to have a child who dislikes getting dirty or sticky. One of the benefits of this is he also doesn't like to make sticky messes. His pre-school introduced us to dot paint last year.  Grant prefers using dot paints, rather than paint brushes and open containered paint. This way, he doesn't get paint all over himself and I don't have to clean up spilt paint. It works for both of us.  We use the Alex Washable brand below, but there are several brands available.

Quadrilla Marble Sets

Okay, I know I said Magformers were my favorite, all-time toy. Quadrilla marble sets are also at the top of my list. They are sturdy and easy to fit together, unlike the cheaper, plastic versions. A toddler can assist an adult in putting the structure together. Realistically, until pre-school or school-age, a child will probably not be able to build this on their own. One draw back is that if bumped, it will topple over. You can glue the structure together, but that will reduce the creativity of the toy, since the child will not be able to change the format around.  Watching the marbles race through the ramps and holes provides a lot of fun. Grant loves this toy.

Magformers

Magformers are my all-time favorite toy, right now. They are a great gender-neutral manipulative for young children, but still interesting enough for older kids to play with. They're sturdy and easy to use. A child can build almost anything with them. Magformers come in a variety of colors and shapes and provide good imaginative play for years to come. Check QVC.com for deals.