Puzzles that are appropriate for a child’s age and developmental level provide a fun yet challenging learning experience. 

Puzzles for toddlers are very different from puzzles for school children. 

Here are some things to look for in puzzles for every age.

Babies and Toddlers

Babies and toddlers can learn a lot from the right kind of puzzle.

Shape stackers are a good type of puzzle for babies because the pieces are easy for small hands to grasp. 

ABC and Number Wooden Puzzles that have a board with pictures of the corresponding pieces allow a toddler to learn how to match objects.  The pieces fit loosely, so they’re not too hard for small hands to put together. 

Foam jigsaw-type puzzles are also good for babies and toddlers.

Hand-eye coordination is another important thing that puzzles teach.  It can be tricky for a little one to get the pieces where they belong at first, but after a few tries she will be delighted to see that she can do it.

Another benefit of toddler puzzles is that they can help teach the names of colors and shapes.  You can help by pointing out the colors or shapes of the pieces that your child is matching.  Some puzzles have pieces with letters, numbers or animals on them, and you can use those in the same way.

Preschoolers

Puzzles for preschoolers may be a little more advanced.  Jigsaw puzzles with a few large pieces are good for this age group -  Like this Search and Learn Farm Animal Puzzle.

 They are still developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, so they are probably not ready for puzzles with small pieces yet.

At this age children can benefit tremendously from working together to solve puzzles.  They might share strategies such as sorting pieces by color or searching for patterns. 

This aids in social development and communication skills as well as intellectual development.

Schoolchildren

Elementary schoolers can move on to more advanced jigsaw puzzles.  The pieces can be smaller and the designs more complex.  Many children love the Map of the World puzzle. 

Children of this age can still benefit from the teamwork lessons learned by solving puzzles together.

Once your child has become adept at putting together flat puzzles,  he or she might enjoy working on three-dimensional puzzles.  These add new challenges and make nice bedroom décor when they’re finished.  Many of them do not even require glue to stay together.

Puzzles are a fun way to learn important skills.  They also provide a great opportunity for your child to work with you or other children toward a common goal.   The educational benefits of puzzles are greater than those of many more complex and higher priced toys and they can be reinforced with each new puzzle your child completes.

Check out PuzzlesUSA.com Deal Of The Day!

Puzzles can be great FAMILY FUN!

Till next time! 

 Anyway, we got the boys Guitar Hero 3 for their XBox 360 for Christmas…and who knew it would turn into a family game? It’s not quite as easy at it looks…but it’s not too difficult either.

It’s definitely great for kids of all ages (well, they’d have to be big enough to be able to hold the “guitar” and press all of the buttons) and it does promote hand-eye coordination.

You have to choose your level (easy, medium, hard or expert) then your character and their clothes and guitar style…then you pick your song. The more you play (and “pass” the songs) the more songs, characters, and outfits you unlock.

There are also songs you can “purchase” with your money you’ve earned by playing your gigs. And of course it wouldn’t be a true rocker experience without trashed hotel charges and stolen wall art.

In Guiar Hero III you have a choice to play against another player, or with the other player, and even in a “team” co-op career mode. The first two versions are one player only.

My only complaint about this game, is that there are songs on the store demo’s (PlayStation 2) that are not available on the Xbox version. I guess we’ll have to get it for Play Station as well, huh?

Overall, I definitely think this game was worth the money. All four of us play together and laugh and have fun…and there is no violence!

Until next time,

Amy

My boys have no interest in this toy, but they are video game loving boys that are 10 and 12…so I really didn’t think they would.

 However, I am purchasing one for my friend’s daughter who is 6. Christina fell in love with Squawkers McCaw as soon as she saw the first commercial.

For younger children it is a great toy because they can teach it to say different words…and believe it or not many kids learn a lot more when they feel they can “teach” someone or something else.

Even though this is not an educational toy, you can use it to help teach your smaller child responsibilities about pets or how to be a positive influence. After all, what you say is what your child will say, is what Squawkers McCaw will say.

Get your FurReal Friends Squawkers McCaw Animatronic Parrot today.

As far as teaching the child responsibilities for pets, I would definitely recommend any robotic or toy pet that the child can interact with before purchasing a pet for that child.

My thoughts on this are that children often grow bored with something after a short period of time (my kids grew tired of our dogs when they weren’t puppies and our cats when they weren’t kitties anymore).

You can use the toy parrot as a standard for the child to some degree…teach them how they have to love the pet, feed it, spend time with it, clean up after it (ok, this can be hard with a toy, but be creative!) and most of all make sure they understand what a huge responsibility it is. You can’t just get rid of it when you grow tired of it!

Since we are briefly discussing pets, I thought I should also encourage you to spay and neuter your pets! If you don’t have one or are looking into getting one, please check with your local shelters first.

Until next time,

Amy

If you haven’t visited Back to Basic Toys …

You are missing out on a true treasure!

When I was a little girl … and heck even when Amy and Brian were small toys were made to promote a childs developmental skills and to encourage their creativity.

Yep, I said CREATIVITY.

So do yourself and your child a favor … This Christmas Have some GOOD OLD FASHIONED FUN ….. when they receive classic toys as gifts … This is just a SMALL sample of the Fantastic Toys they offer ….

Rock ‘N Bounce Pony	Hand Crafted Tree House
Jumbo Tinker Toys	Radio Flyer All-Terrain Wagon
Pedal Fire Truck	Electric Scooter

You’ll find toys for kids of ALL AGES

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What was so special about Robosapien….and was “he” worth it???

 As far as why he was special…he came with his very own cup that he could pick up and hold and carry around. GREAT!!! But, what for?

He can dance…in a robot sort of way. He does have reflexes and can walk and bend. And of course he has a remote control. (which is kind of cool)

Mel and Lamont played with Robosapien for all of twenty minutes before they grew bored of him and moved on to other toys.

Since then, I’ve seen them take Robosapien off of the shelf and dust him off to show him to friends twice. So we spent $100 on this toy that got used for less than an hour total.

Worth it? I’d say not, but of course the boys wouldn’t let me donate him…because…”we DO play with him mom!!!” Yeah, okay.

Since then, the same company has made other versions including mini versions of Robosapien. (they’ve begged for others but we decided one is enough, especially since he doesn’t get played with!)

Maybe my boys didn’t utilize his full potential, but they got bored. They can make him dance and it does amuse them for a few minutes, but it wasn’t as exciting as they thought he’d be.

Don’t get me wrong, Robosapien is a unique toy and can be very cool but my boys never really got into him.

This year they’ve came out with the Remote Control Robosapien V2 Media.   I think my boys would have had more fun with him.

He has a Head-mounted camera that takes photographs.There is a full-color integrated LCD screen with built-in speakers on his armor. It plays movies, and videos. You can also play video games on screen.

Watch out for my next post about FurReal Friends Squawkers McCaw Parrot and please feel free to add your comments or questions. We want to hear from YOU! Until next time, Amy

He would play with them constantly. He never ran out of unique things to build.

He would build houses and building and cities – as well as people and cars and anything else you can think of.

Even though I never thought about it when he was small, he was actually preparing himself for his future….

Brian always loved shapes, putting stuff together, and math. When he was small he used to say he wanted to be an architect. And you know what? He went into drafting. I don’t think he wants to be an actual architect anymore, but he has drawn some awesome homes and buildings. He makes good money and loves his job!

So let your child DREAM BIG DREAMS. Let your Childs imagination soar. With Legos your child can build and create. And through their play they may actually be shaping their future life. Visit the LEGO Holiday Gift Shop!

You have so many Lego sets to choose from. Choose a set from one of your childs favorite characters such as Star Wars, Batman, SpongeBob Squarepants, Bob the Builder, Harry Potter, Thomas and Friends plus so much more ….

You never know, your child could become a builder of a spaceship, a rocket scientist or an astronaut. You can never tell what will spark a child’s imagination. Let your child find his/her creative side with a Legos set today.

You’ll find Legos for people of ALL ages.  More than 400,000,000 children and adults will play with LEGO bricks this year.

FREE SHIPPING on LEGO orders of $99 or more placed before 30-Nov-07. Use Code FSA99 at checkout. Valid in US only, exclusions apply.

Till Next time!

Before Lamont could understand the point system and how to play, he wanted cards. And more cards. And more cards.

We got suckered into buying more of those cards at Walmart check out aisles than I can count!

Both boys have the cards and they have traded and “played” for many years now. It seems to go in spurts. Especially when one of their friends wants to play and trade.

It never fails to end up on all of Lamont’s “wish lists” though. He loves those cards and actually does keep them together in a nice neat stacks.

He knows which ones he has duplicates of. He knows their point values (for attacks and all of that good stuff). He takes superb care of them. (if only I could get him to care about his shoes the same way!)

Have your kids played with these cards? Do they still? Or do they prefer the Pokemon cards? Lamont has a few of those, but he never quite got into the Pokemon cards like the Yugioh cards.

Til Next Time,

Amy

I always thought she was the “perfect” woman…that long, silky blond hair, big breasts, tiny little waist and perfect hips. I always wanted to be Barbie when I grew up. She had every single career a girl could want, her guy, cars, mansions and an unlimited supply of materialistic wealth.

I have never had anything like a Barbie shape! As I grew older I understood that it wasn’t really realistic to think I’d ever look like her, but it took a while for me to figure that out.

So…do you have a little girl in your life that plays with Barbie? How does she view her body? Does she think she should look like Barbie? Or does she prefer Bratz dolls?

Bratz dolls came after I’d already had my own children…and I have bought a few for some of the small girl’s in my life…so what doll does your little girl prefer?

Jenna likes the Bratz dolls more because they’re “cool”. And yes, that is a direct quote from my friends 9 year old daughter. There seems to be a larger ethnic diversity amongst Bratz dolls and young girls of today seem to identify more with them.

The Bratz dolls have more of a “natural” feminine shape…larger hips, slim waist line and “average” breasts. You can find one that looks similar to just about anyone on your shopping list. They’re younger and trendier than Barbie. And those big heads make them just unique, adorable and interesting.

Of course being a Barbie child, I’ll always love Barbie, I’m just not sure there’s much room for her in today’s young girls’ hearts.

I’m very interested to hear your opinions on how the shape of these dolls affect our young girls and which ones the kids in your life prefer.

Until next time,

Amy

China obviously doesn’t have the same quality control that the US has. Yet 80% of our toys are manufactured in China.

More than 10 million toys have been recalled! These include popular Barbie Dolls and Polly Pocket Sets, Batman figurines, Big Bird, Elmo and Dora the Explorer. The toy recalls have been for toys contaminated with lead paint and/or toys that have small high-powered magnets that created a risk to children.

The recent enormous toy recall has resulted in a boost to US toy manufacturers. That could be a good thing for our economy. A bad thing for the price of toys? But should we be concerned with the cost of toys to ensure our children’s safety? When we purchase toys made in the USA we can be guaranteed that they are lead free.

With Christmas just right around the corner, it’s time to take a minute and think about what you will purchase for the children you love. You may want/need to do some research before grabbing that toy off the shelf.

I have to hand it to Mattel. They are very concerned about the safety of our children. Check out what the CEO has to say at http://www.mattel.com/safety/us/

With so much information on line …
I wanted to direct to you these to US Government Websites.

Till Next Time!
Cindy

Big Mel (dad) remembers playing Rummikub as a child with his family and thought it may be fun to try with our boys, and since I have never even heard of the game we decided to bring it home with us.

After reading the instructions (which were pretty easy to follow) we mixed up all the tiles and started to play. If you’re not familiar the game I’ll give you a brief rundown:

Each player starts with 14 “tiles” which are little pieces with a colored number on it. The object is to make “groups” of 3 or more tiles. They can be the same number but different colors (there are 4 different colors) or a sequence of numbers in the same color.

As the game goes on you can move the tiles around to suit your own purposes as long as each tile on the “board” (we played on our coffee table) is used in a proper set. There are two “jokers” thrown in just to spice it up.

The object of the game is to clear your “rack” (similar to Scrabble) before any other player. You then get points for all the tiles they still had on their rack and they have to subtract the number points they had on their rack from their total score.

We played all day Saturday and for a couple of hours on Sunday. Lil Mel and Lamont both got the hang of it and could actually successfully go “rummikub” without our help by the end of Saturday!

Needless to say Big Mel had the highest overall score by the end of the weekend but we all won a couple of rounds once we understood the game.

You need to be able to plan out what you want to do…kind of like a strategy game then you have to use math to add up your score.

So, not only did we have an entire weekend of fun together that did not consist of tv, video games, the telephone or anything else…but the kids actually had to use their brains too! (Ok, so did the grown ups…hehe…their a lot smarter than they used to be!)

Another plus to all of this (as if it there needed to be any more goodness!) was that we had all of this fun-and will have even more next weekend-for about $10.

You don’t hear too many people talk about playing board games with their kids or families that much anymore…but it’s a great way to spend quality family time together for a very small initial investment. Over and over again.

Some of my fondest memories are when I was little and we’d go camping. That’s when Dad, Mom, my brother and I would pull out Yahtzee and Uno and other board games and play for hours each day.

Give your kids something to remember when they are sharing with their kids…board games are good old-fashioned inexpensive family fun that lasts forever.

Until next time,

Amy