The budding little civil engineer in the family would love this classic toy … ERECTOR SETS! Since 1913, erector sets have been used by kids to create everything from cranes to buildings, towers, excavators, bridges and more. The Erector set can teach kids to build just about anything they can imagine, but also teach them creativity, observation, deductive reasoning, logical thinking, principles of mechanics, physics & problem solving.
The Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Bounce & Spin Pony reminds me of those fun little spring powered numbers you see in neighborhood parks, only it does a heck of a lot more. In addition to bouncing backwards and forwards, it gives children up to 3 years a spin capability and can be used to control educational video games. So, it’s not only a ride-on pony toy, but a video controller interface. That’s very cool.
(2nd in a series)
Thinking about Lincoln Logs reminded me of that marvelous collection of sticks and wheels known as Tinker Toys. Also made of durable wood that will last to their kids and beyond (if you don’t lose the parts, that is), kids can use their imagination to create all kinds of constructed works of art, including structures, animals, shapes and more. The jumbo canister comes with 102-pieces including wheels, sticks, paddles, tubes and a host of other parts for building towering designs. Cost is about $25-35. There’s also a larger 250 piece set for about $150.
VTech’s other shining example of how kids can learn the arts at an early age is their award winning KidiJamz. Part of the KidiCreative line which includes the award winning KidiArt Studio, KidiZoom cameras and the KidiDoodle drawing pad, KidiJamz is another interactive play station which teaches kids the value of arts. Only this time, it’s in music.
The Young Scientists Club, an organization seeking to make playtime smarter, is taking a ride on the Magic School Bus with a science kit which give kids the tools to perform their favorite experiments from the hit PBS Television series. Designed to give kids “hands-on science fun combined with a true educational science exposure,” the first kit in the series explores the “Mysteries of the Rainbows.”
Kids mix colors in a bowl of milk and study the differences in colors. Then, they take the included color paddles to see what happens when different colors are combined and light is shined through them as well as bounced light waves off ceilings.
Other experiments for Young Junior Scientists include designing a rainbow spinner, blow rainbow bubbles, bend white light, and recreating Newton’s prism experiment!
Over the next few days, we’ll be highlighting the toys that TOYS R US thinks will be hot sellers this holiday season. We’ll break them down by age and give you the specs on the toys that Geoffrey thinks will make for a Holy Jolly Christmas. And all counting down to what Toys R Us calls the FABULOUS 15.
Today, we’re taking a look at hot toys for toddlers, our baby-24 months category (Year 1):
Every kid has done it. Taken chairs from the dining room table and draped blankets over them to make their own fortress of solitude. That rite of passage is the inspiration behind Crazy Forts, which seeks to move the furniture a lot less, and give the kids for interesting ways to drape their blankets.
Let’s face it. Toys are expensive and a child’s interest in them is short. After a few weeks of exhaustive and obsessive play time, a child will suddenly forsake something they were inseparable with just a few days before. As such, parents have closets stuffed to the gills with toys that simply go largely ignored. It’s Woody’s worst nightmare. But wouldn’t it be great, not to mention a relief on the pocketbook, if parents could rent a toy much like they rent a movie or video game? Now they can.
I can remember back when the Apollo program was in full swing. I was a kid and man, you had models by Revel, space army men, and every other space toy imaginable. We lived off space toys. It was the golden age of space travel. Kids wanted to be astronauts. We had astronaut lunch pails, GI Joe Astronauts, even that uber cool Mercury capsule with the action figure inside.
And the golden age of space toys lasted even up to when we landed on Mars. I may have been a full grown adult when it landed back in `94, but when the first Mars Rover “Sojourner” hitched a ride to the Red Planet with it’s base station “Sagan” and made a bouncy and spectacular landing on Mars, I couldn’t help but race to the toy store and buy the Hot Wheels set. It included the base station, rover, and even the orbiter with aeroshell so one could relive the rentry and touchdown in the privacy of your own bedroom at mom’s house. Hell, I even bought the Happy Meal Toys.
But then the next three missions failed spectacularly.
Last year, NASA launched Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber into space on the shuttle for a brief orbital journey before it headed to the Smithsonian. Now, they’re doing the same with Buzz Lightyear which should make him feel right at home, at least right next to being in a toy store.