Toys

Exergaming is all the rage now with parents (and corporations) trying to figure out how to get kids up off the couch and moving. The Wii is obviously the biggest sensation in exergaming, finally allowing parents to feel less guilty about hours spent in front of the TV, but there are lots of other fun games that get kids moving while they are having fun playing. And, hey, it's not so bad for mom and dad to play along and get a little exercise too. I've been surprised at how out of breath I can get from playing these games and you don't have to spend a lot.

Top 5 Games that get kids moving: Read more »

America is moving forward by looking backward. As they compare Obama to JFK and anticipate his bringing some forward-thinking good old retro energy to the White House, I am also looking back for some great ideas for Christmas gifts back in the day when kids got presents a little more stimulating than a Nintendo DS or the latest iteration of Tickle Me Elmo. I'm not thinking about BB Guns, a la A Christmas Story, I'm thinking about science kits like chemistry sets and electronics sets.

I don't know when science kits stopped being the cool gift kids wanted (gee did it have something to do with the video game?), but I can't think of anything cooler than finding one of these sets under the tree. I have to admit that I wasn't all that psyched about trying out the chemistry and electronics sets in our science kit review process, but we had more fun with these kits than with any other. Read more »

All kids love science. At least they do until someone teaches them it's not fun. So grab the opportunity by the horns and get your kid some of these cool science kits for the holidays this year. It may not be what they are asking for, but they will have an amazing time and you will too.

Me and my crack team of toy reviewers (aged 4-10) set about working our way through no less than fourteen of the coolest science kits that we could find. In this post I will be writing about the best ones for little kids, aged 4 and up.

The thing we found when trying out all these science kits is that there are three kinds of science kits:

1. Project kits. I call it a project kit when a science kit is really about the packaging and has one or a couple of activities with a thinly veiled connection to science. It might be fun to make rainbow crystals, but it's not really a science kit, it's a project kit, in my opinion.

2. Bad Science Kits. The second category of kits are ones that are either not fun or the science is not made relevant to the kids so they don't really learn anything from this. I have coined the term "bad science kits" for these ones (trademark pending).

3. Great Science Kits. The third type of kit we found were the winners. To be a great science kit for kids, there had to be enough different experiments to make it fun to come back to again and again and the science had to be fun and made relevant to the kids so they really could learn the basic principles involved.

It seems like too much to ask, but we did find some great science kits, perfect for preschoolers, and we want to share them with you. Read more »

Last week we posted about Drop and Dine, a fabulous new way to enjoy dinner out at a restaurant together/alone with your toddler or child. Today we've got another great solution for eating out with kids??”Fun-a-Go-Go??”and we're giving away whole party pack of them.

Fun-a-Go-Go is a deceptively simple solution for entertaining children in a restaurant. It's just a small folio with a dry erase board and marker that clips on so it never gets lost. The kit has dozens of game and activity ideas printed on it to keep your little one entertained through even the longest restaurant meal. There's even more ideas posted on their website, or you can make up your own.

Recommended for children ages 3 and up, I think Fun-a-Go-Go is great. I love the simplicity of it, the way it allows you to interact with your children to get them set up in games that they can then continue on their own, allowing you to eat and talk. Read more »

Cranium, the innovative non-competitive game company, has just released a new line of games aimed at preschoolers. Cranium Bloom games seem to be designed to guide parents in educational interactive play with their children. Read more »

At Mommy Poppins we always try to provide real information by real parents that you will really use. So what could be better than a gift guide created by your fellow NYC parents. This guide will be just as useful for birthday gifts as it is for Holiday presents. And at the end of the post, we'll announce our lucky winner of the $100 gift certificate to the Scholastic Store. Read more »

Worrying about lead paint, the environment, and the extinction of small, local businesses and artisans is not the only reason to look for alternatives to big box stores and toys. How about the pure pleasure of giving and having absolutely melt-in-your-mouth beautiful, simple, hand-crafted, heirloom toys that will inspire kids to use their imaginations and instill a sense of magic and wonder?

Craftsbury Kids is a mother-owned company selling toys, art, clothing, and decor for parents who are looking for something different than the cookie cutter, mass-produced flashy electronic toys. Most everything is handcrafted by independent artisans and small cottage industries. You can even shop by categories of toys Made in The USA, Made in Europe and Fair Trade if you like.

Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. All I know is I get weak in the knees when I look at their Holiday Gift Guide.

My favorite page is the Warm Fuzzies. As far as I'm concerned, every child should have one of these froggie hats. I'm writing to Hillary right now to suggest we put it in law.

My son would love this toy wooden helicopter, but honestly I'm not sure I would care if he ever played with it or not. It would give me so much pleasure just to see such a beautiful toy sitting there on his, or my, shelf every day. Read more »

Lots of winners today from yesterday's Prizeapalooza. Evelina won the Kaboost. Rebecca G won the Laughing Pizza concert tickets and CD. And the Blush topless undershirt winners are Izzy's Mama, NeeshaN and Gayle. Thanks everyone who is spreading the word and entering the contests.

And the fun goes on...Today, another great product giveaway created by a local NYC mom. But, before I get into the prizes, a couple of quick notes. Someone brought up the issue of privacy and SPAM yesterday. Be assured, I'm not collecting your email addresses and I wouldn't know what to do with them if I did. You will not get any SPAM from me or any other source when you subscribe to Mommy Poppins or pass a link to a friend through this site.

On the note of subscriptions. If you have subscribed via email, make sure you reply to the verification email in order to activate your subscription. If you can't find your verification email, just resubscribe and reply to the new one.

Now, on to today's giveaway!

What is a Mugwaz? They're really fun fashion craft kits. Kids can create their own fashion accessories from flip flops to bags to belts. The kits are easy enough for preschoolers, but cool enough for tweens and the packaging is almost as much fun as the kits with cute cartoons all over that are fun to read. Read more »

A couple weeks ago The New York Times followed NYC parent blog demigods, Liz Gumbinner and Greg Allen, on toy shopping expeditions and interviewed them about the whole China-toy-recall-apalooza.

In the article, Greg Allen who writes daddytypes.com says,

“I think people are kind of stunned because they don’t know what to do. You can’t just cut out every made-in-China toy. It’s just not realistic.�?

Liz Gumbinner, on the other hand, was not one of those stunned parents who didn't know what to do. She knew exactly what to do. Liz writes on a blog called Cool Mom Picks where a couple of savvy, stylin' moms post every day about the best stuff out there for babies and parents. Read more »

I'm not much of a soft-y, but there's something about vintage kid stuff that just makes me weak in the knees. I'm not talking about like 1970s hipster let's-put-Atari-decals-on-the-walls vintage. I mean like Dick and Jane 1950s vintage. The innocence and the optimism just thrills me.

And, let's face it, there's nothing more optimistic than having a baby–or decorating a nursery, for that matter. Filling your child's room with beautiful, wholesome toys and artwork is a wish that your and your children's lives will be just as perfect and serene as the room.

If there's any place to stock up on vintage optimism, it's The Warm Biscuit Bedding Company. They sell all kinds of furniture, decorations and of course bedding for lovely kids' rooms, but I have to say my heart lies in their classic toys. And they sell pages and pages of them.

You can really get lost in this site for a long time just checking out all the wonderful things that they have. Read more »