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I am coming out of my unintended bloggy slump to do today's Friday Fave's because I really do want to hear your answers on this before I get my Christmas shopping on.
A note on Christmas shopping. Here is my advice: if you go to Target one day round mid October with only a clueless two year old for company and feel oh so proud of yourself for knocking out half your Christmas shopping, be sure and get the loot out of the back of the car. Because when the kids find half their Santa toys on Halloween, it puts a massive kink in your ever so impressive plans.
Back to toys.
I can tell you the ones that have stood the test of time and torture at the Naptime household. Really, Fisher Price, Little Tykes etc should use us as a test market. If it can last two weeks in this household, it is solid. Because my kids are de to the struct to the ive. Every stinkin one of them. Eva Rose is not as bad as the others, but even she tied every blind cord in the house together the other day. I know the blind cords are supposed to be kept out of reach. THEY WERE. But these kids have super powers. I am pretty sure Maggie can shoot laser beams from her blue eyes that will catch any toy on fire.
That would explain a lot.
And since we have children of all ages and stages, my favorite toys are ones that everyone can enjoy. It can happen.
Toys Which Have Withstood The Torture and Time Test include:
1) Leap Frog Learn and Groove Musical Table
The thing is sturdy, the music is so cool and jazzy, you will sing along (onetwothreefourfivesixsevenEIGHTNIIIIINETEN!) which will impress your children, and they never, ever get tired of this thing. Shep played with it from the ages of 5 months to 5 years, when we lost the battery cover. But he would use the piano when he played "band".
2) Bristle blocks
Babies teethe on them, two year olds learn to manipulate them, and 6 year olds still use them to build cars and rockets and, of course, guns. Target carries a nice set by Parents.
3) Legos
This goes without saying, right? My brother used to build the most amazing cars while I built little stages with little Donny and Maries holding little microphones. And now, Shep builds the most amazing cars while Eva Rose builds little parks with little people playing in them. Although last week Shep came up to me holding a square built of Legos and asked if I had any wire. Why, I asked. For my bomb, he replied. So I guess he's graduated from guns now. We're very proud.
I also used to walk across my brother's legos when they were spread all over the floor and pretend I was walking across broken glass like some lady on TV used to do - what TV show was that??
4) Big Ole Box of Art Supplies
Recently I did a happy dance in a dollar store (it happens more than you might think) (I HEART dollar stores) (it's a sickness I come by honest. My mom will call me on the phone to rejoice over a newly discovered dollar store) because I found a huge bag of google eyes along with a plethora of other awesome doodads like popsicle sticks, seashells, colored straws, wires for bombs, pipe cleaners and construction paper. I spent about ten bucks and have bought my daughters and occasionally my son HOURS of creative fun. Independent fun. (Read, Mommy gets a break fun.)
5. Musical instruments
They never grow tired of them. You, however, will want to take the bomb wire and poke out your eardrums. But Christmas is a time of giving until it hurts, right?Some good news: you can skip the kiddy drum sets. They all have a shelf life of about three days.
I know there are more, but it is 2am y'all, and I have a busy day tomorrow.
I've got preschool toys covered. I really need to know some great gifts for boys and girls ages 6 and up. Santa was last seen lugging this out of Costco. I think if Santa brought this, a certain little boy would faint. Any other suggestions?
Link away, Sister Santas...
10 Comments:
I don't think I've posted a comment in forever, so hello again!
We love lego's over here. Thomas the train was great, but I think we've outgrown him.
What is it with googly eye's? My kids go nuts over them!
My daughter wants a telescope. I hope that doesn't mean I have to stay awake! That might have to be a Daddy project!
Tamara
Love Friday Faves! I'm finding six and over is starting to get tough (and more expensive). One thing that's worked for my daughter is hitting the teacher supply store. There's one near me that has all kinds of fun science kits that aren't too terribly expensive. Plus, if Santa can't afford it, you can send the grandparents. ;)
You realize that you will no get searchers trying to find "bomb wires" on your site.
We have that leapfrog music table too. It is great, except that Ginny has managed to confuse the computer so now it kinda gets stuck in a beatbox-esque rut.
About the smock-a-holics sale...are you SURE you won't let me buy some of those bows on-line from you? I still can not find ANYONE around here who sells the add-a-bow head bands. I am just using the ones you sent me ....over and over and over again.
Not sure I have any suggestions for you but I had to laugh at your saying your kids break everything. Our third son broke everything. One year we said,"what can we get him that he won't break? A bowling ball? No, he'd break that too."
One of my favorite toys for younger kids is Little People. We have TONS of them, and even my 8-year-old will play with them for hours when we get them out and scatter them around the living room (such as now).
My one-year-old granddaughter has that leapfrog music table and loves it...and yes, I haver caught myself singing the numbers, too!
I love the bristle block idea. We don't have any of those. Hmmm ....
Art supplies make my list. I only have boys, so I don't know about girl toys, but I will say that ride-on toys have lasted forever in our house. There is a ride-on rocket Asher got for his first birthday that he still rides nearly every day. We also have one little box that is designated for junk odds and ends - Mardi Gras beads, happy meal toys, etc. I have to say that box gets used every single day. I don't know why, but my kids love that kind of junk.
Trains are a big - huge, cannot be overstated - hit in our house. We've shopped yard sales diligently until we've finally built up a pretty good stock of trains/ tracks/ train tables that did not require financing.
Added to the art supplies - ever made a bean box? It is literally about 6 bucks worth of dried beans in a tupperware box (with a good lid). I don't like to think about children in third world countries who could be EATING the beans my children are using as toys, but seriously? It is my kids' FAVORITE TOY THEY OWN. We put a blanket on the floor and all beans have to stay on the blanket, or clean-up becomes a bear. Otherwise, though, it's a toy that can entertain for hours. I've buried animals for them to find and given them measuring cups and spoons for them. My kids love them, and as long as you have babies out of the mouthing stage, it's good for every age.
My suggestions, for what it's worth.
Great list. We loved the Leapfrog table and legos are still a big hit around here. We've never had the Bristle blocks but they look interesting. Musical instruments are a must around here as well.
Have you checked out any of the Cranium games? My nieces have a couple and they are a blast for kids and parents, and they are somewhat educational too.
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