Oh, who didn’t have a kid’s toolbox growing up? Then you could walk around and be just like dad (or mom). Who didn’t? I didn’t. Not for lack of wanting one, mind you, but because Santa thought I’d rather have some other little doodad. I’m sure I enjoyed whatever was in the toolboxes place, but that didn’t stop me from wanting a kid toolbox of my own. So, instead, many, many years later, I get to review one.

WJ Fantasy created a Grade-A toolbox for youngsters. Inside a sturdy cardboard toolbox with wooden carrying handle are a hammer, a screwdriver, a saw, some pliers, tool belt, and 4 books (one for each tool).

Pros:

• Durable construction of toolbox, tools, board books, and belt.
• Informative books which are interesting to the little ones
• Realistic design

Cons:

• None

Being a simple toy is not a bad thing – it’s a good thing. By learning early, this kit teaches what they are useful for, respect for tools and their upkeep (putting away, keeping clean), and that work doesn’t have to be just “work,” but can be fun for all ages too.

The only thing about this kit and myself is that now I have to let my kids play with it some more. They’re all about wanting it back. Drats.

“Felt? What kid wants to play with felt?” was my initial reaction. And I stood by it – what kind of gift is the gift of felt? But, importantly, I kept an open mind and I played with the kids and 3 of the Felt Tales boards: Busy Day on the Farm, Heroes to the Rescue (Fire and Police officers), and Pirates at Shipwreck Cove.

I have to admit, it’s rather fun. In fact, in an age of colorful, everything-is-moving-quickly, electronic toys, the Felt Tales were a breath of fresh air. Interestingly enough, my kids taught me a lesson about them, as well: if you have 3 boards and many characters and objects – why not mix and match? A police woman could be on a pirate ship that houses animals. The possibilities are endless.

Pros:

• Well constructed and sturdy boards and figures
• Many figures to choose from on each board (each board declaring “Over 20 pieces!”)
• A nice step away from digital-everything
• Good for the imagination
• Truly entertaining

Cons:

• Getting the kids interested at first. We named all the characters first in order to draw them in.
• Storage – all those little felt pieces can easily go missing if you’re not careful

All in all I’m happy with the 3 Felt Tales boards. They brought together the family – they’re good for a one on one story, creating stories, or just telling them. I think the kids enjoy them too – they get to spend time with family and it’s not blasting noise at them or flashing. Plus, they get to make up any part of the story they want. Who knows? Maybe on day a piggy might actually be made to walk the plank by Brownbeard!

In general, I like toys that teach – stationary toys that don’t do anything quickly become one-hit-wonders in my household. Instead, I reach for toys that educate in some way – they needn’t be fancy, only captivating.

The Cloud b Twilight Ladybug is anything but a one-hit-wonder. Honestly – it is the one toy that I was thrilled that I had bought and has yet to disappoint. Let’s look at the all around picture of the Cloud b Twilight Ladybug.

Pros:

• Has yet to let me down – entertains, provokes questions, helps illustrate during stories
• Construction – plastic shell is rugged, while the body is soft and excellently built
• Color Selection – 3 colors means 3 levels of brightness and illumination

Cons

• Red Color – the red color selection is almost impossible to see, even in the darkest room
• Star Placement – I cannot find most of the constellations in the mini-guide – it may need to be placed at an exact spot within the room, but I haven’t been able to find it.

In the end, it is up to you to pick out the toys for your child – and for my family, the Cloud b Twilight Ladybug is top choice. From its tough (and soft where it matters!) exterior to the way it lights up the room (and a child’s eyes), I have yet to find another toy that elicits such wonder from children and parents alike.

My son (not pictured here) loves his ZipBin Mini Speedway from Neat Oh . And so do we. These very affordable storage bin toys are a good find for little kids who collect lots of little items like dolls, cars, or farm animals. The carrying case unfolds completely to reveal a play scene. And, the Zip Bin comes with 2 cars (or other item) so the child feels like he’s getting a toy, and not just a storage bin. $9.99 and up on Amazon.

Cards are a great accessory to have around when you have kids. They are portable, easy-to-find, and cheap. And, after the kids are in bed, you can play gin rummy or poker with your spouse.

We like ThinkFun 4 Children’s Card Games, a boxed collection of the favorite children’s card games, including Crazy Eight, Old Maid, Animal Rummy, and Hearts. However, with just a simple pack of cards, you can play a lot of games.  Here are a few ideas:

1. For kids 2-3, you can just create a game yourself based on what interests your child. Let him or her group the cards by color, number or suit. Or, look for similar cards playing a simple version of “Memory” with just a few cards.

2. All kids love Old Maid, the politically incorrect classic that is easy to play once you take out all but one Queen. The game hasn’t changed since you were a child. Deal all the cards out, and take turn drawing from your neighbor until you find all the pairs. The player left holding the Queen is, well, the loser.

3. Go Fish is an important cultural touchstone. How can anyone ever understand the many references to “go fish,” without playing this game where each player collects sets of four cards by asking another player for a specific numbered card. The player who collects the most sets wins. There’s also a good math principle in the works here.

4. We love SNAP! Deal all the cards and and all the players flip a single card at the same time. Players yell out SNAP! if they see a pair. Winners take the card.

There are lots of ideas for kids (and adult) card games, played with a simple pack you can find at the drugstore. More ideas can be found at usplayingcard.com.

Astronomy and star-gazing has always been a great dad and child experience. Nothing beats lying on the grass on a warm August evening staring up in the sky and conveying the majesty and mystery of the heavens to a small child. This is a completely free activity, there are also plenty of accessories around if you’re so inclined. Here are a few of our favorites this year:

1.
Moon in my room - $39 - This light up moon hangs on your wall and shows the moon in 12 different settings, controlled by an infrared remote control. An audio CD tells more about the moon.

2.
Planisphere watch - $59.95 - This watch glows in the dark for 2-3 hours. It’s a great present for the astronomy geek who always wants to take advantage of a dark night sky. The watch shows northern constellations only.

3.
Celestron Skyscout - $199 (50% cheaper than in 2007) - The Skyscout uses GPS to ID and 8000 starts and planets and then will even tell you about via audio or text. All the astronomer has to do is point this gadget into the night sky and it actually finds constellations for you. As one reviewer on Amazon says, “This is the astronomy device I’ve been waiting for all my life.”

4. Orion Star Target Planisphere ” target=”_blank”>Orion Star Target Planishere - $11.00 - This stargazing the old fashioned way, with a map of the heavens you hold up in the night sky. You’ll also need a red flashlight to read the map in the dark.

5.
Barska Travel Telescope - 59.95 - Savings priced telescope for aspiring astronomers with 300X magnification and a 5×24 finder scope. Don’t expect the world, but this is a good intro telescope. Minor to major inconvenience is the table level telescope. It’s perfect for setting up on a picnic table and taking turns looking from there, but impossible to use at ground level.

Happy stargazing!

Guess Who Travel Game - Our kids loved this simple game that teaches kids deductive reasoning as they eliminate suspects to find the last person standing. By asking questions of their competitor like “does the person where glasses” or “have blond hair,” kids can easily play the game even before they can read. It’s an easy to pack travel game, or for playing at home. Unfortunately, the cards, however, are easily lost so it takes an adult around to keep from losing all the parts. My kids played this so many time though, they broke the pieces off the hinges before they lost any cards. $10.45 (a bit more expensive than you would think for a game built like this, but we did get our money’s worth.)

Thomas Great Race is a fun game for small kids, especially those who love Thomas. The directions are very easy and involve moving Thomas characters up a hill based on correct answers to very simple questions.

Because the questions have to be read, this is a game that requires close involvement with an adult or with an older child.

Happily for bored parents, games are mercifully short because of the construction of the game. You push the trains up based on the numbers written on the cards drawn by players. Since just two or three correct answers send the trains down the hill, the game ends quickly

As with a lot of games like this, adults have to quickly make peace with the fact this is not a game developed for them. Our kids, too, were only willing to play the game a few times “by the rules,” and then went on to moving the pieces around under the direction of my four year old boy. The game would be stronger if there were ideas for multiple things that could be played with the game and different rules for new games.

MSRP: $22.95

Pros

1. Good introduction to how to play a game with specific rules.

2. Popular Thomas characters excite little kids.

Cons

1. No other variations on the game so may have limited lifespan.

2. Game is artificially short due to construction.

As hard as it is to believe, I actually played with a Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven when I was about six or seven years old. I was excited to try this out the Easy Bake Oven from Hasbro with my own kids, a four year old boy and eight year old girl. There was great excitement at the house when we opened it up, which was tempered a bit when we had to first search for a 100 W lightbulb to make it work. I could remember that we were always amazed that a simple light bulb could power an oven.

The kit includes small pans to cook in and one measuring spoon. We had to assume to that the measuring spoon was the correct size for the recipes (2/3 T), but it was not. Three ingredients packages were also included for cake, cookies and frosting.

Accessory packages exist for other kitchen tools, as well as more cake mixes. There are no directions for making cakes from other recipes, rather from the collection of other Hasbro cake mixes.

My daughter, at eight, enjoyed the toy, but said she’d rather cook in a real oven. My son enjoyed eating the cookies, but was easily distracted during the baking.

While the box says for “eight and older,” this looks like a toy for slightly younger kids with supervision. My daughter has been baking since age four, so she thought that real baking was easier than using the oven. My recommendation would be to use this for kids 5-7, but with very close adult supervision. Alternately, my daughter said she’d play with this unsupervised with another friend, but would require a lot more ingredients packs, or home-made mixes.

MSRP: $24.95

Pros:

1. Exciting for young bakers

2. Good-tasting cookies and cakes

Cons:

1. Hard to keep smaller kids from wanting to stick everything inside the oven. This toy requires supervision.

2. Too few recipes and not enough to be satisfying. You’ve only just learned to use the oven by the time you make the three included recipes. There are no recipes either using regular box mixes or normal cake ingredients. This would be frustrating for young kids who either want to continue baking, or want to use the toy on a following day. You’ll have to do some investigating on line (search “easy bake oven recipes”) to find “from scratch” recipes for them to follow or pre-mix for them.

3. Making the batter for cookies and cakes required another pan, which was fine though unexpected.

The Cloud B Sea Turtle is a fun addition to the nighttime routine. My kids say it helps them get to sleep because is has a soothing light. I like it because it turns their entire room into a planetarium, with choices of blue or green stars (and a moon). Stargazing has always been a special time for me with the kids and, while they can’t always figure out what I’m pointing at, they like the time lying on the grass staring up at the sky with daddy and talking about ’stuff.’ While the Cloud B Sea Turtle, and it’s other endangered animal constellation brothers, can’t replace that experience, it reminds of good times we’ve had and to come. The lights turn off after 45 minutes, which is usually long after they’ve fallen asleep.