Category Archives: Wooden Toys

Toy review: Balancing Coral toy from Plan Toys

December 19, 2008Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Educational Toys, Games, Toys, Wooden Toyscognitive, development games, fine motor skills, plan toys, toddlerAlicia

Plan Toys makes some of the nicest looking and well made wooden toys I've seen.

Made of earth-friendly and replenishable rubber wood, Balancing Coral, is a game for up to 4 players ages 3 and up. The idea is to take turns putting pieces of coral on the coral base and see who makes the coral topple by not keeping the coral balanced. Madelyn works very hard at putting a few pieces on but manages to topple the coral within a few tries. That is to be expected though as she is only 2.

Balancing Coral is great game for young kids as it will help develop good cognitive and fine motor skills. I always supervise Madelyn when playing Balancing Coral because the pieces could potentially be a chocking hazard for children 3 and under. Madelyn stays too busy putting the coral on to try to put the pieces on her mouth.

GIVEAWAY!
We have a Plan City Fire Station
to giveaway to a lucky reader! Go to Plan Toys website and tell me in the comment box below what you think makes Plan Toys stand out and tell me what other product (1 only) you would love to have of theirs and why. You just might get it too!

You can buy Balancing Coral at Plan Toys or at Oompa Toys, one of my favorite online toys stores, for about $35.

Check out some of our other givewaways running now (Expire Dec. 31, 2008): invisibelt giveaway, Little Tikes Rated Green products giveaway, Fisher Price Zen Collection Swing giveaway, Precious Girls Club book and goodie bag giveaway.

Four toddler & elementary age building block sets I love

October 31, 2008Age 1-3, Age 3-5, Toys, Wooden ToysAlicia

Bamboo Collection Contina blocks

Ages 4+

This is one of my favorite block sets. The eco-friendly bamboo blocks measure 1inch wide, 3 3/4 inches long, and 1/4 thick making them perfect for little fingers. The bright colors give me the perfect opportunity to teach Madelyn but there have been a couple of times when she put one in her mouth and ended up with green dye/ink on her lips. I quickly washed her mouth out, but I am pretty sure that the dye/ink is 100% safe.

Sebastian builds tall towers while Madelyn lays the blocks down in patterns, builds little houses with one color, or lines the blocks up flat one behind the other and plays choo choo.

Price: About $20

Bamboo Collection – Contina building blocks are available at Amazon.com

Gorilla Blocks
For ages 9 -36 months

Gorilla Blocks were featured in our special Educational Toys segment.
These quickly became a favorite of our younger product testers. Gorilla Blocks are huge blocks that work like LEGO's. The different block sizes and themes make for endless building possibilities, all the while being an educational tool. How are Gorilla Blocks educational you ask? I can tell you first hand. Madelyn, 18 months, enjoys sorting the blocks by size and color. I was so excited the first time I saw her sorting them, I tried to catch it on video but of course she quit as soon as the camera was rolling.

The blocks can also be used to teach basic math. Take a block that has two dots on it, add a block with three dots.. what do you get? Yes, your kids can learn from Gorilla Blocks! And, the nifty weatherproof factor means that kids can even play in the bathtub. Just don't let the dogs get hold of these!

Price: About $30

Gorilla Blocks 24-pc. Standard Set
are available at Amazon.

Mega Bloks Wonder Builder block set
Ages 12 months – 3 years

Mega Bloks are a classic. Big blocks that snap together. What's better than that to a toddler? The Wonder Builder block set has developmental elements such as knobs to turn, buttons to press, and beads to rattle. The friendly animals include a tiger, a turtle, a squirrelly squirrel, a rattling snake, and a hiding baby kangaroo. Using the star-shaped key, kids can unlock a secret behind a block with corresponding shape and color. I haven't reviewed these myself yet, but based on what I see this looks like a fun set of building blocks for toddlers.

Price: About $30

The Mega Bloks Wonder Builders Bag is available at Amazon.com.

My First LEGO DUPLO Set

Ages 18 months – 5 years

Like MEGA Bloks, LEGO's are a classic building toy for toddlers. This DUPLO set has special elements including a window, cat and flower to help jump start imaginations. I love that some of their DUPLO sets come in a sturdy container so I can just throw the blocks in and store them away when the kids aren't playing with them.

Price: About $30

The My First LEGO DUPLO Set is available at Amazon

Wooden toy review: Cone stacking rings

August 20, 2008Educational Toys, Toys, Wooden ToysAlicia

Madelyn has the Jumbo Wooden Lacing Beads and the Cone Stacking Rings from Holgate Toys and she loves them! The beads are laced onto rope, not a string. The thick rope eases the challenge of lacing the beads and therefore holds Madelyn’s attention longer than when lacing beads on a string. These lacing beads are great for developing fine motor skills as she is required to hold the rope with one hand and get the bead on the rope with the other. Sounds easy, but not necessarily so for a toddler. These toys are great for teaching colors, and counting as well as fine motor skills. Holgate Toys wooden toys are brightly colored, very durable and the weight and size are just right for little hands. Madelyn is proud of herself when she gets all of the beads on the rope and the rings on the cone. It’s nice to see her so proud!

Holgate Toys, a manufacturer of wooden toys for over 200 years creates brightly colored wooden toys for infants and up. Holgate’s early toy designer was Jarvis Rockwell, Holgate_cone1 brother of famous illustrator Norman Rockwell. Jarvis Rockwell’s concern for safety, durability and educational play earned him recognition as America’s premier toy designer during this period and Holgate has kept their standards high throughout the years. You will find Infant Toys, Educational Toys, Developmental Toys, and Personalized Toys at Holgate Toys. Holgate Toys was turned to by Mr. Rogers to manufacture replicas of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Trolley and other toys. If I remember correctly, Mr. Rogers was a bit meticulous so can you imagine what kind of requirements he had for the toy line? Holgate obviously met and probably exceeded those requirements and to this day still manufacturer’s Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood toys.

Giveaway alert! Several lucky readers will each get one of these toys! Check back to see when the giveaway contest starts and join our newsletter to be the first to know when and how you can enter the giveaway contest.

Website: Holgate Toys

Thomas Wooden Railway Pirates Cove

June 17, 2008Toys, Wooden ToysAlicia

Thomassmall
Beware of the pirates! Sebastian, my eight year old son, has made three ‘movies’, all titled Indiana Thomas since he got the Pirates Cove Set. He even brought the train set on our trip to Kentucky this week so he could show it to his cousins. Madelyn, my two year old daughter, loves to push the trains around the track and try to join in on the movies Sebastian makes. The set is great for ages 3 & up but I let Madelyn play with it as long as I’m in the room.

The train set
has three caves and tunnels that the trains can go under and over and that hide buried treasure.
The set also includes accessories the Admiral, Thomas, Salty and other accessories. The realistic details make it easy for kids to create imaginative stories and scenarios.

I didn’t bring the right camera card with the photographs and videos of Sebastian and Madelyn playing with the train set, to Kentucky with us this week so I am not able to post them today. I will post them when we get back to Atlanta next week.

Visit the Learning Curve website to learn more or buy the Pirates Cove train set.

Tieramid Circle Set: $25.99+

January 17, 2008Age 3-5, Age 5-7, Age 7-10, Games, Wooden ToysAlicia

I love wooden toys. They are timeless and bring back memories of the wooden blocks I played with for years. It’s so great to see my kids playing with wooden blocks.

Tieramid blocks are non-toxic, colorful, circular nesting blocks. Tieramid blocks are great for young children learning colors and the concept of inside and outside, and small and large. The blocks fit together flat to make designs or be stacked to build a colorful towers.

The large set comes with 52 design/pattern cards to get your child started designing and building. Sebastian builds ‘mountains’, funny characters, and comes up with really cool patters and Madelyn loves to destroy whatever he’s built.

You will be impressed with the things your child can make with Tieramid blocks like birds, flowers, and silly faces and your child will be so proud of him/herself for creating such beautiful pieces of art!

Tieramid will bring out the artist in your kids, without the mess of paints and markers.

Click here to learn more about or buy Tieramid blocks.