Just in time for the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle has teamed up with Kids Preferred to introduce a line of developmental toys for babies and kids.

The themes of Carle’s stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature — an interest shared by many small children. Besides being beautiful and entertaining, his books always offer children the opportunity to learn something about the world around them. Thanks to Kids Preferred, those literary characters – Caterpillar, Elephant, Lion, Ladybug, Penguin, Frog and friends – leap from Carle’s storybooks to the hands of a new generation of Eric Carle fans.

This collection incorporates many tricks to keep a baby interested. Kids Preferred uses bright fabrics to cover rattles, squeakers and chimes. Their eclectic mix of patterns are both eye catching and very soft to the touch.

A couple that have quick became favorites my little man are the Apple Playset and Caterpillar teether.

The peekaboo apple is filled with plush fruit that squeak, rattle and crinkle. They also must feel good on the gums because Mr.Teething also loves to chew on them while playing. The best part: the stuffed Caterpillar ‘eating’ through the apple. Too cute!

Here are is a preview of the rest of the collection:

1. Eric Carle Very Hungry Caterpillar Apple Playset
2. Eric Carle Activity Very Hungry Caterpillar
3. Developmental Butterfly
4. Eric Carle Activity Dome
5. Developmental Caterpillar
6. Eric Carle 10″ Stacking Rings
7. Very Hungry Caterpillar Teether Rattle

Just a few months after I brought my first son home, I found Lamaze toys. ‘Freddie The Firefly’ provided my son with endless hours of entertainment and me with just as much sanity.

At the time, I had no idea that a toy could make someone so little, so happy for so long…

New for Spring, Lamaze has introduced some incredibly adorable characters to their already popular ‘play and grow’ line.

My 4 month-old is currently crushing on Adrian the Alien. The combination rattle, crinkle, squeaker, and mirror keeps him interested and occupied. The colorful, puffy, velour space creature’s unique look gets lots of laughs when nothing else will work.

For little girls, Kerry the Fairy and Princess Sophie are two new additions that would be a great first doll with developmental benefits.

Additionally, Lamaze has introduced Lights & Sounds Wrap & Go Flower, Stack, Roll and Crawl Ball, and Elephantunes.

Tiny Love has always been known for their original, innovative baby toys.

This year they have introduced some products that will benefit babies while they are playing around the house or while they are out with mom and dad.

I like that each product has an element for every developmental stage and that the company’s website outlines the benefits for your baby at each stage for each toy.

This is a great resource for parents because it helps them know what things to look for when their child is playing with these and other products.

Here are our picks for 2009:

Clockwise:

• Musical Nature Stroll
• Island Stroller Set
• Sweet Island Dreams Mobile
• Music Take-Along Arch
• Nature’s Serenade Mobile

]]> http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2009/02/18/toy-fair-2009-tiny-love/feed/ 0 http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2008/12/04/10-clever-sorting-toys/ http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2008/12/04/10-clever-sorting-toys/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:19:25 +0000 Lisa http://growingyourbaby.com/2008/12/04/10-clever-sorting-toys/

Because my son has needed a good amount of therapy to meet his milestone, we have collected a lot of developmental toys. We have found sorting toys to be both helpful to teach colors, shapes and numbers.

Some of the other skills these toys teach are

• fine motor skills
• co-ordination
  
• problem solving
• matching
• animal recognition
• pretend play

Here are 10 creative toys we like that teach all of these skills.

*Additional information for each toy is available by clicking on the ‘notes’ link under the picture*

Related Articles:

• 9 Ways To Play With Noah’s Ark
• Just Like Dad: 9 Creative Kids Work Benches
• 10 Great Play Kitchens
• Sorting Toys Have Great Developmental Benefits

The story of Noah’s Ark is a great story for kids of all ages because of it’s simplicity.

Many toy companies have created their versions of the centuries old tale, giving parents the perfect opportunity to teach their children new skills and lessons.

Some of these lessons include:

• learning the various types of animals in Noah’s Ark and their characteristics through stories using these animals as characters.
• telling the history relating to Noah’s Ark to teach children kindness, virtue and morality through play.
• learning that Noah and his family traveled by ark using the water way and also the other various transportation method available today such as air, road, railroad and ship.

We have found 9 great ways to play with Noah’s Ark. Some of these toys encourage important developmental skills like co-ordination, stacking, sorting and creative play.

*Additional information for each toy is available by clicking on the ‘notes’ link under the picture*

Related Articles:

• Just Like Dad: 9 Creative Kids Work Benches
• 10 Great Play Kitchens

1. Pommella Activity Toy – Open up the magnetic apple and inside there is a cute little rattling caterpillar. Apple comes with rustling foil. ($14)

2. Ballino is a colorful rattling ball made out of wooden discs. Great toy to have for first grabbing. ($12)

3. Stacking Ball Colori – The 5 part stacking ball rattles, squeaks and rustles.($17)

4. Peely Grasping Ball – Change Peely’s colors from red and yellow to blue by folding the sides up or down. Little ones will love the rattling sound and bright colors.($9)

5. Fabric Miniland Ball – Great for grasping and rolling. Comes with little bell.($20)

6. Fiori Fabric Ball – This simple, yet vibrantly colorful ball is covered in soft, ruby red fabric, with delicate pink and green flowers sewn all over it. This ball has a rattle inside, which gently tinkles when the ball is shaken, or rolled along the floor.($12)

7. Discovery Ball with Squeaker – This colourful ball’s sounds and optical effects trigger the curiosity of any child, stimulating them to fumble and clutch. ($5)

8. Allegro Stacking Ball – The ball is separated into four squishy pieces which slide together on a soft, fabric rod. Some pieces are lined with rustling foil or contain a rattle for a bit of noisy interest; all are luxuriously soft and fuzzy.($12)

*All of Haba’s wooden toys are made of beech wood, with ecological, water-based, non-toxic lacquers.*

All of Haba’s toys are available at oompa.com

In June, France’s minister for culture and communication, Christine Albanel, issued a “cry of alarm” to parents about channels dedicated 24 hours a day to baby-targeted programming. In a newspaper interview, she called them “a danger” and urged parents not to use them to help their children get to sleep.

She was referring to Baby First TV and Baby TV.

The ruling cites health experts as saying that interaction with other people is crucial to early child development.

“Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens,” the ruling said.

I think that France may be taking this whole thing too far. My son has been watching TV since he was 8 months old. It has helped him learn how to talk and has taught him new songs and dances.

SOURCE

While he is not a child with traditional special needs, he is behind developmentally in some areas about a year.

With the help of a occupational therapist and a speech therapist we have been attacking every issue that he has one week at a time.

In just a few short months he has gone from barely being able to speak to knowing his full alphabet and spontaneously putting together 7 word sentences.

Knowing all this, you can imagine how surprised I was to read that the our government had frozen the funding for this great center.

Reading this made me realize how important it is for communities to support their children’s programs.

No one really ever knows if they will have a family member that will need the specialized care provided by the therapists at these facilities, but it certainly does feel good to know that your support could help a child get a good start at life.

Ways To Help:

1. Funding donation – The easiest and quickest way to make a difference is to support fund raising efforts. Many special needs facilities have a big fundraiser twice yearly. Buy tickets or donate during their campaigns. An amount as small as $5 goes a long way if enough people do it.

2. Toy/Book Donation – Part of what makes these centers successful is the tools needed to help move kids forward. I wish that more corporations would help out. Lord knows they gift enough stuff to celebrities, why not give some of the new toys they’re launching to selected children’s programs.

It really is the best advertisement. After all, the therapists always find every imaginable way to teach a child with the simplest toys.I can’t tell you how many times I have left a session and went right to the toy store because my son liked something we played with.

Parents who have toys, books or DVDs that their children are done with can also drop them off for use by other parents or the therapists.

3. Volunteer Your Time - While many of these places rely on their specialized staff to teach and improve children, there are always things that need to be done that don’t require a Masters.

I bet if you had a couple of hours to spare a week, many of these programs could find some way for you to help.

Every community has a center that offers a variety of rehabilitation services to children with disabilities and they should be supported. Our Facility serves almost 4,000 kids in our region alone.

*We have contacted some of the companies that we have relationships looking for any toy donations. In the coming weeks we will be profiling those companies that step up and offer to send developmental toys to my son’s or any facility that offers this specialized treatment.*

Each video was created to introduce babies, toddlers or pre-schoolers to a second language. (Spanish, French, Mandarin, English/ESL)

Because my son was a bit behind in his speech, I opted for the English version to help expose him to common phrases for everyday activities.

I wasn’t sure what he was going to think because he is a singing and dancing video guy, but he quickly bonded with Little Pim, the Panda that hosts the series.

After watching all 3 videos with my son over and over, I have to say that I am impressed by many parts of the Little Pim program.

1. The Lead Character – Little Pim, the panda is a gracious host who is animated nicely. He is funny, personable and very cute. My son now refers to him like they are friends. It is very cute!!

2. Consistency – I like that each video is broken into smaller segments to help with quicker learning. Every segment has all of the key sections repeated so that younger minds can retain the information learned at the beginning. In between every segment Little Pim entertains with his funny ‘Pandaisms’ and cute antics. On top of learning common phrases – your child will also learn about Pandas!

3. No promotional crap to sift through before the video starts. I LOVE the fact that the video starts almost immediately after you put it in the DVD player. There is no promotional crap to fast forward or detailed maps to sift through, PLUS if the video ends instead of it cycling the main page, it re-starts after 2 minutes of sitting idle.

I highly recommend this video series to any parent looking to expose their child to a second language or to those who would like to help their child master their primary language.

The video touches on all aspects of everyday life from nap time straight through to spending time with your pets.

Once my son masters English, I would definitely love to introduce Spanish or French.

The 3 disc set we have retails for $49.95 at littlepim.com

“There are numerous parenting books telling people what to expect when they’re pregnant. But once a baby is born, an astonishing number of parents are not only unsure of what to anticipate as their child develops, but are also uncertain of when, how or how much they are to help their babies reach various milestones, such as talking, grabbing, discerning right from wrong, or even potty-training,” said Dr. Heather Paradis of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

Parents were asked to complete an 11-question survey designed to see which parents were well prepared and which were not.

The survey asked questions like, “Should a 1-year-old child be able to tell between right from wrong?” and “Should a 1-year-old child be ready to begin toilet-training?”

The correct answer to both is no.

Parents who got four or fewer correct answers were considered to have low parenting knowledge.

Other tests included teaching their child a new task, how often they engaged their children in enrichment activities, such as reading books, singing songs or telling stories.

Researchers found that 31.2 percent of the parents had a low level of knowledge about what to expect from their child, and this was strongly correlated with lower parental education level and income.

“The fact that almost a third of parents could only answer four out of eleven questions correctly was very surprising to us,” Paradis said

Here are a few Milestone Highlights: 1-3 months

• Support head and upper body when on stomach
• Open and shut hands
• Bring hands to mouth
• Grab and shake hand toys
• Swipe and bat at dangling objects
• Push down legs when on a flat surface
• Follow moving objects

4-7 months:

• Roll over both ways (stomach to back, back to stomach)
• Sit up with, and then without, support of his hands
• Reach for object with one hand using the raking grasp
• Transfer objects from hand to hand
• Support whole weight when on legs and held upright
• Explore objects with hands and mouth
• Explore objects by banging and shaking

8-12 months:

• Get in and out of a sitting position independently
• Get on hands-and-knees position and crawl
• Pull self up to standing position, walk holding on to furniture, stand without support and, eventually, take a few steps without support and begin to walk
• Use pincer grasp (thumb and first finger)
• Place objects into container and take them out of container
• Begin to do more functional activities, such as hold a spoon or turn pages in a book
• Say “mama” and “dada” and use these terms specifically referring to a parent
• Use exclamations such as “oh-oh!”
• Use simple gestures, such as shaking head for “no” or waving for “bye-bye”

SOURCE, SOURCE