After your child has mastered stacking, the next group of toys that are perfect for further developing cognitive, fine motor and hand-eye co-ordination are balancing games.

Balancing builds on the same skills needed to be able to stack, but adds in advanced problem solving skills and a steady hand.

Many of the toys we have found are wonderful for developing creative play as they provide children with the ability to choose how they want to play for themselves.

1. Sevi Balancing Ark – There isn’t any room left in the ark so all of the animals need to be piled on top! But this may not be as easy as it seems, especially as the Ark doesn’t have a flat bottom. This game comes with the colorful Ark and 10 animals to balance. Sevi toys come with a lifetime warranty against defects in workmanship and materials. Colored with safe, vegetable-based dyes.$35
2. Cactus By Plan Toys – This colorful cactus was designed for kids 3+. The object of the game is to try to add or remove cactus stems from the tree without making it fall over. Each player gets a turn to help build the Cactus tree, but beware if you make the cactus fall over first you loose! Comes with the tree base with 5 holes and 18 different colored branches. Made of earth-friendly and replenishable rubber wood. $25
3. Haba Animal Upon Animal – This wobbly stacking animals game designed for 2 – 4 players requires kids to show how capable they are at making a tall pyramid! Who will position the penguin on top of the crocodile, the sheep on top of the penguin, the serpent on the sheep, the toucan … Comes with 4 of each animal to be stacked on top of the alligator. $20
4. Balancing Coral from Plan Toys – This eco-friendly game can be played 3 different ways: horizontally, vertically and diagonally for the more advanced players. It includes a wooden egg-shaped base with 4 holes, 14 various colored pieces and is made of earth-friendly and replenishable rubber wood. $40
5. Balancing Bamboo Pandabo by Hape – With this game you want to be the last to finish. Players take turns adding sticks on top of Panda. The more sticks added the more difficult to maintain balance. Be careful if they fall on you turn, otherwise you are out of the game. Comes with 1 Bamboo Panda, 24 sticks in three shapes and 1 dice. Made with 100% natural bamboo. $15
6. Cagola Balancing ship by Hape – With this game kids roll the shape-based die and take turns loading bamboo shapes onto the boat’s deck – but watch out for rough waters: Choose your position carefully or you’ll end up overboard and out of the game. Made from bamboo. Neatly packaged in sturdy storage tube with a bamboo handle that is ready for gifting. $15
7. Chickyboom from Blue Orange – As the chickens hang out on their colorful perch, your child must collect as many chickens, hay bales and wagon wheels as you can before the rocking roost topples. A game of balance, laughs and fun where the roost goes Chickyboom! Comes with 6 wooden chickens (3 big, 3 small) , 7 wooden hay bales, 7 wooden wagon wheels, 1 wooden rocking perch (1 platform, 1 base). Ages 5 and up. $25
8. Bone by Sina – This seemingly simple game comes with eight multicolored bone-shaped wooden blocks that can be balanced in all sorts of gravity defying formations. $48

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Parents looking for a new way for their kids to build may like an innovative new product called Tegu blocks.

These handcrafted toys, that are made from wood that is sustainably harvested in Honduras, are constructed with magnets embedded into them. This is great for beginners who are just learning how to build and older children who want to be able to move their creations or display them on the refrigerator!

Each set includes either 26($50) or 52($85) blocks in four shapes: Cubes, Long Planks, Short Planks, and Jumbo Planks.

‘The magnetic connections between the blocks make for novel play that defies gravity and increases a child’s creative freedom.’

Cool Tegu Facts:

• for every toy you buy, Tegu will plant 12 trees in Honduras or fund one day of school for a child
• if for any reason, your Tegu blocks are no longer useful to your family, Tegu will gladly pay for shipping to take them off your hands.

My oldest son loves to build. We stack blocks, connect them and build all sorts of exciting creations.

New this year, K’nex has introduced a Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection that is both cute and reasonably priced.

Your kids will love being able to build their own neighborhood or just play with each set on it’s own.

As part of a campaign put together by Team Mom, we recently had the opportunity to build and explore.

Before I even opened the box, my boys were really excited about this set. Elmo is a bit of a celebrity around here and that, paired with the fact that he came in a set that could be driven around, made this toy a hit before it was even put together.

Our set, the neighborhood collection police car, came with 19 pieces to build Elmo and his police car. Both of my boys love this toy for different reasons. My youngest(11 months) loves Elmo’s bright colors, while my oldest (4 years) uses all of the pieces to their fullest potential by making cool vehicles to drive around the house.

The way this set is configured makes the building possibilities endless. Recently, we have been working on imaginative play and this set is awesome for this. Better than conventional blocks, the K’nex collection takes building to the next level by giving kids the tools to do so much more.

The pieces are just the right size for little hands and they fit together easily to support the development of hand-eye co-ordination.

For Christmas, we have purchased the police station($21) that goes with the our police car($10). It comes with 44 parts to build the police station along with another Elmo, Ernie, a stop sign and traffic light.

To add more to the ‘town’, K’nex also offers the Ice Cream Building set($10) and the 1-2-3 Brownstone Building Set($21).

I highly recommend this set as an inexpensive gift idea or stocking stuffer. It has been great to keep the boys occupied while I make dinner or clean up around the house.

More information available at knex.com

We love stacking toys! They are one of the most popular educational tools and are a great way to encourage fine motor and problem solving skills in young children.

Between the age of 6 months and 1 year, your baby will start to learn some developmental skills that will help them learn more later on.

Stacking a toy on top of another is a great way to teach them hand-eye coordination and cognitive skills such as color and size concept. You can start to introduce blocks and stacking toys as early as 6-7 months old.

By the time they are between 15-18 months, your child should be able to stack 2 blocks and stack 6 blocks between 18-24 months.

Once your child masters the basic ‘one on top of other’, there are a lot of toys out there that will further challenge them to think a little more and problem solve while they’re stacking.

Here are 9 great stackers for kids 2 and older:

1. Stacking Construction Vehicles – This cool set includes a bulldozer, a dump truck and a cement mixer. Each vehicle has a free wheeling base and is constructed of solid wood stacking parts. The fun is endless, as they can be taken apart and rebuilt again and again. Interchangeable? Probably! ($20)
2. Plan Toys Stacking Tree – This stacking set is designed based on the concept of nature. Each wooden piece can be stacked to form different kinds of trees. Children can learn the color variation and size..($20)
3. P’kolino Stacking Toy – Children are initially challenged to fine-tune motor skills by placing the easy to hold rings on extra thick stacking pole. With that mastered the child begins to enhance spatial logic by interlocking anyone puzzle piece to any other; in any order. Finally, through “solving” the puzzle sequence the child learns color and size recognition.
4. Voila Four Load Truck – A pull-along truck with 4 stacks of 4 colored pieces perforated with 4 different geometric shapes.
5. Wooden Fish Boat Stacking Toy – Stick a small passenger in the boat and have the fish swim all around or stack the fish to create a beautiful rainbow-colored sail. This fish stacker is made of hardwood. 10 pieces in total.($37)
6. Rubbabu – Rubbablox – These multi-colored, natural foam building blocks have soft connectors so children can easily build with them. They are tactile and great for early spatial learning. Includes 9 blocks and 18 connectors.
7. Melissa and Doug Stacking Train – With just a little imagination little ones can custom build their own train from the 15 interchangeable pieces and three linking cars. My boys have this train and love it.
8. Wooden Numbers Stacking Board, Rings from Bajo – Made of solid wood and finished with completely non-toxic, child-friendly paints and finishes, the nicely sized disks are perfectly sized for a young child’s hands. What’s even better, you don’t have to worry about losing any of the disks, because they are all attached to their posts via a long string with a balled end. 55 disks total.
9. Geometric Stacker – This large, colorful wooden toy has three different stacking towers, and includes 25 durable, solid-wood pieces to match, sort and stack.

New this year, Fisher-Price has introduced toy line called Stack n Surprise. These fun blocks feature a center piece that pops up to reveal a smiley face when stacked.

My favorite set in this collection is the Stack ’n Surprise™ Blocks Songs ’n Smiles Sillytown™($50) This toy is not only cute, but it is big enough that both of my kids can play with it at the same time. It’s 4 play sections all encourage kids to make things happen and foster an understanding of cause & effect.

My boys love all of the lights, songs and motion. The Songs ’n Smiles Sillytown comes with 8 peek-and-pop action blocks and plays over 16 songs and fun sounds. The workbench in the middle, which is activated by batting the roller, is super cute because all of the people play peek a boo, whether the blocks are stacked or not. Flipping the blocks to make the music go off and racing the car(included) down the track were also a hit with my 2.

I like that all of the toys can be stored under the ‘house’ when they’re not playing with it. It also comes with batteries to get you started right away.

Fisher-Price recommends this toy for kids 6 months and up and I agree. It is perfect for a newly sitting child because it is close to the ground. There are also a bunch of other toys that are included in this collection that fit into every budget. The smaller sets would make great stocking stuffers for little ones.

Pros -Encourages eye-hand coordination and enhances fine motor skills
Cons – doesn’t fold up for easy storage

Other Toys in the collection:

New for Spring, Playskool has introduced a new addition to their popular CLIPO line.

Clipo Hippo is a stackable, moveable, fun machine. Imaginative toddlers can attach their Clipo creations to the head, back or wheels of this brightly-colored hippo, and as an added surprise, a drop-slot in the hippo’s mouth encourages put-and-take play.

CLIPO’S unique design helps toddlers develop their fine motor and sensory skills. The peg-covered shapes easily connect to each other so little hands can build all sorts of creative structures.

CLIPO Hippo comes with Twenty tactile CLIPO pieces, including a cute bird, which all store neatly inside his mouth.

Giveaway - Playskool is offering 2 Growing Your Baby readers the opportunity to win one of these Clippo Hippos.

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• Extra Entrants: Blog about our giveaway! Tell your readers about our giveaway and then send us the link in a separate comment for an additional entrant to the giveaway.
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Giveaway Rules

Giveaway ends Friday March 20th, 2009

All characters, figures and elements of the building brick system interlock with each other in an unlimited number of ways to create limitless structures and scenarios. The system invites for continuous re-assembly and can be added on to at any point with additional elements

More photos and combinations show at blockandblockele.com

Stacking the usual way, on on top of the other, this set also offers kids the ability to use sticks to secure their work.

72 vibrant colored wooden pieces—each precision-cut and compatible with one another—combine to form an infinite array of captivating creations. Fostering visual-spatial development, this innovative construction set encourages open-ended exploration of essential principles like proportion, structure, composition, and color.

Ages 3 and older.

$50 at Met Museum Store

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*

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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

Reviewed by Cari

Even before I had children of my own, I often bought Kushies products for baby showers and gifts. My own babies have been raised with Kushies clothing, bedding, bath towels and bibs, primarily because their products are consistently cute, practical and high quality. So, when I found out that Kushies was introducing a new line of toys called Zolo, I was very interested.

I immediately searched for the products online and began browsing their catalogue. My favourite part about the toys is that none of them require batteries. Zolo’s slogan is “baby toys for big imaginations” which I found refreshing, especially when I started recognizing simple concepts from the toys of my own childhood mixed with fresh, innovative and creative twists.

After much debate, I decided on the Zolo stacrobats, five magnetic stacking acrobats complete with three circus balls that conveniently come in their own storage case. The case doubles as a magnetic “performance stage” and the packaging cleverly suggests this product is appropriate for ages “1-100”.

The acrobats measure about 8cm tall and are in the “spread eagle” position, which allows you to stack them in various positions. They are also the perfect size, shape and weight to help little hands develop dexterity. Each acrobat wears a bright, multicoloured outfit with stripes and solids, which are very visually stimulating. They have big, friendly eyes and a little smile painted on each one’s individual skin tone. This variety and attention to detail is sure to encourage both physical and mental growth, and allow little ones to develop and express their own creativity.

Then came the real test. I served up the Stacrobats to my three-year-old son and eighteen-month-old niece… they were a hit! They enjoyed rolling the balls to each other and sticking the acrobats together in various positions. It was great to watch them come up with their own scenarios, making the acrobats “hold hands” and “catch” a ball. Even my five-month-old daughter enjoyed the bright colours and was able to easily hold an acrobat in her hands to check it out.

Kushies new Zolo line features products with bright colours, interesting patterns and a variety of textures. The fantastical creatures and whimsical designs are adorable and sure to capture the imaginations and developmental needs of children of all ages. I’m a huge fan and can’t wait to purchase more toys from this great line of products.

For more information on where to buy the Stacrobats please visit www.kushiesonline.com

One of the toys that stuck out for me was the Mini Edu-animals.

These animals are building blocks with a twist. They are soft and bendable so that you child can manipulate them and lock them together easily. Included in each set of blocks is a family of animals that attach to the regular blocks.

While I like that they are bright and cute, the part that impressed me the most is that they smell like Vanilla. Yes, Vanilla – and no you can’t eat them.

In order to reduce that plastic smell we all hate, the company has the blocks treated with a light vanilla scent. It is subtle, but nice.

Each set includes a 28-pieces of soft, adorable zoo animals and blocks.

Designed for children 12 months and up

More information available at edushape.com