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Written by Paige Gardner Smith
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 Even before they have learned to stand, most babies know how to open a door. This advance knowledge has likely come to them through their experience with a toy that featured a lid, door or window that taught the same function. Simple features that offer problem-solving opportunities for kids add enormous value to their playthings.
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Written by Paige Gardner Smith
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 Visiting the doctor is one of the earliest rituals in every child’s experience. While visiting the doctor may include a requisite injection, finger prick or throat swab – seeing the doctor doesn’t have to be a traumatic experience for kids. The more comfortable kids are with their bodies and the things we do to keep them healthy, the easier it will be to ensure these moments have positive results.
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Written by Paige Gardner Smith
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 From the first moment a baby stacks one block upon another, the scope and nature of his affinity for building is limitless. Giving kids the means to build structures for function or for fun reinforces their creative talent and can also provide an ideal medium for constructive learning. Building toys offer many opportunities for children to hone fine motor skills, develop spatial sensitivity and to understand form and function of shapes. Whether it’s a simple tower of blocks or a complex model with detailed plans, kids of every age experience deep satisfaction as they assemble pieces into a whole finished product, bigger than the sum of its parts. |
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Written by Paige Gardner Smith
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 Gather Up For Game Play!
Even as electronic video gaming enjoys a consumer boom, traditional interactive gaming between living individuals continues to thrive in dens, dorms, schools and kids? rooms everywhere. Along with the inherent challenges of strategy and survival, interactive real time gaming features a face-to-face social component that can?t be duplicated any other way. Board and tabletop gaming is competitive, entertaining, and usually builds intellectual skills among the players. Whether among family, old friends or new acquaintances, the following group games are the perfect way to break the ice, engage everyone and have fun in a social setting. |
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Written by Paige Gardner Smith
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Cool Cutting Edge Toys for Boys
It?s never been fair to characterize any toy as ?just for boys? (or girls). A toy, at its best, is simply designed to teach and entertain, or to foster the skills and imagination of all children. That said, there are realms of toys that none-the-less function as magnets for playful young men. Little boys are often predictably drawn to anything that rolls, bangs, shoots or throws. There is perhaps a dollop of truth in the phrase ?Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, That?s what little boys are made of.? The following recommendations are best bets to capture the hearts and imaginations of boys no matter what they?re made of.
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