Tag: Elmo

7 Educational Toddlers Toys. [w/ video review]

It seems like all the kids we know are all turning 2.  With that in mind, here are 7 educational toy ideas for toddlers.  Most of the age ranges on these toys fall within 1-3 years. We worked to keep these gender neutral as well.

Sesame Street Elmo’s On the Go Letters
24 months – 4 years

This toy is a great option for little ones to help them learn their letters.  The toy is a puzzle where the letters fit into their designated slot, and below each is the image of a word that starts with the corresponding letter.  At the bottom of the board is a slot that can fit 3-4 letters to spell simple words.  All of the letters fit back into their spots and the whole case fold closed with handles for easy on-the-go transport.

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Chair
12 month – 3 years

This is a very interactive toy for ages as young as 12 months.  The chair can be programmed to match the age of your child, from the simple concept of “up and Down” at 12 months, to more imaginative play from 24 months and up.  It has songs, a remote, says phrases, and includes a book to flip the pages.  The fact that this chair grows with the child and adapts to their new abilities, makes it a great option for any toddler.

VTech Little Apps Tablet, Black
24 months – 5 years

This toy tablet offers 8 activities for your toddler to play with.  From a keyboard for playing music, to learning letters, numbers, and matching this toy packs a lot of options into a smaller package.  We always have mixed feelings on these digital noise making button pushing toys – but this has always proven to be a popular best seller so we wanted to include it.

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Pounding Bench
24 months – 4 years

All toddlers love to hammer (our little boy does, at least!) This toy offers them endless hammering fun, teaching coordination and colors.  As you hammer down one peg the opposite peg begins to rise. I love this idea as it helps to avoid the meltdowns we have encountered on similar toys that need to be manually reset.

Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Crawl Around Car
6 month – 3 years

This car is a great toy that grows with your child.  Starting out early at 6 months it teaches the most simple of concepts (open/close) and grows to pretend play (let’s drive to the zoo!) From sitting/crawling, to walking/climbing, this toy really is fun for all ages.  We wrote a full review of this when our tyke hit one year and it’s still a winner now that he’s two.

First 100 Words (Board Book)
by Roger Priddy
1 to 3 years

This is a fun book with 10 pictures on each page for you to teach and then quiz your child.  Photos are of everyday items that they would see outside (animals, vehicles) to inside (bath time, mealtime, toys.) Something your child will have fun flipping through and pointing out the pictures they know.

Make sure to also check out Roger’s other bestseller books in this series: First 100 Animals & Numbers Colors Shapes.

 

Fisher-Price See ‘n Say The Farmer Says Toy
18 months – 4 years

The good Ol’ See ‘n Say.  This toy has been around for ages and stays a great classic.  Kids love to pull the lever handle and see the cause and effect of arrow spinning in the center.  Which animal will it land on? What sound does the animal make? Tons of fun for toddlers and nostalgic for adults.

The World’s Best Sippy Cup? [updated]

Want a sippy cup that doesn’t leak? I think we may have finally found it.  And, fingers crossed this time because we are about to lose our mind from leaks.

Imagine the scene:  Mom and dad in a heinous truckstop bathroom trying to change a poo-splosion diaper that’s barely clinging to the underside of The Little Prince.

MOM:  “GET ME A DIAPER, STAT!”

Dad frantically digs in the diaper bag.

MOM:  “HURRY, I can’t contain this anymore.  The wipes have burst into flames!”

DAD: “I can’t FIND them!”

MOM:  “At the bottom!  Quickly, it’s like the BP Oil Spill over here!”

Dad finally connects with the clean pampers only to discover that they are already busily soaking up a leaking sippy cup.

DAD: “%*$H!T %Dh#R@F& $&!@$%”

This bring us to our review of the Munchkin Sesame Street Character Cup, we pray to you, o’ blessed vessel of water and toddler refreshment.

We love this because:

  1. Easy to assemble.
  2. It has a face, thus you can make it sing and dance if your are desperate.  If you have taken a long car ride you understand how helpful this can be!
  3. The lid and handles stay attached and don’t leak.
  4. Unlike some of the other cups we have tried, our little guy took to this straw right away. It may also be the first time he didn’t choke and water board himself.  The straw has a 1-way valve to prevent leaks and this seems to help control the flow of liquid.
  5. He loves the handles.  We have some other cups that leak when you use the handles.  Not the case here.
  6. BPA-free.
  7. Top rack dishwasher safe.

Some people have complained that the straw doesn’t have a cap.  Seriously?  We have not found this to be a problem. Even if it did have a cap, how long is that going to last before we lose it?  About 45 seconds.  Then two weeks later The Little Prince is going to find it under the couch and shove it in his mouth.  No cap?  Not a problem for me!  As listed above, the straw has a one-way valve and we have had zero issues with leaks; a cap would be excessive.

Now, is this really the PERFECT cup.  No.  Nothing is.  But so far these have brought some sanity to our lives.  We did have one leak incident, but that seemed to be our fault as we apparently didn’t put the lid on all the way.

 

Give these cups a try.  We think you will love them. Also, Amazon sells it as a two pack!

Update:

After several months of use, we are sadly finding this cup leaks more and more.  Particularly out of the straw when cold liquid is exposed to warmer air. It appears that the one way valve that prevented this at first is becoming looser and softer after repeated toddler abuse.

Here is a pro tip for sippy cups in general, if you fill a sippy cup with ice cold liquid and the cup gets warm it will create air pressure inside the cup.  Air has to get out and it will force it’s way out, often taking liquid with it. It’s like microwaving leftovers with the tupperware lip still locked.  It will heat up, pop the cover off and throw food everywhere in the process.

Preventing this is super easy.  Use room temp liquids or keep your cup cold.  This worked well when we were just filling Elmo with water.  But now that we are using cold milk out of the fridge we can watch it creep out of the top and dribble down the side as it begins to warm.

When we take “Elmo” on a walk in the blistering city heat we keep him in an insulated pouch surrounded by ice.  This seems to resolve the issue when traveling.  But sadly, it’s when we are at home and our son is carrying this cup around and it’s not in a little cooler, well… leaks happen.

It is no longer my favorite sippy cup due to the durability of the one way valve.  That said, our son loves it so much that we keep it in rotation.  It’s very easy to get him to drink out of this cup and that’s extremely helpful on days when he is being fussy.

Revised score is:  3 out of 5 stars.