Archive for the ‘Activity Toys’ Category
Top Ten Traditional Christmas Toys from Toyday
This year some of the most popular traditional Christmas toys are going to be very familiar to most adults as in the Toyday top ten. To help you get your little munchkins the best gifts this year here are the top ten best sellers in the Christmas toy list of 2009.
Rubber Band Plane
Before battery power was affordable the only way to fuel a toy plane was with a rubber band. This unique idea has come back to life this year with the Rubber Band Aeroplane that is a stunning representation of a small propeller plane straight off of a private runway. It comes in an easy to assemble kit, so children can have fun putting it together before it goes on its maiden flight. For added enjoyment, the rubber hand is made of the most durable materials on the market for unlimited hours of fun.
More info here.
Every child that has a doll house or farm set will love adding in some of these plastic farm animals to their decorations. The plastic animals are solid and able to stand on their own and thus are perfect additions to any child’s play set. Included in the small affordable set are horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and lambs.
More info here.
8. Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope
Before every toy was made from plastic there was wood, and this old fashioned wood kaleidoscope is capable of portraying each of the same wonderful rainbow designs that their contemporary plastic versions can. For children who love colorful displays, the kaleidoscope is able to provide plenty of multi-colored designs. On the outside the kaleidoscope is black with stars embossed across the cover.
More info here.
Rainbow Spinning Top
For children over a year old, this colorful top is a wonderful distraction and play toy. Made of strong metal the top is capable of spinning for hours to a subtle but pleasing humming tune. Low priced and equipped with a base for storage the rainbow spinning top is the perfect gift for the curious toddler in your life. It is also fun for older adults who enjoy a flashback to their younger days.
More info here.
Soft Babies Jingling Ball
Plush, soft, and full of colour, the soft babies jingling ball is made to please children from the day they are born. Completely safe and durable, the ball can bring hours of excitement to babies as they explore how to use their hands to shake the ball and hear its delightful jingle. Even better, as babies grow older they can use the ball to play fetch and toss making it a timeless toy that will last your child for quite some time past their infant years.
More info here.
Toy guns go hand in hand with childhood like mud on a rainy day. Luckily, if you never grew up or want to give your children the same fun that you had you can enjoy the metal spud gun which comes in a delightfully vibrant red colour. Even better, the spud gun is not only able to fire small pieces of potato, but also rubber pellets, caps, and even a small amount of water if loaded correctly.
More info here.
Every kid loves a sharp noise, especially if it is one that they can create on their own. With the fun snap bangers you can let your kids make their own snaps whenever they like simply by tossing one onto the ground. Since they are cheap and small in size you can easily pick up a few boxes of the fun snap bangers to fill up a stocking on Christmas Eve.
More info here.
Wooden Letter Train
If you want to give your child a Christmas present this year that is personalized to for them consider getting a wooden letter train for them this Christmas. All children love the charm of a wooden trail that they can pull along with them, but yours will love theirs better if it spells out their name or a personalized message of your choosing. The wooden letter train can also be used for a room decoration as well if you are looking for something to spice up your child’s room.
More info here.
Penguin Race Game
At 32cm tall the penguin race game is able to entertain young children for hours as the little penguin is able to climb the steps until it makes its descent back down to the bottom to begin all over again. Assembly is easy making it a gift that your children can start playing with on Christmas morning and all it needs to continue working is one D battery so make sure to include one in the wrapping paper.
More info here.
Guatemalan worry dolls
At the top of the top ten Christmas toy list this year are the adorable small handheld Guatemalan worry dolls. Made for children who are past the age of placing small objects in their mouth the worry dolls are perfect for children who are still scared of the dark. The box contains a small leaflet that tells your child how having the dolls near you as you sleep will relieve them of any worries.
More info here.
Eco Friendly Christmas Toys from Pea Green Things
Want some inspired Christmas present ideas for little pea-ple? Have a browse through http://www.peagreenthings.co.uk – a fun and friendly web site that has a great range of new play and learning toys designed to stimulate imaginative family play and give you all a break from the TV or computer. And they are all good for the planet too.
The site has plenty of funky, original gift ideas starting from under £5 that are planet-friendly and sourced from fair trade producers and suppliers helping communities in developing countries. Many items are individually crafted from recycled materials. All peagreenthings products have been chosen by the company’s dedicated team of eco-enthusiasts who believe that eco-living can combine with fun, desirable gifts that are a delight to receive.
Each item carries a Pea eco rating so you can choose the greenest things to give to the special little pea-ple in your life. Here are some new ideas but check the web site for many more play and learning ideas including some terrific stocking fillers.
Age: 3 +
Base: 17cm x 18cm
Price: £23.79
Fire Station
Toy Fire Station
This Fire Station’s garage has an up and over door and comes with two fire vehicles. Sound the siren and the station is ready to tackle the next emergency. The award-winning Thai manufacturer is the world’s first and largest maker of recycled wooden toys from rubber wood trees that are too old to produce latex. These trees would otherwise be cut, burned and discarded.
Pea eco rating: 9/10 Sustainable Biodegradable
Age: 3+
Size: 79cm x 54cm
Colours: Blue/Pink/Red
Price: £54.99
First Balance Bike
This sturdy bike will have toddlers racing to get outside and help them to improve their balance while having fun. The bike has a padded seat and easy grip handlebars. The chunky, pneumatic tyres give a safe ride and a grown-up feel. The seat is height adjustable to allow for growth. Made in China in ethically run factories from strong bass plywood that is sustainably sourced.
Pea eco rating: 6/10 Sustainable Recyclable
Age: 3+
Size: 18cm high
Price: £27.36
Natural Doll
A traditional doll made with soft, warm natural fibres made by a mothers co-operative in Brazil. This delightful toy companion is made of natural cotton and is stuffed with sheep’s wool, which becomes warm when held, for extra snuggliness. How ever will you put her down? Equally huggable dark-haired natural doll is also available.
Pea eco rating: 9/10 Natural Biodegradable
Age: 3+
Price: £47.41
Marble Run Set
Keep those marbles rolling! Everyone can join in the fun with this wooden marble run, great for encouraging imagination, accuracy and dexterity. Create all sorts of turns, drops and connections. Can be made complicated – or easy – so suits all ages. Comes with six marbles and ringing bell. Sound staircase, spiral shoot, trampoline drum and glass tunnel available as extras.
Pea Eco Rating: 8/10 Energy-saving Sustainable Biodegradable
Price: £29.80
Puppet Theatre
A great way of encouraging children to create and tell stories plus a great confidence builder when the whole family can be their audience. This theatre has been specially designed to give the width for two children to play together with ease and to give the height for bigger pea-ple to kneel comfortably and join in.
Pea eco rating: 9/10 UK Made Sustainable Biodegradable
Age: 3+
Size: 56cm high
Price: £57.70
Treeblocks Dolls Cottage
A solid wood construction that provides hours of fun for kids and dolls. Each solid wood construction is individually crafted in Europe from cherry and elder trees. It’s compatible with 2.5cm scale doll house furniture and dolls. Lounge set, bedroom set and kitchen set available as accessories.
Pea eco rating: 9/10 Natural Sustainable Biodegradable
Age: 3+
Size: 48 x 36 x 49.5cm
Price: £48.93
Jungle Lodge
Let your kids discover the wilder side of life. The lodge comes with a reversible fabric roof, an observation tower, mosquito net and many other accessories. Sets of animals and rangers sold separately. Made from rubber woods that have reached the end of their productive lives. All finishes are non-toxic.
Pea eco rating: 8/10 Sustainable Recyclable Biodegradable
Easy-peasy ordering – order from http://www.peagreenthings.co.uk Payment by major credit cards types.
Postage and packaging – UK mainland only. Free delivery on all orders over £100. £4.50 on all orders up to £100. Peagreenthings use minimal packaging to be as eco-friendly as possible.
Delivery – Goods are delivered to the UK mainland within 5 working days of order receipt, although some items that are delivered direct from the supplier may take longer.
Peagreenthings guarantee – Customers not entirely pleased with any product can call the customer services team, within 14 days of receipt, who will arrange for a replacement or full refund, where appropriate.
Peagreenthings parent company – If you have little pea-ple in your family or you happen to work at a school, you may already know Peagreenthings parent company, The Consortium. They’ve been supplying schools up and down the country with educational resources, including eco-friendly and sustainable products long before it became fashionable to look after the environment. So they really do know a thing or two.
Little Terra Christmas Gift Ideas
Fed up of the hordes of plastic and expensive Christmas toys and gift ideas advertised all over the television and internet? Then help is at hand! This Christmas, Little Terra is the ideal place to shop for a host of surprising stocking fillers for both boys and girls, offering lots of good old-fashioned fun. And as prices start from only £1.99 they won’t cost you the earth either!
Carolyn Budding, director at Little Terra, a really different website, dedicated to inspiring children back outdoors, said:
‘Children love being outside, bug hunting in their garden, cycling, jumping in muddy puddles or simply racing to the top of a hill on a walk. They often just need a bit of encouragement to venture away from the TV or Play Station.’
Here are some Christmas Gift Ideas for childern.
Under £5
o Aunties and Uncles, neighbours, pre-school friends and anyone looking for little stocking fillers will love Little Terra’s Mini Construction Kits priced at ONLY £1.99. Little ones will also love building their own mini vehicle and as they’re made from plain wood they get to paint them afterwards too – double the fun! Approx size of vehicles 12×6x6cm
o Encourage your little terras to look after the local wildlife this winter with this lovely little Birdie Bistro, at £4.99. This smart bird feeding station comes with one feed block and is available in red, blue or yellow.
£5 to £10
o Another grandparent’s pleaser! A cute Little Pals Gardening Starter Kit for £5.95 – comprising a fork, gloves and plant marker for aspiring little green fingers everywhere and available in pink or green for boys and girls.
Space Ants
o If you’ve ever watched the films Antz or Bug’s Life with your kids then you will love Space Ants at £9.99 -a modern take on the traditional ant farm. The nutritious gel allows you to see the ants live and work more clearly –fAntastic!
o Knitting is making a come back and Nans and Grans won’t be able to resist this retro Knitting Doll £5. The kits include one doll, in three different designs, complete with wool and knitting needles and will provide hours of creative fun.
o Another innovative and useful idea is this Santa Torch; only £5 and no batteries required.
Over £10
o Little Terra’s top Christmas present this year for all budding conservationists – Butterfly Garden, £14.99. Watch as caterpillars turn into colourful Painted Lady butterflies then release them into the garden. Includes certificate for five caterpillars and food.
o Zip Bin Country Stable £17.50.A beautiful stable shaped storage chest / carry case that opens up into a paddock play mat. Comes with two horses and two riders. Perfect for pony loving little girls.
Over £20
o Explorer Junior Walking poles £24.99. These walking poles are a proper junior sized version of mum and dad’s – designed to get the kids dragging you out for a walk for a change. Telescopic, with a wrist strap and basket to stop them sinking into the mud.
o Tyrrell Katz Backpacks £22.95 – a neat children’s back pack with zipped front pocket and two side pockets. A great size for school, travel, out on walks or just for keeping all their favourite Christmas presents in! In ballet, horses and bugs designs.
www.littleterra.co.uk is dedicated to inspiring children back outdoors and offers everything they need to enjoy, learn, explore and have some old-fashioned fun outside.
Disney ASUS Eee PC MK90 Netbook Launched
he Disney Netbook Makes Children’s Computing Fun, Web-Safe And Easy With A Unique User Interface, Wi-Fi, Windows XP and Parental Controls
Disney Consumer Products (DCP) and ASUS, maker of the pioneering Eee PC™ netbook, have collaborated to develop the Disney Netbook, a netbook computer for children that’s fun, web-safe and easy to use. Developed with parents and children in mind, the Disney Netbook by ASUS is durable, with a reinforced mechanical design, and offers a truly magical and engaging computing experience with a unique Disney user interface. Features include several robust parental control options, an 8.9-inch LCD display, Wi-Fi capabilities, Windows XP Home, and child-friendly software featuring Disney characters and icons in stunning visual environments. Browsers and email have extra filters to assure that parents are able to control online safety and content for their children, and can easily select with whom their children can correspond via email. The Disney Desktop “gadget tray” offers a creatively designed 2D menu with several display icons, including a Disney-themed browser.
Disney ASUS MK90
With a user interface that is incredibly easy to use for both children and parents, from package to set-up in four simple steps, the Disney Netbook will be available from October in two models with prices based on features (see graphic below for Netbook feature comparisons). The Disney Netbook by ASUS is designed for children aged 6-12. Retailers include Comet and DisneyStore.com, and the suggested retail price is £299 inc VAT. Carry cases will also be available separately.
“Today’s children are tech-savvy and demanding when it comes to new gadgets and toys,” said Edward Catchpole, Senior Vice President, Toys & Electronics for Disney Consumer Products Europe. “Our aim is to provide products that are easy and fun to use, but also provide parents with peace of mind. The Disney Netbook, designed together by ASUS and the Disney team, is a no-compromise device. There are plenty of terrific features and fun applications designed just for children, but parents have ultimate control over the experience: they have power to set limits on how their children are using the PC whilst ensuring a safe online experience.”
ASUS is an established leader in the netbook category and is widely credited with launching the netbook craze, with nearly 7 million Eee PC™ netbooks sold to date.
Disney Netbook By ASUS Is Easy: Child-friendly Disney Desktop, Applications and Widgets
The Disney Desktop installed on the Disney Netbook by ASUS is an easy-to-use interface specifically tailored to children, with an intuitive visual interface and instructions that make it easy for children to operate the computer. Right out of the box, the Disney browser launches numerous child-friendly Disney websites for children to explore. The Disney Desktop features a 2D “gadget tray” that displays bold visual icons for easy access to applications. Rounding off the Disney Netbook by ASUS’ fun, child-friendly features are a collection of 15 easily-accessible widgets, including a stopwatch, digital memo pad, which inserts “reminder notes” on the Disney Desktop, and a calculator.
Disney Netbook By ASUS Is Fun, Customisable And Colorful
The Disney Netbook by ASUS features two choices of stylishly designed lids; Disney Princess Pink boasts beautiful pink florals and Disney Magic Blue cleverly displays rows of miniature Mickey Mouse icons. Childrens can dress their desktops with more than 10 customisable themes inspired by popular characters from Disney’s and Disney?Pixar’s most popular franchises, including Cars, Club Penguin, Disney Classic Characters, Disney Fairies, Disney Princess, Vintage Mickey Mouse, Toy Story and WALL-E. Themes that appeal to slightly older children, such as the popular Disney Channel series Hannah Montana and JONAS styles, are also available. Favorite character icons can be attached to email addresses.
Additional Disney-developed applications include Disney Mix for music and media management, and Disney Pix for photo customisation and organisation. The Disney Pix application features fun Disney Bobblehead software, which lets children insert images of their faces on top of bodies, download them into videos and postcards and play wacky moving dance scenes, for hours of fun. The Radio Disney widget streams real-time music and lets children simultaneously submit song requests, if they wish. The Disney Netbook by ASUS also includes a driving game, number game, memory game and photo scrapbook.
Disney Netbook By ASUS is Optimised for Web-Safety and Sports a Sleek Durable Design
The Disney Netbook by ASUS is designed to be child-friendly, both in terms of durability and content permissions. It’s rugged and durable, with a spill-proof keyboard that protects against inadvertent liquid spills. The Disney Netbook by ASUS’ ShockShield data protection guards against data loss when the computer is subject to impact.
The Disney Netbook also allows parents to create a web-safe computing environment with significant parental control options. Parents can pre-select email correspondence options, browsers, the websites their children visit and the programs they use. These permissions can also be scheduled on a calendar, providing parents with a convenient, automated means of granting access on the days and times that they choose. Additional websites can be added for access, but only if the parent approves and submits the request within the password-protected system.
It should be available very soon from Amazon.
