Archive for category: Gift ideas

My son has a loft bed. It’s like a bunk bed, except there’s no bottom bunk – there’s a desk under there instead. So he always sleeps up in the clouds.

The eternal problem, when you’re way up on the top bunk, is that you can’t get at your stuff.

And by “stuff” I mean “books.”

And Kleenex, and bedside light, and drinks… and books.

So, in the “I-can’t-believe-someone-didn’t-come-up-with-this-sooner” category is: The Bunk Bed Buddy.

It’s essentially a lightweight, sturdy holder for all your stuff. It hangs up there on the wall beside where you sleep in your bunk bed.

My son loves his. He keeps a variety of books in it, and… well, mostly books. And magazines.

So now, his bed is like a little fort, with all his favourite stuff within reach.

He doesn’t have to climb all the way down the ladder when he’s finished his book—he can just grab another one from the Bunk Bed Buddy.

The Bunk Bed Buddy is manufactured by TidyBooks. It’s appropriately priced at $79.99 and it’s available through amazon.com. (No, I don’t get a commission.)

I’m a big believer that if you want kids to understand words and letters, they’ve gotta get their hands dirty.

If there’s something to feel, touch, throw, squish and otherwise interact with — kids are going to get the message on a whole different level.

(It’s called kinesthetic learning, but I prefer “squishing.”)

Play-Doh has created a new toy that lets kids create, and then squish, letters. And in-between maybe spell a few words.

Cookie Monster’s Letter Lunch is a back-to-basics Play-Doh toy. You push the playdough into the moulds, and create letters and healthy foods.

Then you can “feed” Cookie. His mouth has a flap that goes down when you put, say, playdough broccoli on it. (My kid, who is 10 and far too old for this toy, loves the fact that after you feed Cookie, the playdough falls through his body and out his, er, back. OK, derriere. But 10-year-olds can find something rude in anything.)

The kit comes with a sturdy Cookie Monster, dozens of moulds the right size for tiny hands, four tiny cans of Play-Doh and one of those Play-Doh spaghetti-maker thingies. They’re fun.

If you’ve got a Play-Doh type of kid (if you’ve got one you know it – they spend hours!) this is a decent toy. Very simple and sturdy. And kids can squish every letter they make. And then feed everything to Cookie, who is never too full to eat a kid’s creations.

When you open the kit, make sure you keep the box intact so you can put all the parts back in there. The box has a handle, which is a good touch.

Disclosure: I asked Hasbro to send me this toy because it looked like it had some merit in terms of literacy; I think it does.

I have a theory that a really great pencil might get your kid to do more writing.

Now, hear me out. (And let me assure you right now this isn’t an ad and I’m not being paid by anyone.)

I’m not just talking about a pretty pencil. It’s not some “normal” pencil with a fancy topper. It’s not sparkly and it doesn’t write in three colours. I’m talking about a pencil that is so special, so outrageously beautiful to use that it makes you want to keep writing and never stop.

To understand the Blackwing Palomino you have to go back a few years, to the 1990s when Eberhard-Faber stopped making them. (Those original Blackwings have sold on eBay for up to $40 each.) The Blackwing came back last year, produced by Cal Cedar. They did extensive research to figure out how to reproduce, as closely as possible, the pencil that Eberhard-Faber used to make.

I purchased a box from pencils.com after reading this review on boingboing.net.

Now here’s my review… and the reason why the Blackwing is the only pencil I will ever use… and the reason I never let my Blackwings out of my sight… and the reason I think that giving one to your kid will actually help his schoolwork.

The first thing you’ll notice is the cool, white, square-topped flat eraser. It is armoured in a shiny golden ferrule. You can pull up the eraser to extend it as you use it – or you can replace it altogether. The pencil itself is matte black, accented with a band of gold just below the eraser.

Then there’s the feel of the pencil in your hand. It’s soft and smooth, almost warm to the touch. You want to caress its perfect octagonal sides. You do.

But the best thing about the Blackwing is the way it writes. As the graphite glides along the surface of your page it lays down a fine, soft, black trail. If you’ve ever written with a stick in hard moist sand on a fine beach, you’ll know something about how this feels. There is a satisfying friction as the lead glides over the page, tracking its lines along your paper.

It is a soft, warm, smooth writing experience. Easy to erase, and to write and to smudge. It is an artist’s experience, but it is just as much a writer’s experience, or a mathematician’s. Or a kid’s.

On pencils.com you can also buy one of the finest (cheap) pencil sharpeners you will ever use, and this I recommend for the Blackwing. It uses a two-step process; one hole cuts away the wood from the lead and the second one sharpens the lead itself. And there will be a great deal of sharpening with the Blackwing. The smooth, lazy writing experience comes at a price–you will have to sharpen often and well because the graphite is so soft.

But it will be worth it.

A non-disclosure: I don’t work for Blackwing, nor did I get anything from pencils.com other than a box of Blackwing 602 pencils, which are not the ones I have reviewed above. (The 602 is also a superb pencil; it is grey matte with a black eraser. It lays down less graphite and doesn’t need as much sharpening and for that reason some people say that the Blackwing is for artists and the 602 is for writers. But I am a writer, and I heartily disagree. Take back my 602s and replace them with more Blackwings, I say.)

In a media release from Blackwing, I see that they’re coming out with a line of premium notebooks in September. If they’re one iota as satisfying as the Blackwings that are meant to write on them, I’ll be rushing to get one.

Palomino Blackwing 602

They’ve finally come up with a new, addictive, fun and brain-saving type of jigsaw puzzle that kids will actually enjoy.

It’s difficult – if not downright impossible – to explain exactly how Ji Ga Zo works. You have to try it for yourself, and you’ll understand. (Which is why I asked Hasbro to send me one – I couldn’t figure it out from the literature and now I know why.)

Here’s what Ji Ga Zo (worst. product. name. ever.) is:

1) A puzzle that you create from your own photo.

2) A game in which you (or your kids) have to find pieces with specific icons on them and locate where they go using a grid (the “acorn” goes on A-15).

3) A game that teaches “orientation” since every piece can be fitted into the puzzle rightside-up, upside-down or sideways—and only one of those options is correct for each piece.

This is the icon board. Kids have to find the pieces that match up to these icons, and put them in place.

4) A puzzle that can be reused over and over again, with any picture you choose.

It’s a little hard to believe, isn’t it? I’ll try to explain it.

First, you choose a photo you’d like the puzzle to be. It can’t be just any photo—faces work best, and even they need to be close up and high-contrast. You put the Ji Ga Zo (how I hate that name!) in your computer and follow the very simple instructions to create an “icon board” for your specific photo.

You print out the icon board, which is a grid containing 300 one-centimetre squares. Each square contains an icon: it could be a house, a duck, an exclamation mark.

Then, you create the puzzle by finding the appropriate icons and fitting them onto your puzzle space according to the icon board… this sounds ridiculously difficult. In fact, it’s very easy—it’s just really, really hard to explain.

Ji Ga Zo (seriously, Hasbro, you couldn’t have called it Re-puzzler because it’s reusable or Griddle because it’s a puzzle with an icon grid? And these are just off the top of my head!) is very addictive and quite soothing. Harkens you back to those days when you and your mom would sit in the kitchen doing a puzzle, something we rarely take the time to do these days. And because it’s a puzzle of your child’s face, you’re more likely to want to continue making it until it’s done. And so is your kid.

The puzzle pieces are very sturdy and fit nicely together. There’s none of the wiggle-wobbling and coming apart so common to cheaper puzzles.

And you can make it easier for younger kids by sorting the puzzle pieces according to colour. Really young kids can simply help you find the pieces, which they’d find really fun. Slightly older kids can find pieces that are sorted by colour and try to find them on the grid. Older kids can do the whole thing, with or without your help.

The image itself is going to be sort of abstract. It’s not going to be a great representation of your child’s face, because it’s actually made up of shadow and light. Again, you have to see it to understand. And if you don’t have a photo you want to use, the game comes with a few including the Mona Lisa.

So here’s what I recommend. Don’t hesitate to buy Ji Ga-whatsit. It would be good for a birthday present for a party your child’s going to, or a present from gramma for your own kid. And it’s definitely got some great learning components. And it’s fun.

Once I find out from Hasbro how much it costs and where to buy it, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I’m thinking of offering a contest to rename this thing…

Update: Hasbro got  back to me… $24.99. Name’s staying.

Think about literacy.

Take 30 seconds during the holidays – today - to reflect on how you can help your child become a better reader, enjoy books more and have greater access to books.

Just taking the time to focus on literacy will bring your child one step closer to enjoying reading more.

Here are some ideas to help you answer the question:

“How can I help my child enjoy reading more?”

* Extend your child’s bedtime – as long as he’s reading, he can stay up a bit later.

* Take your child to the library.

* Buy a great book and put it on your child’s pillow for her to discover tonight.

* Buy yourself a good book. When kids see their parents reading, they’re more likely to read themselves. (Have you read Andre Agassi’s new biography Open? Even if you don’t like sports, biographies or Andre Agassi – you will enjoy this great, fast and engaging read.)

* Read with your child tonight, even if he’s already reading by himself.

* Buy books at Goodwill or another second-hand store.

* Rent your child the movie of a famous book. Buy the book too.

* Suggest that the grandparents purchase a magazine subscription for your child.

* Buy your child a booklight. Let him use it tonight after lights-out.

* Get your son a fact-based book like the Guinness Book of Records or one with lots of adventure like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (the graphic novel has just come out).

* Get your daughter a book with lots of great characters and developed relationships, or one with a wonderful, empowered heroine like Eloise.

* Don’t ever give up. Every second you spend with your child on reading is quality time and an investment in his future.

Image: Wikimedia Commons, by this author.

So, here’s a pretty cool product.

Let me count the ways.

It’s important that children discover that books can be used many different ways. Here’s how we’re using the books we got for Christmas.

*My husband and our son had a great time going through his new Guiness Book of Records, giggling over the disgusting records (biggest earthworm) and discussing the sports ones;

*We’ll be using his new cookbook in the new year to bake some treats (and learn measurements);

*Our son loved his new, personalized book and was thrilled to see his picture on the back cover;

*Our son has already started reading his new Bailie School Kids series;

*He loved the Sports Illustrated for Kids Santa gave him in his stocking;

*His new joke books are going to keep us groaning well into the new year;

*Not to mention his puzzle book, Owl magazine, Space book with tons of facts about meteorites and planets, and Build It Bigger – a book about the world’s largest building projects.

So he’s got lots of reading options – to read alone, with mom and dad, to read to us aloud, or just flip through and look at the pictures. It was definitely a reading Christmas.

Hope you had a great holiday. We’ll be taking a new bag of books (thanks, Julie!) to the Children’s Book Bank in the new year so please do drop your donations off with me.

Here’s a great gift idea.

“Tag” could be a great learning device for your not-big-on-reading child.

It’s essentially a wireless, electronic pen. When you poke a special “Tag” book with it, the book talks. Kids can hear the story, listen to the characters speak, play games and identify words.

You have to use the Tag books, and currently there are about 20 of them including Click Clack Moo – Cows that Type, The Little Engine that Could, Diego, Spongebob Square Pants, The Little Mermaid, Cars, and my favourite – Olivia.

The system is a lot like LeapPad, which is being phased out. My son grew up on LeapPad, and to this day says things like, “Ginko leaves have been around since the dinosaurs.” He learned that from LeapPad. Tag is like LeapPad except it’s wireless.

Tag is also intuitive. Kids just poke the pen anywhere on the book to get the information they want. And, if this system is developed like LeapPad, there will soon be many more titles and games to choose from.

Tag is $59.99 (Canadian) at Toys R Us online.

It’s also great because it works for a wide range of ages, from very little children (parents just have to make sure they don’t rip the book), up to about grade 1. LeapPad also had books for older kids, and I’m hoping the Tag line will extend to higher grades as well.