http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/great-outdoor-kit-a-wooden-sandpit.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/great-outdoor-kit-a-wooden-sandpit.html Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Invest in a wooden sandpit! Sand pits can provide hours of merriment for kids of all ages. Kids can build entire universes in the sand. It is also a great way to get kids of different ages to play together. After all, it doesn’t matter how old a child is, they know how to 'play pretend' and a sandpit is a great place to do just that.

Water toys are always well received. Toys like the slip and slide are also fun for kids of all ages and are relatively simple to set up. All you really need is a sturdy plastic surface, some water and a soft place to land after flying down the plastic. Even the littlest kids can have fun sliding on a slip and slide, even ones that are home made.

If you have a larger budget you can invest in a backyard jungle gym. These usually come with a couple of swings and a slide, though there are more elaborate models that have club houses and climbing perches. Kids can run and play and get all of their exercise without leaving the yard.

Of course the kids might just be content to run around playing a make believe game that you haven’t ever heard of. That is the wonderful part of childhood, the imagination is still readily available and eager to entertain.

There are a number of games you can play outside, the trick is to get the kids out there in the first place. Usually once a child is outside, they will find numerous ways to amuse themselves. Of course, the more outdoor toys you have waiting in the wings, the happier your children will be. After all, everybody needs help getting started sometimes.

--
Gary is a father of 2 and an experienced writer on outdoor toys and has had many a happy hour in his garden sandpit with his kids!

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/outdoor-toys-for-girls-and-boys.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/outdoor-toys-for-girls-and-boys.html Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Bicycles and Tricycles are great toys to furnish for your kids. Riding a bike helps them to exercise and stay occupied sometimes for hours at a time. In this vein there are also rollerblades, skateboards and scooters. Anything that gets your kids moving is worth investing in.

This is one of the reasons that jungle gyms are such a popular outdoor toys. With a jungle gym your kids, even the littlest ones, can climb, slide, swing and run. Some of the bigger jungle gyms have different types of swings, more than one slide and lots of stuff to climb on. Your kids can pretend to be miniature gymnasts or, well, anything else that their imaginations can come up with.

Any sort of water toys are always popular. These can range from super soakers to slip and slides to backyard inflatable pools in which the kids can swim. Swimming and water play helps keep them cool in the hot summer heat and also encourages a great deal of physical activity.

One of the best activities to do with your kids in the summer time is to set up a tent and go camping in the backyard. Your kids can pretend that they are off in the wilderness and still be close enough to home that you won't have to worry about their safety and they can come inside if the outside noises get too creepy for them to sleep.

Playing outside is one of the great joys of childhood and any kid with an imagination can spend copious amounts of time outside without needing very many 'props' at all. Simply digging in the dirt can provide entire make believe universes for your kids to play in, all without them leaving the yard.

Of course, if all else fails you can 'ask' them to help you with your yard maintenance.

--
Gary writes about the benefits of quality outdoor toys for his blog and website and sells a wide variety of garden toys.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/parenting/are-traditional-toys-the-way-forward.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/parenting/are-traditional-toys-the-way-forward.html Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Do you remember when the best way to encourage your little one to ride his or her bicycle was to give him or her a bicycle? You would build the bike, send the child outside with it and they were guaranteed hours of merriment! They could ride around and explore their worlds.

Intelligently designed traditional toys encourage children to think and to be creative. They leave the majority of the story up to the child to invent and it is this process of invention that can help set a child up for life in terms of learning and creativity skills. By simply playing, children exercise their motor, cognitive and social development skills. Traditional toys give children this opportunity by not providing them with all of the details in the way that modern toys do.

In this day of video gamed everything, traditional toys are long overdue for a comeback. Wooden blocks, dolls, jack in the boxes, all of it kids enjoy these toys just as much, if not more than they enjoy their video-centric counterparts. Any parent who has brought home the latest and most popular toy on the market only to have their daughter play with it for five minutes and then lose interest in the bells and whistles in favour of spending four hours playing with the box the toy came in can attest to that.

--
Gary is a father of two and owner of stylish kids store Monkeyshine where you can find a great range of traditional toys including quality wooden toys, outdoor activities and games.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/are-traditional-toys-making-a-comeback.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/are-traditional-toys-making-a-comeback.html Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Traditional children's toys were made out of wood and in the 1700s, German woodworkers had started to make wooden toys and sell them to their customers. Not only did they sell their simple toys to local customers, but they had travelling salesmen peddling the toys all over Europe. The toymakers also made toys to order for customers all over 'the continent.'

Over the last three centuries, wooden toys and simple games have become incredibly popular among the world's children. Simple games and toys like marbles and wooden blocks are still managing to hold their own on the toy market.

Traditional toys are far better than the electronic 'toys' that are available today. Modern toys leave little for children to create on their own and seem to push a 'follow the directions' approach to life whereas traditional toys left most of the story line up to the child playing with the toys. Kids could build entire cities out of the blocks and act out adventures within the borders of that city or, if they chose, the world beyond it. A simple game encouraged children to use their reasoning skills, create their own imaginary worlds and learn to work with others.

Traditional toys encouraged the values that we still hold dear: creativity, teamwork and reason. Who knew that a simple set of wooden blocks painted with alphabet letters would spurn such development in such small people? Now, that isn’t to say that the newer games don’t also have their merit, but nothing really beats playing in the dirt with a train set.

--
Gary writes about parenting issues for his blog and website, Monkeyshine, a traditional toy shop online selling a great range of wooden toys, outdoor fun and games.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/are-wooden-toys-worth-the-money.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/are-wooden-toys-worth-the-money.html Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Sometime around the eighteenth century, German woodworkers had begun to make a variety of simple wooden toys and sell them to the general public. Traveling salesmen would take the toys around the continent and if a customer showed a great affection for the toys, the salesmen would take personal orders back to the toymakers. It wasn’t long before the very life like animals and dolls became popular all over Europe.

As time marched on, wooden toys became more and more elaborate and sometime in the nineteenth century intricate wooden toys like dollhouses, theaters, jack in the boxes and wooden trains were being sold by the cart loads. While the materials used in toys have grown invariably more complex and less natural in the modern market, children and parents alike still show great affection for the simpler wooden toys though it is becoming harder to find them. Even the traditional wooden alphabet blocks have started being manufactured out of plastic.

Wooden toys are much better for children than plastic toys. Not only is it better for children to handle natural products, wooden toys are better for the pocket. Those wooden blocks are nearly indestructible.

Often it is the wooden toys like the simple wooden puzzles put together by toddlers that parents choose to stimulate cognitive development and motor skills. If you’ve ever been hit by a wooden block (that used to be yours when you were little), that has been chucked at you by a very enthusiastic toddler who is simultaneously shouting the letter that just left his chubby fist, you will know that wooden toys often work on all the levels of which they were intended.

While the rarity of wooden toys has made them more expensive, they are well worth the money. After all, don’t you still have some of the wooden toys you played with as a child?

--
Gary is an authority on wooden toys and runs the UK's premier traditional toy shop, Monkeyshine where you will find a wide range of toys for children.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/wooden-toys-for-working-brains.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/wooden-toys-for-working-brains.html Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Wooden toys are far more durable than their plastic counterparts. Wooden toys can be thrown, dropped, kicked and rolled. They can be used as steps and foundation pieces for any feat of the imagination. They can withstand a great deal of weight and pressure and through it all, they never lose their lustre. You can do just about anything to a wooden toy and after all of your child's experimentation he or she will still have a wooden toy.

Wooden toys are often toys that stimulate a child’s cognitive and motor development. Typically wooden toys are made in the form of blocks (everybody had a set of alphabet toys as a child) and simple puzzles. There are wooden pull toys and wooden trains that children can roll around.

These are simple toys that are for major accomplishments. The blocks can be used both to teach shapes and colours. As a child grows up, they will use the blocks to figure out how to build things and how to make their constructions stronger. A simple wooden puzzle will encourage children to use their cognitive skills to figure out how to fit the puzzle together. Fitting the pieces again and again strengthens the memory skills. A wooden pull toy is pulled along behind a small toddler racing across a floor, working his muscles and developing his motor skills.

All of these actions don't seem so incredible when looking at them from an adult's point of view. From the view of your child, however, you will find a new way to understand the workings of the world.

--
Gary is an authority on children's toys and owner of Monkeyshine, the UK's online traditional toy shop.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/safety-of-baby-toys.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/safety-of-baby-toys.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600 baby toys have gone through quite a metamorphosis.

Babies used to be given the same toys that were given to older kids, but as time has gone on experts have agreed that there are certain things that make one baby toy better than another.

There are three main factors that come into play when deciding on toys for babies.

Can any part of the toy be inadvertently swallowed if the child is left alone for more than four seconds

Can it withstand a great deal of abuse?

Could the baby hurt herself or others if she decides to fling the toy away or loses her grip and hits herself with it?

If the answers are no, yes and no, then you have the makings of what could possibly be a great toy for your baby.

Baby toys need to be soft and squishy enough that when your child gets excited and accidentally flings their toy at your head it will simply bounce away. They also need to be durable enough that your child can both bang it on things and chew on it without completely destroying it beyond recognition. Also, baby toys are ideally just a single piece that is too large to be swallowed. After all, you don't want your wee one swallowing something that does not belong in any of the food groups.

Big squishy blocks are great baby toys. Soft toys are great baby toys. These are toys that can withstand a great deal of abuse but also be completely entertaining for someone who has not yet reached the age of two.

--
Gary writes about quality baby toys for his website and blog and sells a wide range of toys for babies and toddlers at his website www.monkeyshine.co.uk

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/simple-baby-toys.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/simple-baby-toys.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Babies love to explore and quality baby toys can promote this. They love anything that makes noise or has texture to it. Babies, after all, are still discovering the world. They are curious about everything and want to make sure that they explore everything they come across. This means that everything needs to be touched, smelled and (very often) tasted. Your child isn't chewing on the coffee table because they don't know better, they are chewing on the coffee table to see if they like the way it tastes! Playing is how babies explore and learn.

Babies respond best to toys that are brightly coloured and have interesting textures. The bright colours aren't just cheerful; studies have shown that the bright colours can help to stimulate your child's visual development. Anything that provides a large amount of contrast is good because it will teach the baby how to differentiate between colours. There is a reason the Touch and Feel board books by the Dorling Kindersley publishers are so popular. Those are books that have big pictures in bright colours, are durable enough to be chewed on and often feature a new texture for the baby to touch.

Toys that encourage babies to do something are very popular among the under-two-years set. Toys that will reward the baby with a noise when a button is pushed are always a good idea. Babies will grow restless very quickly when given a toy that does not do much, if anything at all. There is, after all, a reason that the teddy bear sits quietly by while you get to listen to 'A sheep says baa-a-a-a-a' for the four thousandth time in a row.

Babies are a lot of fun to play with and making sure that your baby has the right toys are a great way to make sure that everybody enjoys play time.

--
Gary writes about toddler and baby toys for his website and blog and sells a wide range of quality toddler and baby toys at his website www.monkeyshine.co.uk

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/toddler-toys-for-active-tots.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/toddler-toys-for-active-tots.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Toddlers are also learning sponges. They absorb everything, including many things you wish they would forget until later ages. It is this love of learning that you will also want to take care to encourage. Toddler toys have come a long way in the last few decades and there is no better way to teach your child than to show them how much fun learning can be.

Toys for toddlers should be learning-centric. A toy that can teach your colour shapes while showing them how to build or do something is ideal. This is why blocks are such a perfect toy for little ones. A toddler can play with blocks and at the same time the child is learning his colours, his shapes and how to construct sturdy structures. You can also use blocks to teach a child how to count. Simple games of 'how many red squares do we have?' will teach your child valuable skills.

Simple puzzles will encourage your child to engage his or her memory as the more times the puzzle gets put together, the faster your child will be at this task. Learning how to match shapes to each other is also good.

Any toy that makes music is also fun. Your toddler can learn about music and have tons of fun banging away and making all of those new sounds that they haven’t heard before.

Toddlers have fun when they learn. They haven't yet been taught that learning is boring so take advantage of this time and make sure that their toys help them learn and grow!

--
Gary writes about toddler toys for his website which sells a wide range of quality toys for toddlers and babies. www.monkeyshine.co.uk

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/choosing-quality-toddler-toys.html http://www.articletrader.com/home-and-family/kids/choosing-quality-toddler-toys.html Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600
There are many quality toddler toys that encourage learning and development. The trick is to choose the ones that aren't just bells and whistles and actually provide the toddler with a reason to use his/her brain.

You will want to look for toys that will help your child learn hand-eye co-ordination that is probably not very good just yet. Toys that involve any kind of stacking, building or taking things apart are always well received. Blocks are especially popular as they have so many uses. With blocks your toddler can learn to count, can learn the shapes, the colours and both how to build something and take it apart again.

Other popular toys are toys that encourage movement. Toys that your kids can climb on are always well received. Toddlers love to climb and explore, so those kid tunnels and simple jungle gyms are always fun.

Toddler toys should also encourage social interaction. Toddlerhood is a great time to teach your child about sharing and playing with others and simple games are a great way to do this. Toys that are also good for social development are stuffed animals or dolls that the toddler then gets to take care of, which helps to teach the child that it is always good to care for others.

Toddler toys are almost all designed with learning in mind and toddlers love to learn. This is an age in which they want to explore new things and learn about the world they live in and toys that teach them new skills are always wildly popular.

--
Gary is a father of two and experienced buyer of toddler toys he is the owner of Monkeyshine a UK retailer of unique toddler toys and more.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>