Okay, so Val over at Stinky John Jones mentioned in a recent comment that I should do a Christmas List post. I’m always up for discussing this type of thing, because twice a year, it becomes my CIA mission (for those who know us personally, there’s a pun there) to find the most unique items in existence.  Seriously, it is like an addiction.  An expensive addiction.  I will spent countless hours scouring the internet for obscure toys.  I hit all up my major natural and European toy retailers like Oompa, Maukilo, and Moolka.  Let’s face it, everything is prettier in Europe, toys included.  Beautiful long lasting wooden pieces.  Higher toy safety standards to boot.  Take a look around the Haba and Selecta websites.  Why can’t Walmart carry stuff like that?  I might hate them a little less.  And be even more broke than I already am.  But other countries, the US included do manage to make neat things, they are just a bit harder to find.  I like to do a yahoo or google search for natural toys or wooden toys and see what pops up.  I’ve probably been through every toy store in its entirety for the first eight pages of search results.

Now just in case I hadn’t spent enough time finding the toys and games, I then try to research them and see what other parents had to say about them.  I can’t tell you how many games I’ve thought “looked neat” only to find them on amazon.com with terrible reviews.  People saying the pieces broke easily or didn’t work correctly, etc.  (If you haven’t noticed by now, Hi I’m Rachel and I’m addicted to the internet.  It is my best friend. Just ask my husband. He runs to the computer chair if I get up to go pee just so he can check his email!)  So without further ado…

*Tip: I keep up with all this crap using wishlist.com so my bookmarks don’t become overrun.  Okay well they are anyway, but wishlist.com is awesome!*

Neat things I’ve found, but have not gotten/tested:

Baufix: I think these are a neat take on a construction toy.  Sort of like K’nex, only not.  They are wooden (scores extra points in my book!).  Caleb is big on the tool thing.  He likes to feel like he’s using tools just like dad.  He will get his screwdriver out to work on something that needs fixing.  If you are trying to super glue something, he wants to be all up in the middle of what you’re doing, whether you want him there or not.

Cargo train terminal (by Maxim I think): My mom saved all my Brio stuff from my childhood.  I can still remember my ‘train table’ back before they were such a popular thing.  Mine was just a sheet of plywood with rounded corners on top of a table.  We added an eBay lot of trains and tracks to the things from my childhood, and Caleb has been playing with train stuff for over two years now.  I found this train cargo terminal add on that has little magnetic “packages” to be lifted on and off.

Castle blocks: These are incredibly gorgeous.  That’s just all there is to it. Handcrafted in Indonesia, they are made of mahogany, only available at finewoodentoys.com

Lacing Caterpillar Box: Lacing seems to be on the list of toddler skills to be mastered.  But most of the ‘toys’ look so boring.  I found this adorable caterpillar box that seems like it brings a lot of whimsy and fun to the activity though.

Diggity Dog:  It’s no secret, I love kid games.  I made a mission out of finding ones other than Hungry Hippos and Elefun, after asking some other moms about games and hearing that one woman’s daughter beat the crap out of Ele”fun” when she was a little girl.  She got frustrated with it, and the mom just stood out in the hallway secretly snickering to herself!  I was surprised to find what a wide assortment of games you really can play with three year olds once you look past the Walmart shelves

Hugg-a-planet: Bigger is always better, right?  Click the link to see an adult holding this huge Earth.  Caleb loves his map, I think this is a great way to bridge the 2-d flatness of the map to the concept that it is actually a sphere.  find it cheaper here!

Traffic Dominos: I’m always on the lookout for anything car themed.  Because quite frankly, I didn’t know that such a thing existed as “car genes” nor that they could be passed down from generation to generation.

Melody Express Train: Each color track makes a different note when the train rides over it.  Build a song, and start the train moving to hear it.  Comes with a songbook.

Martian Matter: Some people say playdough.  Martian mud sounds cooler though.  This is something you actually can find at Walmart!

Wooden ramps racetrack: Cuter, safer and nicer than their noisy counterparts.

Plan City Deluxe Road System: For those transportation enthusiasts, notice the train crossing piece.  Compatible with most of the wooden train tracks, just make sure you have your railroad crossing signs up for those Hot Wheels!

Sprig Discover Rig: I’ve previously written on this guy.  Sound and lights, but no batteries.  This one is kid powered with interchangeable explorers from different countries, each with their own story to tell.  Read more here.

Hearth Song Memo: I have tried and tried to find this elsewhere, as I don’t particularly care for the overpriced shipping, but it is not to be found anywhere else.  All wood.  Check.  Flexibility.  Check check.  You can start out with just a few pairs if you’re playing with a younger child.  You can substitute other small objects or stickers under the little caps to mix things up.

Spinning tops: Courtesy of Etsy.  Careful, if you haven’t been to Etsy, you will become addicted.  It is a homespun eBay for handmade items.  No big retailers here.  Just skilled crafters and fine craftsmen.  Looks like a great stocking stuffer!

Marble runs: Click the pictures for individual product links There must be 100 different takes on this activity now.  The block and marble set we have, similar to this one, has been a big hit.  I’m partial to the types that allow more flexibility rather than the ones that have little room for variation in set up.  I’ve even seen a few that are ball tracks which I would assume from the pictures are big enough to eliminate the choking hazard if you have younger ones wanting to play also.

I even found a car/city themed one!

Tried and true:

Moon sand: What?  Wait, where are you going?  It doesn’t grind into the carpet like playdough!  Yeah I thought that might get your attention.  We do keep this on our screened porch though, and I ditched the “no mess” playmat it came with and just got a shallow rubbermaid container.  It is really neat too.  Lots of extra molds you can get, one set being a monster truck…molds for crush cars and a monster truck…yeah Caleb loves it!

Froggy Boogie: Don’t poke your eyeballs out playing Candyland.  This is an adorable “green” game.  100% made of wood, and the company, Blue Orange, plants two trees for every one used in their products.  The baby frogs are trying to sneak around the lily pads in the pond without being seen by the  mommy and daddy frogs.  Each frog has one eye with a frog on the bottom, and one without.  It becomes a game of memory trying to recall which eye to pick up, and practices colors, by finding the frog coordinating to your two color dice roll.  The pieces are just adorable too!

Bunny Hop: Another big hit here.  Even Charley plays (which just allows Caleb two turns in a row!).  Roll the dice to see which color to press down and then press your farmer to see if your bunny hops.  First one with all four color bunnies wins.  Of course, when we’re done playing a few rounds, we have to press down all the bunnies at once and squeal with delight when 12 out of 20 of them fly up in the air all at once.  Then repeat seven times.

Books:

If you haven’t tried out Lookybook, head over there and look around.  You can actually preview and read (if you squint) full children’s books before buying them.  It is a reasonably new site, so they are gradually building their book database.  But I found several of these books through Lookybook. Click the books for individual links

The longest book you’ll ever ‘read’ with no words!  We checked a Polo book out from the library and it was an unconventional hit.  Much like your 80 page long cartoon newspaper.  Don’t let that number scare you, it ‘reads’ quickly.  It is just a unique take on a book.  You can look through some of it at Amazon for a better idea of what I’m talking about.

Did I mention a car theme anywhere?

Thanks to Val for introducing SkippyJon Jones.  I absolutely have typed in Stinky John Jones looking for the books and become so annoyed when I couldn’t find them.  Caleb loves Skippy and has taken to calling people Mr. McPooh and bunny boots.  We get some strange looks.

Also available, SkippyJon Jones in Mummy Trouble, which we already have.

Woody Click Sets: We have the fire station and police station sets.  You can also get a construction theme, a farm theme or a hospital theme.  These don’t seem to have been a huge hit (retail wise), as they are a bit hard to find now.  We love them though.  They are similar to Playmobil sets, except they are made of wood.  The vehicles and buildings come into several pieces so you can arrange it any way you want.  A few more pictures here.

Coming up next: More books I’ve found, with a Christmas tradition idea/theme.

Comments

4 Responses to “by request: a christmas list”

    Amber
    November 25th, 2008 6:16 pm

    Seriously, people would pay for this information. Like Michael said, you could have a column in a parenting magazine! I enjoyed reading it and I don’t even have kids :)

    Amber
    November 26th, 2008 11:36 am

    Oh, yeah . . . the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem! Haha

    Val
    November 26th, 2008 3:11 pm

    Thank you thank you thank you!!!

    I am totally hitting up all the links as I type this!

    Each pick was great!

    DJ
    November 26th, 2008 7:34 pm

    Terrific write up, I love some of these for my son!

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