Duck... duck... no, it's Franklin Goose

Franklin Goose is a company that is devoted to selling safe, organic and natural products for babies, children and families. They sent us an organic, stuffed Franklin Goose doll ($35) to review.

Linnea saw Franklin and yelled "Mine!!!!"; she grabbed him and ran away. I then spent weeks looking for Franklin, so I could write the review. He is one busy goose with hardly a moment to answer questions. But, eventually I pinned him down.

- So Franklin, how have you been?

"Well, I'm always traveling.



I love to explore and recently I had a chance to visit the Virginia countryside.



And, check out the wild flora. Mmmm... the flowers are tasty.



It is very hard to find time for an interview.



With hardly a moment to rest...



...before I'm on the go again."



In addition to extensive traveling, cuddling and flower tasting, Franklin is Franklin Goose's spokes-goose. Franklin Goose offers natural, organic, and chemical safe toys for your baby and child. Their toys are natural, organic, or made of recycled materials. Paint is lead free. And they carry no electronic or synthetic toys. Franklin is a good example and he works hard to live up to their ideals. Franklin is made in New York by Ecoleeko out of organic cotton sherpa, hand-dyed bamboo fleece, bamboo yarn, and kapok fiber filling. He is sewn with organic thread, and is machine washable on the delicate cycle.

Franklin is the perfect size for a car pillow, throwing at your sister, and of course a good game of Duck, Duck, Goose!

And, Franklin asked me to tell you about our new giveaway. One reader will win a $25 gift certificate to the Franklin Goose website. To enter, visit Franklin Goose, take a look and their awesome collection of toys and baby care products and then come back here and tell us how you would spend the gift certificate. Just post a comment with some sort of contact information at the end of this blog post. Franklin will draw the name of the winner on August 10.

Those bees... and other new toys at KangarooBoo

The bee hive that we reviewed and lots of other cute new toys from Plan are now available at KangarooBoo. Yay!

Bee Hive by Plan Toys ($27.99)



The Eco Recycling Game($27.99) might be nice for Earth Day.



But, what I really want to see are the Planimals. Arielle would love them.

Planimals Australia Series ($32.99)



Sorry, no new reviews this week. Linnea and Arielle have been very sick and it seems that it's my turn. I hope you are all out enjoying the spring weather. I'm hoping to find some nice outdoor toys and eco-friendly toys to review this month.

Our friend Emma: Scientific Super Sleuth

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Dr. Thompson. He's a scientist who has come up with a line of science kits for children ages 9 to 12. The science kits let children learn about what real-life scientists do by asking them to solve mysteries. The young scientists are given links to a secret web site, so they can check their results along the way and learn if they've solved the mystery correctly. It sounded like a great idea. I love to encourage science, but Arielle and Linnea are just too young. I asked our friend Emma and her mom to help us out. They wrote the following review:



The other day Secret Science Team member, Emma, got a kit from Ectropy. It seems they needed a super sleuth like Emma to do a little case work for them.

Emma carefully opened the box. It contained all the evidence and the supplies needed to solve the mystery -- find out who was behind a devious plot to steal, duplicate and sell pirated video games!



Emma and her two assistants took this case rather seriously -- they followed the directions and recorded their findings in the chart that was provided -- they even carefully returned the samples to their little baggies hoping to "be scientists" again.



When she began the project, Emma thought that she'd do one or two of the experiments/observations....





but then couldn't resist doing another,



and then another,



and then another,



until she had completed the whole kit and found her results --



we went to the website provided and confirmed that she was correct! Oh the joy!



Scientist Emma wants to share this with some science loving friends of hers -- it was a lot of fun.

Emma is 10 years old and in the 5th grade, her assistants are 8 years old and in the 2nd grade. They would likely have been able to do most of this experiment on their own, but they lack a certain *carefulness* that is required. I reminded them often about not contaminating their samples.

The Secret Science Team Missions cost $34.99. All of the products Ectropy offers are designed and selected to meet National Science Education Standards. This makes them great for home school families. The Secret Science Team line is specially developed for grades 4 -7 to encourage scientific exploration, analytical reasoning, and literature. Ectropy also offers science consulting, experiment design, and science kit building services to help home school families meet NSE standards.

Buzz Buzz: Plan Toys Bee Hive

This is very exciting. We love Plan Toys. They make reasonably priced, natural baby toys and preschool toys out of old rubber wood trees. Eco-friendly and fun! So when Plan Toys contacted us about reviewing one of the new wooden toys that will be in stores this spring, we practically shouted "Yes, please!".

We reviewed the Plan Toys Bee Hive. This developmental toy consists of a set of six bees with matching bee hive cups and a pair of big wooden tweezers. This simple combination makes a great educational toy (and imaginative toy) for toddlers to kindergartners.


First of all, the bees can be used to learn about colors, sorting, matching and for developing hand-eye coordination. My lovely assistant Arielle will demonstrate:

Pick a bee up with the tweezers...



and drop it in the appropriately colored hive.


You can change the arrangement to make the game a little more complicated.



Can Arielle sort the bees without moving the cups? Yes, she can.


It was more of a challenge for Linnea. She's three, so she's still working out the tweezers. It's nice to see her challenged.


Despite the tweezer challenge, she had a lot of fun lining the bees up and making them "talk" to their friends.


When they were done, they flew off to their hives, and she tucked each in the appropriately colored bed.


Then Arielle has an idea!


She drew flowers. Now Linnea had to make each bee fly out of the hive and to the correct flower.


She did it! Yay!


The toy is absolutely cute, but what I love that this is a learning toy that inspired creativity. The girls looked at it, figured out what it is for, and went beyond that. That is what you expect from an open-ended learning toy.

Next they took out blocks to build their own beehives..... the bees were so happy, but my camera battery died. Maybe next time.

The Plan Toys Bee Hive will be available at Plan toy retailers later this month and on the Plan Toys website.

Thank you, Plan Toys!!!

Mudpuppy Puzzle Giveaway

Mudpuppy are the makers of beautiful products for children, including puzzles, games, stationery, diaries, cards, building sets, stickers and a whole lot of other fun products - all beautifully illustrated.

We like the puzzles!

There are several categories of puzzles which range in difficulty from very easy to challenging.

First Puzzles won the iParenting Best Products Award 2006. Each box contains 16 pieces which are color coded and form four 4-piece puzzles. They are appropriate for ages 2+

Construction First Puzzle ($10.00)



Nine-piece Two-sided puzzles teach about opposites. The Day/Night puzzle is a 2003 Parent's Choice Approved Award Winner, a 2003 Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Product, and has received a 2003 Creative Child Magazine - Seal of Excellence Award.

Day/Night Puzzle ($10.00)



The Mudpuppy Block Puzzles contain nine 2-inch cubes that form 6 pictures. These are great for children over three who can also build with the colorful blocks.

Garden Bugs Block Puzzle ($14.00)



Arielle has recently mastered floor puzzles with 24 jumbo pieces. She reviewed the Map of the U.S.A. Floor Puzzle.

Map of the U.S.A. Floor Puzzle ($17.00)



Arielle loves geography. She is fascinated with maps and locations. So, this puzzle was perfect for her. She was muttering about how Hawaii was in the wrong location and "Where's Texas? I need Texas." She is rapidly beginning to recognize the states and know their locations.

She started...



And in no time...



She was done! Linnea (who dressed herself today) admires Arielle's work.



These puzzles are challenging for early threes, but I bet by the time she is four, Linnea will have mastered this one.

The Color Me Puzzles are two-sided. Children four and older can color within the lines on one side with the crayons that are included in the set. The other side is printed in color. What a great snow day project!

Enchanted Kingdom Color Me Puzzle ($14.00)



Arielle is ready to try the 36-piece Mini Cube puzzles.

Eric Carle Santa Puzzle ($10.00)



Soon, she can try the 63 Piece Puzzles that come in round canisters with a colorful rope handle.


Monsters 63 Piece Puzzle ($14.00)




Finally, Mudpuppy's 100-piece jigsaw puzzles in collectible tins will challenge those serious puzzle masters. These are for ages 6 and up.

They won iParenting Greatest Products of 2005 Award.

Fairy Tales Puzzle ($14.00)



All the puzzles have nice sturdy pieces. The greyboard used to make Mudpuppy puzzles is from 90-100% recycled paper, and the colors are printed with nontoxic, soy-based ink. All puzzles are CE and ASTM tested to ensure safety.

Puzzles make great educational gifts. They help with cognitive skills, fine motor skills,hand-eye coordination, geometric and spatial relationships, and even teach children to deal with frustration. And, they are so easy to wrap.

You can win a Map of the U.S.A. Floor Puzzle just like the one Arielle reviewed. To enter the giveaway go to the Mudpuppy website and pick a favorite product. Post a comment, and make sure that I can contact you if you win.

In a recent giveaway, I had a winner named Anonymous with no details or contact information. I had no way of knowing who that was.

The winner will be announced on December 15th.

Oh my! A museum in a box!

I am working on a review for a toy from Rosie Hippo - love Rosie Hippo - and I saw this! The absolutest coolest (but very pricey) toy ever. I just wanted to share.


Discovery Box Large ($199)




This 18-drawer box comes with a natural history collection that includes 50 different fossils, minerals, marine organisms and insects and a fact sheet.

It's like a mini-museum, but you can touch all you want.

Savings at Petit Baby

Petit Baby offers European toys for babies and toddlers. Their carefully chosen selection includes brands such as Selecta, Kathe Kruse, Vilac, and Haba among others.

Haba Bambini Houses Threading Beads ($17.99)



Last week, I posted a picture on Facebook of Linnea playing with her beads. I got a lot of "How cool! I need those!" and " Where can I find them?"



Linnea just discovered these although they have been in the playroom all her life. She's almost three, and these are currently her favorite toy. She's very proud of how well she can string them. She's been making necklaces for me and Arielle and all her "fwends". The beads are from Haba and they are hard to find, but are available at Petit Baby. They are available in several styles. Check out all their options for threading toys.

One of my favorite things about these beads is that they can also be played with separately. I used to slip a necklace into my diaper bag to entertain Arielle when we were away from home. I could take off the toys if necessary. Arielle still enjoys adding the beads to her towns when she plays blocks.

The beads are made in Germany. This learning toy would make an excellent gift for a three year old.



Petit Baby has offered our readers 10% off all regularly priced items. The code is "Sara10" and can not be used on sales items.

More than just counting - with a Bajo abacus

An abacus is a strange toy. We see them and know they are educational, but then they rarely get played with or used for anything except basic counting... 1,2,3,4,5... Often an abacus is bought for a toddler who enjoy sliding the beads around for a while, but then it gets tossed in the toy box and forgotten. This is unfortunate, because an abacus is a great tool for early learning.

Bajo Wooden Bead Abacus ($43.99)

And here is Linnea sliding beads around :0)





Actually, Linnea first told me the colors of the beads. She's a little uncertain about some colors (and when she doesn't know, she says "purple", so we've been doing a lot of color identification to build up her confidence. And then we counted each color 1..2..3.....10! Pretty simple. When she gets older, we'll be able to count all the way to 100. She also got to work on her motor skills when she moved each bead, one at a time, by herself.

But, the abacus can do so much more for Arielle. I've been bringing it out when she does her math. Over the summer, Arielle mastered counting to 100 and learned counting by tens. The abacus is an easy way to illustrate how this works. We counted the individual beads and saw, yes, counting by tens really does work!

This week, Arielle learned about tens and ones. We used the colored beads to represent tens and when we needed to, the top row of plain beads to represent ones. A concept that was confusing on paper made a lot more sense when she could see it and touch it. Here we have two tens and four ones.



Linnea helps out and Arielle showed her how to add. An abacus is great for early adding. When seeing 3+2 on paper gets frustrating, I ask "If you have three blue beads and two green beads, how many beads do you have?" Although Linnea is far closer to "Here are three red beads, can you show me three orange beads?"

I'm thinking the abacus will be especially handy for subtraction and when we start adding numbers greater than ten.



A serious Arielle finishing up her homework.



This abacus is unusual in that it is comprised of two sets of beads. Fifty colored beads on one side and fifty natural wood beads on the other. This really allows the abacus to be used at different skill levels. The rows of red, orange, yellow, green and blue beads. are useful for early adding, keeping track of placement and introducing concepts. The natural beads are more challenging. The visual reinforcement really helps children understand and master new mathematical skills.

Arielle turned five last month, so she is just starting math. For now, I help her use the abacus to visualize problems when she gets frustrated. Soon, I'll say "Try it on the abacus." She will learn to do this herself, and she'll develop independence, problem-solving skills and self-confidence.

This abacus, like all Bajo are made in Poland of locally grown wood and are finished with child-safe, non-toxic lacquers. The abacus is large, the folded dimensions are 10.0 x 10.0 x 4.0 inches. And the 3/4 inch beads are also larger and easy to grasp. Oompa also offers an inexpensive twenty piece abacus ($13.99) perfect for younger children and a more traditional looking 100 piece abacus ($37.99).

Right now, they have a small wooden abacus with one row of five whole beads and one row of ten half beads on sale ($15.99). While not as versatile as the large abacus, I bought one because it is a nice size for teaching toddlers counting and colors, but can be used again later to explain halves and how to add them. And, sometimes, Linnea needs to feel included while Arielle works.



Check out Oompa for a full selection of early learning toys. Happy counting!