Piece-ful Farm from Magic Cabin

Pieceful-Farm ($34.98)




This sweet toy from Sevi is a 7 x 7 x 1.5 inch wooden box containing little wooden play figures. These include a little farm mill with water wheel, a barn or hen house, a tree, a duck, a chicken ,a rooster, a tub of water, a laundry line stretched between two poles that insert in the box, laundry that can hang on the line, and a pretty doll with long blond ponytails. And, playing with this can keep my girls busy for hours. Arielle particularly enjoys the farm birds and loves to have the "Princess" take care of them.






The game is suggested for ages three and up, but we've let Linnea play with it while supervised. The biggest problem has been that she wants to dress the doll in the clothes, but they are only meant to be used as laundry on the line. Linnea insists that the tub of water is a TV. She turns it on its side and lines up the farm animals so they can watch it -- so I guess, depending on the child's imagination and interpretation, there are many possibilities for play.



At clean up time, everything fits neatly back in - just like a puzzle with each piece in its specially marked spot.



Little, self-contained sets like these help to promote independent play. They are easy to transport and are perfect for airplane travel, going to grandma's house, restaurants, waiting rooms, etc. They are also a great new sibling gift, as they are a creative way for an older sibling to play quietly while Mom is nursing the new baby. The box makes the toy feel special, and clean-up is easy. I've been keeping ours on the dining room table to keep the girls occupied while I cook.

It could also be combined with blocks for more fun play options.



Also available are an eight piece transportation set (very cool with train, helicopter, construction vehicle, truck, taxi, garage and mechanic) and a bigger, nineteen piece city set ($69.98). The sets are mde of wood and colored with vegetable-based dyes. They are very high quality, but they are made in China. They are manufactured under the direct supervision of Sevi, an Italian company that has been making toys since 1831. Sevi products meet all U.S. and European safety standards.

Doll House Stacker from A Toy Garden

If you don't have a lot of room, or if you aren't sure that you are ready to invest in a big doll house, this Doll House Stacker ($59.95) is a nice option. Stacked together, the house measures 7"x8" and stores compactly on a shelf or toy bin. But when it come apart, it makes a wonderful home for fairies, puppets or small dolls.



The wooden pieces are made in Bosnia-Herzegovina and colored with natural stains. Some of them - chairs, couch, table, beds - are easily identifiable. Other pieces are more abstract and open-ended. With some imagination, they can be used in a variety of ways. Linnea likes to turn pieces upside down and stack them to make a doll playground. Arielle uses the stacker with puppets, animals, small dolls and fairies. It's the perfect size for a travel toy, and a nice way to keep little girls busy in a small space. In warm weather, it can even be used outdoors to entice fairies who prefer a more natural habitat.

Arielle and Linnea had a wonderful time making a home for their very big sister's old dolls.





If you are looking for a stacking toy, then I'd suggest something more like the Dwarves Stacking House ($44.95), Rainbow Arches ($34.95, $79.95), or Four Tower Stacker ($29.95). While a wonderful wooden toy, this is more like a three-dimensional puzzle than a stacker. It poses a challenge even (or especially) for adults. I ended up taping a photograph of the stacker to the storage bin, so the older siblings could help put it away.

The doll house stacker is also available in natural wood. Get $5 off an order over $15 until December 15, with code "STB52008".

Toys in the car

I guess car safety is one of my obsessions. I have completed EMT training, my husband is a volunteer fire fighter/EMT and I've had many close friends who have been first responders of some type. I've seen and heard so much about the injuries that can occur from having loose objects in a car, and I'm very strict. For more about missiles, read this or visit http://www.car-safety.org/ which has tips on everything related to safe driving.

Of course, the flip side to having an empty car is that mom isn't nearly as safe of a driver when kids are bored and whiny. My solution is to allow soft, lightweight toys. A big favorite for my children are cloth books like the that rear-facing Linnea is "reading" in the picture.

Amazon.com has a huge selection as does Borders. A few I really like are the Usborne cloth books like Mouse and Snail ($12.26), which have bright simple illustrations and fun textures, and the Roger Priddy cloth books like Snowy Bear and Friends and Fuzzy Bee and Friends ($8.95), which also have a variety of textures as well as crinkly parts and flaps and bits to pull. Haba-lovers might find it worthwhile to spend $15.99 on a Catherine Caterpillar or Max Mole. These books include a soft finger puppet and are available from Oompa.com. I don't have these books and they received primarily poor reviews on Oompa.

Cloth books are a hit with both Arielle (3) and Linnea (11 months - today!).

Linnea has this airplane which fastens to her strap and has soft rings for chewing. There is also a bear in a car. The airplane has gotten mixed reviews from Linnea. It is very cute and is chewable, but doesn't hold her interest as long as a book or doll.

I know, I know! It has both plastic and is MIC (as are most of the board books), but it is made by a French company with an excellent safety rating and European standards require safer plastics. In the car, I think that potential missiles and unhappy children are greater safety hazards than unpainted toys that are made in China by companies with a good reputations. If anyone has other options that are not MIC, let me know!

Arielle loves dolls. Our Nicki dolls ($19.99) more or less live in our car seats. These are made in Germany out of all natural materials. We've had Nicki dolls around since Arielle was a baby, and these 8 inch, light-weight dolls are great companions in car seats, diaper bags, restaurants, and at home. Arielle still enjoys "Baby" after three years. I love the Kathe Kruse Poupe Rose ($16.99, also available in a boyish blue/green) for babies who still drop things.

A no cost option is to bring the smaller of the numerous stuffed animals that magically accumulate around a child out to the car and store them in a cloth bag. Make sure they are machine washable (as are all my suggestions, as they will fall into puddles and get stepped on/spilled on).

And, of course there are Arielle's ever present finger puppets, but that is another post.