As the gift-giving season approaches, I thought I’d list a couple of my favorite sites for browsing for gifts, (apart from the various Amazon country sites, of course).

The MoMA Store — This is the shop for the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.  As you can imagine, the focus here is on design.  There are beautiful items for all ages and price ranges, and most items are available for international shipment.  Also, all purchases from the shop go to support the exhibitions at the museum.

Red Envelope — Self-described as the place for unique and personalized gifts.  There aren’t a lot of kids presents, but there are quite a few items that would be great as shower gifts for new or soon-to-be parents.  Shipping is only within the US.

Oompa — Great shop for eco-friendly, wooden and European toys located in the US.

Oliebollen — Cute designer kids clothes and hip toys, a lot of European stuff, also located and ships only within the US.

I thought I’d mention a couple German sites as well.  German sites are much less likely to have gift guides, so you gotta do more browsing on them.

Habitat.de — this is a home store that specializes in cool design.  The kitchen and living room accessories areas are a good place to find gifts for grown-ups.  There is a nice kids section with toys too.  The site is in German and ships only within Germany.

Takotomo.de — A somewhat cluttered site full of novelty items for kids and adults.  There’s a lot of funky stuff on here though, and I’ve ordered successfully several times.  The site is in English and German, and ships worldwide.

Jako-o.com — A great kid’s shop with cute clothes and clever toys picked by parents.  This site is available in a couple languages and ships all over the EU.

What are your favorite go-to sites for gifts?

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As Christmas approaches, I know we’re all wondering what to get for the little ones in our lives.  For some ideas, here are the German BVS, Bundesverband des Spielwaren-Einzelhandels (Federal Association of Toy Retailers) top ten toys of 2009.  They’re not all available outside of Germany, but most are.  Have fun!

1. 36 Cube by Thinkfun — a puzzle for ages 8 and up that challenges you to concentrate, think strategically and logically, be patient, problem solve, use your visual perception and fine motor skills.
2. Burg der 1000 Spiegel (Castle of 1000 Mirrors) from Kosmos — For ages 6 and up.  Help the little vampire Viktor recover all of his missing items, he’s missplaced them somewhere in his huge castle.  This game was also awarded the 2009 Deutscher Kinderspiele Preis, German Children’s Game of the Year.
3. Disney Fairies Pixie Glitter — A tie in with the new Tinkerbell movie.  Fairies for ages 3 and up.
4. FurReal Friends Lulu the Cuddly Kitty — Just like a real kitty, but without the feeding, allergies and litter box.  For ages 4 and up.
5. Playmobil Furnished School Building — With class room, science room, art room, music room and office, and plenty of accessories.  For ages 4 and up.
6. Mattel Password Journal — Helps your child keep their journal entries private with voice recognition, password protection and an intruder alert. For ages 6 and up.
7. Hasbro Monopoly City — Monopoly gets a makeover.  Instead of deeds, you get zoning permits to develop the landscape into a city. For ages 8 and up.
8. Lego Power Miners Thunder Driller — Power Miners are the top lego-theme of 2009.  Ages 8–14.
9. Wowwee’s Roborover - a cute and easy to use remote control robot buddy for ages 6 and up.
10. Schleich World of Elves — Extremely detailed figures to help your child recreate their favorite elven fairy tales. Ages 3 and up.

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On a recent trip to Minnesota, my step-mom bought The Boy a new toy to pass some time. Magic Nuudles look like styrofoam, but they are made of cornstarch. You simply wet the “nuudle” with a damp cloth, and they stick together and to other objects.  Once you are done playing with the nuddles, simply dissolve them in water and wash them down the sink!

The box said they were for ages 3+, but my two year old played with them without any problems. We kept an eye on him to make sure he did not try to eat them.  We had a great time on a cold day creating fun designs. I will be keeping some around for rainy days!

The box at my parents was purchased for $4.99 at Hobby Lobby, but you can also purchase them online.

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While surfing the net for kid’s toys, I keep coming across monsters!  They are seriously cute, although I’m not sure who loves them more, the parents or the kids.  Here are some of my favorite monsters I’ve come across:

Mr Moustachio costs €40 and is available at La Maison de Lola

Terry and Tina, Bunny Blue and Albert, £34, £35 and £47 respectively, from Thorsten van Elten.  They also offer a Make Your Own Monster Kit for £12, no sewing skills required.

The Freche RevoluzZza Monster: Monster Ribu Mollo is €34 from Revoluzzza’s DaWanda shop (DaWanda is the German equivalent of Etsy).  Revoluzzza also offers a pattern and detailed tutorial on how to sew your own Revoluzzza monster for free.

Who knew? The Opel car company sells monsters too.  The C’MON Red costs just under €20, and even has a matching little bro for your keychain.

Mr Happy costs $25 at CurlyQ Cuties.  You can also design your own monster with them, choosing from various colors, designs and body part shapes, for $25.

Uglydolls are available for $20 each from Uglydoll Shop

Egbert the Noisy Not-So-Scary Monster costs under £15 at The Monster Factory or $30 at F.A.O. Schwarz

And for creative types with deep pockets, F.A.O. Schwarz also offers a Make Your Own Monster kit for $249.  They send you the kit, your child (or you) makes a drawing, and the designers at North American Bear Co. will create a one of a kind stuffed monster for you.

Do you have a favorite stuffed monster for scaring up fun with?

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Green Toys is a San Francisco company that produces Made in the USA (California to be exact) toys. The company uses recycled plastic from milk jugs for their products. Green Toys’ website also states:

Our products pass a plethora of tests, including:

• Consumer Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)
• Consumer Products Safety Standard Specification, ASTM F963
• California Prop. 65 restrictions on lead & cadmium
• FDA regulations for food contact
• Voluntary testing for no BPA (Bisphenol-A)
• International standards EN71 and ISO 8124

When Green Toys first came out, I was curious and skeptical. However, my mom was looking for a gift for The Boy, and I asked her to buy the Green Toys Cookware and Dining Set. The set comes with a stock pot and lid, skillet, 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 cups, and 4 “silverware” place settings of a knife, fork and spoon.  The package says for ages three and up, but we have been using it (supervised) since around 18 months.

At first, I thought the pastel colors would be a turn-off, but The Boy loves to pretend to cook, eat and serve me drinks. He serves up his Haba toy food like a master chef!

Green Toys has its 2009 products available to check out online, and I am especially impressed with the tool set and will be looking for it in a nearby store soon!

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I’ve always loved toy shopping, even before I had a child. Choosing gifts for nieces and nephews and thinking about what I would have loved (or what I DID love) at their ages gave me a thrill. And I know wasn’t the only adult wishing I could spend an afternoon playing with that Barbie Corvette (well, now it’s probably a Barbie SmartCar) before sending it on its way to the lucky recipient. I know adults who drool over huge LEGO kits. Others covet their kids’ miniature musical instruments, hoping for an excuse to play that mini ukulele. We all have our secret childish longings.

For me, it’s fake fruit.

German toys are widely recognized as some of the most beautiful in the world, and I spent three years living in the toy capital of Deutschland, host to the world’s largest toy fair and an extensive toy museum. HABA, maker of high-quality games and wooden and fabric toys, was my obsession long before I even contemplated having a child. Its beautifully designed playthings appealed to my retro tastes – no licensed characters, simple aesthetics, sturdy construction – and I found that they were some of the few products that were actually less expensive to purchase in Germany than in the USA.

I often found myself straying from my usual shampoo-shopping in Mueller (a German chain that’s about as close to Target as it gets in Deutschland) over toward the toy area. And once I learned I was pregnant, I finally felt like I could indulge my childhood yen. I’d seen the bins of brightly-painted pears and string beans before; now I had an excuse to actually put some in my shopping basket. Each lovely bunch of grapes, each shiny apple cost just a euro or two. So every time I strolled through the store on a mission to find ballpoint pens or razors or, eventually, diapers, I found a bit of delight in picking up another piece of HABA toy food. I brought it home and stashed it all away, impatiently waiting for my son to arrive and then for him to be old enough for me…erm, I mean HIM to play with it.

You can imagine my excitement, then, when my son recently reached his second birthday and I realized he could understand and safely play* with these toys I’d been buying for him since before anyone but his father and I even knew he existed. I presented them to him, knowing that chances were good that he would take one look and turn his back on my favorite morsels in favor of his beloved cars. But, thanks to his healthy appetite, he fully embraced my favorite playthings, baking me a “cake” of carrots, sausage, and a green-leafed bunch of purple grapes.

HABA makes a huge array of wonderful children’s products, but their culinary delights were the first to capture my heart. Their toys conform to high safety and environmental standards. Now that I’ve left Germany, I miss being able to just pick up a sturdy strawberry or breakable egg on my regular shopping excursions. But the good news is that HABA food is widely available individually and in sets all over the world and all over the web.

Bon Appetit!

*As with all toys, especially playthings that look like they could be tasty, pay careful attention to size and durability before judging whether they are safe to give a small child.

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I loved Eco-dough, so trying Eco-kids eco-fingerpaint ($20 per tube) seemed like a natural progression.  Eco-fingerpaint is made of all natural ingredients.  The powder arrives in a tube like eco-dough and contains additional small dishes to mix the paint in.  The tube and tubs are compostable. Unfortunately, the lids fell off during shipping, so some powder spilled and created a big mess when I opened the tube.

What I Did Like

Compared to fingerpaints by other manufacturers, my son was far more creative with eco-fingerpaint and LOVED playing with the paints. Additionally, he loves to help mix the paint and enjoys using the paints as food he is cooking. He tells me he is making soup, and good soup at that. He uses a spoon to stir the paint in its little tub, dumps the tub out at just the right time, and mixes and matches colors at his own pace and desire. He was incredibly creative and in hindsight, I feel guilty for reacting the way I did to the paint as I tried to mix it properly and move it to different containers for storage.

What I Did Not Like

When I first tried eco-fingerpaint, I wondered if I was doing something wrong. The powder is hard to measure exactly, so achieving the proper consistency takes practice.  However, once I got the mixing right, my son LOVED the paints, so it’s a trade-off, and his enjoyment continues to win out.

Once on paper, the paint dries dull and cracks, so if you are looking for a masterpiece for your wall, this paint might not be for you.

The Big Picture

If you want fingerpaint like the fingerpaints you probably grew up with, don’t order this product. If you want something more natural, give eco-fingerpaint a try.  I was surprised by my son’s reaction, and it was a reminder to me that my preconceived notions of play are a limiting factor not an enabler.

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It is no secret that I am waiting with baited breath for Boon Inc.‘s scrubbles to hit the market. So much so that I stopped in to Babies R’Us last night to see if they were on the shelves. I did not see the scrubbles, but I did see some of the other products that were in the “coming soon” category the last time I looked, including Splat!

Splat is a ring toss game ($7.99) marked for ages 9+ months. It is also bpa, phthalate and PVC free. The rings are completely sealed so water cannot accumulate in the rings, and the blue floating catcher piece is also sealed. The blue piece does have a hole where the “finger” rises up, but it drains easily and completely.

I purchased Splat a little hesitantly due to the age on the package (my son is two), but when he saw it, he immediately wanted to take a bath and play with the toy. He enjoyed tossing the rings, invented a spider (the blue piece), and used his feet to gather the rings. He loved it so much, he refused to leave the bath for two hours!

Overall, I like Splat because it is fully sealed, fun in design and function, and free of pvc, phthalates and bpa. I think this would be a great toy to add to the bathtime toy collection!

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While looking for cute, high-quality, melamine dishes to use as toddler tableware, I ran across a company in Denmark not only making fabulous cups, plates, bowls and more, but that also has a conscience, Rice. Their products are designed in Denmark, then manufactured in third world countries by employees who are treated fairly and are not discriminated against for any reason.  For this, Rice has earned the SA8000 certification from Social Accountability International.

Now, you’re probably wondering, why melamine dishes?  Recently, Oliver has taken to throwing his dishes on the floor.  Since replacing our Ikea dishes everytime one is broken is not something we want to do often, I started talking to friends.  Everyone has the plastic Ikea children’s dishes, and pretty much everyone complained about how they got scratched up and worn looking over time.  I did a little research and found that melamine dishes are unbreakable, scratch-resistant, dishwasher-safe, and as far as unbreakable dishware goes, are probably slightly safer chemical-leaching-wise. They just aren’t microwave-safe, but I generally try not to microwave anything in plastic containers anyways.

In addition to the melamine tableware though, Rice has a lot of other really cute products:

Square Natural Raffia Basket

Square Pink Miss T Pillow Cover
Soft Toy Horses

In addition to stuffed animals, adult and children’s tableware, baskets, floor coverings, pillows, aprons, and kitchenware, Rice also gives back:

Rice and The Danish Refugee Council are working together raising money to African refugee families.

This year it is a so called ONE to ONE project — meaning that when you buy 4 special designed Rice melamine cups you give a refugee family in Africa exactly a large 20L. jerry can and a wash kit.

You can search for retailers in your country on Rice’s website.  I wasn’t able to find any shop in the US that carries Rice products, but I did find a site in Germany, Takatomo.de, that is in English and German, and offers worldwide shipping.

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Eco-dough ($20 per tube) is a natural alternative to play-dough for parents who do not have the time or desire to make their own craft dough. Eco-dough is made with plant, fruit and vegetable extracts and without artificial coloring, metals or chemicals. Eco-kids also produces an eco-dough that is gluten, dairy and soy free for kids with allergies.

When the Eco-dough arrived, I was impressed that the package was stuffed with old newspaper instead of bubble wrap or foam pieces, so I can recycle or compost it all! The tube and tubs are also compostable.

What I Did Not Like

The tubs that hold the dough do not close easily or tightly and falls off often, which makes re-stacking the dough in the tube a challenge. That’s the only thing I did not like.

What I Did Like

Besides the packaging that I mentioned above, the dough is easy to mold and play with for my two year old.  In the past, we have tried “other” store bought play-doughs, but my son has struggled to roll it in to balls and grew tired of it easily. Eco-dough was much easier for him, and he plays with it for longer stretches of time without needing assistance. We used cookie cutters on the dough, which was also a hit! I also purchased their bamboo roller ($4), which made rolling the dough fun for both of us.

The dough was not crumbly, did not dry out even after we inadvertently left the lid off, and comes with instructions on how to re-moisturize it if it does appear to be drying some (add olive oil).

Overall, I love eco-dough and will be ordering it for gifts and when my son needs more dough.

Eco-dough is available in the U.S. and will ship outside the continental U.S.A.

Coming soon… a review of Eco-paint!

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