• Toy Fair 2012 Archive

    After an unseasonably mild day in the middle of February, my thoughts naturally turn to summer vacation. Each year, our family takes a week-long getaway by trading in the daily Long Island rat-race for a leisurely paced sojourn somewhere in New England. Last summer it was Gloucester, Mass. and the year before that, coastal Rhode Island (we tend to favor towns by the sea, if you hadn’t already guessed). As I peruse the myriad of family-friendly destinations up north, I find myself drawn to Martha’s Vineyard again and again. I love the idea of a place where my day is dictated by what beach I’ll swim in and what flavor of homemade ice cream I’ll be sampling later on. Thoughts of a great escape couldn’t [&hellip

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    Helping kids develop an ear for music is one of the great joys of parenting. Ever since my girls could utter their first words, we’ve been introducing them to the different sounds and singers whose music delights our listening ears. My 7-year-old knew her Billy Joel from her Frank Sinatra even as a preschooler, while my 3-year-old is just beginning to identify a saxophone vs. a trumpet. We’re not surprised then that Symphony in B., a new musical toy that we saw at Toy Fair last week, has taken center stage. Following a shape sorter concept, mini maestros can place any combination of up to six miniature musical instruments (from a total of 13) in their corresponding slots, select the type of music they’d like [&hellip

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    Blame it on the leftover Valentine’s Day candy lurking around our house, but we couldn’t help but notice the colorful confectioneries staring us down at Toy Fair this week. Everywhere we turned, there were sugary snack-inspired playthings that made our mouths water and our smiles widen. While we expected to see sweet treats in the crafts and pretend food categories, we never thought candy would make its ways into building toys. But what a sight for sore eyes it was! Like a kid in a candy store, we couldn’t get enough of Candy Construction, a 92-piece building set for ages 4-8. Plastic pieces in the likeness of chocolate bars, starlight mints, peppermint sticks and other classic dime-store candies make for vibrant houses, buildings and more. [&hellip

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    The lucky mom that I am, I am treated to a musical serenade by my 3-year-old every afternoon. She pounds…er, plays on her kitty keyboard like there’s no tomorrow. It’s quite possible you have seen the offending musical instrument that I’m talking about: an orange-hued Cheshire cat that grins from ear to ear with a row of piano key teeth. My preschooler can’t get enough of this thing, and our ears (and forever-hiding family cat) are proof of her “music-making.” As much as I jest and sometimes cringe each time I hear her striking up the band, I secretly delight in her unabashed merriment in playing and singing along off-key. Her 7-year-old sister also partaking in the joy? Not so much… Maybe it’s because she [&hellip

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    These days, we’re hard-pressed to find a family with kids under the age of 5 who don’t own some toy made by Melissa & Doug. Be it a wooden puzzle, a pretend pizza-making kit or a craft set, many of the mom friends we know with young kids are familiar with the brand name and are more than impressed with the quality of their selection. One of our favorite lines under the Melissa & Doug umbrella is the backyard-focused Sunny Patch, a fresh-faced collection of gardening toys, sand/beach gear and rainy-day accessories. Now, we can really get the outdoor party started with the latest extension to the Sunny Patch line: Pool Party, featuring nearly 30 different toys and activities to keep kids entertained while in [&hellip

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