Today for 7 Quick Takes, hosted by Jen Fulwiler at Conversion Diary, I’m sharing what we’ve learned from years of research in the field of toy-buying. If you want to do your own seven quick takes, add your link to the list at Jen’s website, and don’t forget to link back to Jen on your blog.
7 Quick Takes: Toy With Me edition
From the beginning of April to the middle of July, five of our eight kids have birthdays. I think we spend more money on spring and summer birthdays than we do on groceries for the whole year. Any rational person with eight children would try and scale down birthday expectations, right? And I know many of you will say, “Oh, we’re trying our best to raise our little Wyatt in a non-materialistic way, so for his birthday, we just put a soy candle in his organic kefir, and let him use the pillow that night. If he remembers to say ‘thank you’ for the kefir.”
I don’t know what to say. For some reason, it’s turned out that we’re trying to raise materialistic kids who expect to be treated like supreme galactic emperors on their birthdays (or, if their birthday falls on a day which is not convenient for a party, they expect that treatment on their actual birthday and on their party day).
Besides the cake, the candy, the party favors, the balloons and streamers, the games, the snacks, the craft, and the birthday throne, there are, of course, the presents. So I thought I would share with you seven presents that we really like (and which the kids seem to like, too!). Because I’m lazy, most of the links are to Amazon, but you can often find a better price if you hunt around a bit.
1. The glitter ball. It’s a bouncy ball filled with water and glitter. Everyone loves it. It’s beautiful, it’s low-tech and non-batterified, it’s satisfyingly heavy, and it bounces well. Use it as a prop in a play (the Princess and the Frog), use it as a way to soothe and mesmerize an overheated toddler, or just use it as, you know, a ball. It comes in different sizes, but I recommend the jumbo one. For all ages. About $11
2. Tribot. This one is the opposite of the glitter ball: it’s expensive and complicated and slightly obnoxious — but it’s also cute and appealing, and was pronounced the Christmas present that induced the most sibling jealousy, 2009. It’s a red, remote-controlled, interactive robot that has motion sensors, so it skirts around obstacles on the floor; and if it falls over, it yells, “Master! Master! Suddenly my floor has turned into a WALL!” It also has a funny alarm system, it lights up, it wiggles its eyebrows, it makes jokes — I don’t know, it’s just an appealing toy. Absolutely perfect for a seven-year-old boy, but the rest of the family likes it, too. Oh, and it has a fascinating wheels-within-wheels system of transport, so it is extremely maneuverable. About $40
3. Skwish. So many baby toys are exciting and attractive, but they are hard for the baby to grasp, or they roll or tumble away too easily. This one is super-easy to grasp, and it doesn’t get very far if the baby drops it. Just a nice, bright, pleasant toy with lots of possibilities. About $12
4. B. Toys FunKeys. Babies love car keys, but I guess they have lead or something in them? So you give them toy keys, instead, but babies can tell they’re just plastic. Plastic keys clatter, rather than jingle, and aren’t heavy and cold like real keys. So these particular toys keys are actually made of steel, without being sharp or dangerous, and our baby is crazy about them. They come attached to a holder with buttons for making car-related noises (mercifully muted in volume), plus a little light. They come in a slightly irritating “behold what a fabulously unique company we are” package, but that’s not so bad. About $10
5. Krazy Kar. We haven’t actually bought one of these for our kids — it’s $75! I had one when I was little, though, and I think I spent three entire summers inside this thing. You crank the wheels with hand pegs, and make it go wherever you want, including in circles (the wheels move independently, like oars on a rowboat). It’s hard to describe why it was so much fun — much more fun than a pedal car or a Big Wheel. I just remember feeling secret and powerful as I sat in the little seat between those two big, yellow wheels, and smelling that smell of plastic that’s been sitting in the sun, and feeling the static electricity crackle in my hair. It made a wonderful rumbling noise as it barreled across the grass.
6. Snorta! A non-board game with funny little animal figurines. Okay, so we lost the pieces and can’t play anymore, but it was fun while it lasted. You turn over cards, and have to rush to be the first one to make the animal noise of the other person’s animal. It’s a reasonably simple, entertaining game that isn’t too excruciating for adults (and it’s fairly easy to let younger kids be your “partner,” if they’re too little to hold their own, or if they’re the type who have slow reflexes and burst into tears when everyone else is faster. If.) About $18
7. Care Bears Magical Care-a-Lot Castle. This well-crafted, educational little wonderland
Ha ha, just kidding! Only one of our kids really got interested in the Care Bears, and I think the Halloween costume I made, at her insistence,
cured her of that infatuation. The rest of our kids had no trouble discerning that the whole Care Bear franchise is one of the most stunningly crappy aspects of modern day America, and should be taken out and shot.
And now I have to go and plan one more birthday, and then we will be off the hook until the end of September! My daughter, who will be turning three, has requested a “wonky tonky.” We think this means “walkie-talkie,” but we are not sure–she might actually want a wonky tonky. I hope I can find one on sale.
See you on Monday!
