Best Toys for Toddlers - Aquadoodle Travel N'Doodle

You have probably seen (if you already don't have it at home) Aquadoodle mats. Simple idea behind this toy is really awesome - these mats provide fun in a clean and no-messy way, and in same time, they are wonderful learning tools for toddlers and preschoolers. Since Aquadoodle mats don't have any unsecured parts and they are "operated" solely on water base, this makes them safe for even small kids from 18 months and up. Although producer's recommendation says 3+, I would still encourage parents to give this to even smaller kids because, unlike other art supplies, they are purely water based and don't contain any damaging colors.

For this post we have picked Aquadoodle Travel N' Doodle portable mat. Reason is pretty simple - we have it at home and we LOVE it!

Few basic information:

Aquadoodle Travel N'Doodle comes with folded, portable, easy-to-carry for little hands mat. It includes one mat and one water pen you can attach inside the mat. It has no-stick surface from the outside, easy to clean and appropriate for any surface. And, most importantly for many parents - no batteries! So, this toy provides easy, clean and silent time fun! :)

What we love about this toy and how we play with it:

1. Perfect travel toy. Since it's perfectly sized for little ones, it's a wonderful toy to carry if you're going some place that includes longer waiting, like doctor's office. Also, it's size makes it perfect for travelling and it will occupy toddlers and preschoolers for some time. Specially if you ask them to draw things they see through the window! ;)

2. No stains! As we all know, every once in a while, toddlers will be tempted to draw on the walls, floors or any other surface they see! Cleaning color stains can be a real pain! Yeah, been there, done that! :) With this toy, there is no fuss and no fear of stains. Based purely on water, trails it leave on your wall will vanish as it dries out. Great thing for any parent! :)

3. Reusable. Aquadoodle is created from fabric and you write with water. As time passes, pictures fade and you've got clean canvass to write & draw all over again. Being reusable over and over is another great feature of this toy.

4. Silent time. This toy is great pick for silent time activities. Not operated by batteries, it can be carried and used when ever you know you'll need to occupy your toddlers without them making noise.

5. Free play. And yes, my 3 year old loves drawing and writing on her Aquadoodle mat. Mostly she starts with free play, drawing what ever comes to her mind or writing letters she knows. As time passes, she often asks to write for her a word and she would trace it as original word vanishes. For now we're doing mostly simple words like mom, dad and her own name.

6. Educational tool. As mentioned above, Aquadoodle mats are perfect for teaching toddlers to draw shapes or more complex images as well as writing letters and numbers. You can use it on daily basis and have your child trace letters after you. It's important that you show them how to write letters by example (on most letters rules for writing lines are: from top to bottom and from left to right) so they learn writing their letters properly from the beginning. Preschool teachers will appreciate this ;)

7. Easy cleaning. It's made of easy to clean waterproof fabric from outside so you can simply wipe it off. 

You can see and purchase this and other Aquadoodle mats on Amazon:

And great news of one lucky toddler and parent! 

We'll be giving away one of Aquadoodle Travel N'Doodle portable mats! 

Giveaway will start this Sunday so make sure to come back and enter! 

Your tot will love this toy! 

Toddlers favorite toys - Candy Land with a twist!

One of the purposes of the Best Toys for Toddlers Club is to create reviews with a little twist. What this really means? It means that we're trying to share some new light on some old toys. You probably know what we're talking about here already. We want to make sure that each of the toys we have in our home gets full use. And in more than one way (the way toy creators intended it to be!). There are couple reasons for this way of thinking: first, most kids get bored with their toys really fast and it's in our hands to make it interesting for them once again. Second, most of us really don't have as much money as we would love to have and can't buy new toys so often as we would like. This is why we can do that twist and think of the alternative ways to use the toys we already have in our homes.

Now, the toy we're talking about here today is one of the classic board games, and most of you probably have it in your homes. It's a Candy Land board game by Hasbro.

It's a great game: simple and easy for toddlers and preschoolers and really, really great choice for 1st board game. But as every other game, it can become a little boring, a little too ordinary after a while. So, here is an article with 5 additional ways to use Candy Land board pieces to make things interesting again (including simple exercise like matching game, I spy, sorting, concentration game and more advanced letter recognition game). For full details how to play each of these variations check Candy Land Board Game for Toddlers.

Please, take a look and share your own ideas either here or in the comment box at the bottom of the article! Even better, if you have another idea, and you blog about it, leave us a link and we'll link back to your post!

Have fun!

Nursery Rhymes Inspired Activities for Toddlers

We all know babies, toddlers and children of older age love nursery rhymes! No wonder! They are easy to remember, repetitive and fun!

Some of the parents who actively participate in the Best Toys for Toddlers Club by creating reviews and other interesting articles about toddlers, published couple articles inspired by nursery rhymes. In these articles, you can find many printables, ideas and links to make it fun with your toddlers as well!

Today's featured articles:

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

The wheels on the bus

Have fun! :)

New Reviews in the Best Toys for Toddler Club

Last week we had couple parents and grandparents sharing their and their toddlers favorite toys by creating a review in the Best Toys for Toddlers Club. Let me show what our kids and parents love!

Norma shares about learning values for little one with Veggietales!

Little people fun and learning for little one brought by Elle Dee.

Mix and match fun with Pop on Pals - newest and really easy toy for little hands!

You can read full reviews and get additional ideas how to play with these toys by clicking on the link under each of the pictures! 

We love to play! :)

My Little Pony Water WOW! Doodle Book - Prize we love!

Last year, in November, I've decided to enter a giveaway hosted by Ellen from Confessions of an Overworked Mom. It was about winning a really cool prize sponsored by Kidtoons and it included:
- My Little Pony Water WOW! Doodle Book
- Strawberry Shortcake Hasbro Mini Doll with DVD
- Sesame Subjects: My First Book About the Five Senses
- Care Bears: Helping Hearts
- bunch of temporary Kidtoons tattoos

THANK YOU ELLEN AND KIDTOONS! :)))

Although my girl simply loves that little Strawberry Shortcake doll and movie that came with the doll, I would like to talk about My Little Pony Water WOW! Doodle Book. It's similar to Aquadoodle but it's not an Aquadoodle! It works on similar principle - you pour water inside a pen and use it to "draw" a picture. Difference is: in this Doodle Book, there is already a picture beneath and it looks kind of pale (you can barely see it). When you "draw" with water over it, colors become vivid and your child can see a picture in full color!

Now, what I like about this book? I like the fact that it occupied my 3 year old for full 2 hours while we were waiting at doctors office! (I have a thing: I give her new toys and books when we go to see a doctor because it never happened that we had to wait for less than 2 hours!)

And she uses it now on daily basis - she asks for it, sits down and draw for at least half an hour each day. :)

Now, few more things about this Doodle book. First, it's made of cardboard. Meaning, you can't simply pour water over it and let it flow down the pages. BUT, you can use this to your advance! When you give your child a book, give him / her a paper handkerchief. Explain extra water will ruin a book and she needs to make sure water is not leaking down the pages. Kind of like wiping a nose! We don't want it running all over our faces! ;)

Second, on top page you have number of "Do you see...?" / "Can you find...?" questions. Now, of course you can't expect your toddler to read and answer the questions. So, you'll have to do the reading for them. Let them hunt the answer by coloring. :)

Third, you can use this book for counting and color recognition. It will be fun for toddlers to color over an image to find out the real color of the object you questioned about!

Fourth, you can use this Doodle book for, kind of, "I spy challenge!". You can take turns with your toddler by challenging each other to find and color spied objects.

There are other Doodle Books available by same publisher so you can make a pick according to your child's preferences:

New Reviews in the Best Toys for Toddler Club

We love the reviews parents and grandparents create using our Club's pages! One of the reason why is that they really used these toys, they can share about good and bad sides of the each toys but most importantly: they give us ideas how to play with them beyond description on the box!

This week we would like to share with you following reviews:

Photo Stacking Blocks by Maureen from Spell Out Loud - she shares numerous ideas how to turn this unexpensive toy to educational tool!

Great introduction to music with Melissa and Doug Deluxe Band set

And, imagination and artistic ideas using Melissa and Doug's Wooden Stamp and Ink Sets by grandma Wanda from Charm Chatter

Uno Game for Toddlers and Preschoolers? How?

We have moved this content to our new site and you can check for ideas about using Uno game with todders and preschoolers at 5 Learning Ideas with Uno Cards Adopted for Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Fun alert - Swing away!

I have never met a toddler, either a girl or a boy, who doesn't like to play on a swing! I surely know that, when my girl sees a swing, we are going to spend at least half an hour or more swinging!

There are all sort of swings awailable these days - some are specially designed for babies with safety bars or a seat, to those made from rubber or piece of wooden board.

Today, I would like to invite you to check a review of a bit different swing: Little Tikes Disc Swing (and this one can be fun for toddlers and preschoolers without you as parent standing and swinging for hours!)

Have you used this swing? What do you think of it?

And, how much time you spend swinging each week? :)

Fun alert - Getting dirty is Fun!

We all know our toddlers LOVE to get dirty! I can probably remember more days this summer she was completely covered in sand, or dirt or combination, than the ones when she was all clean and I didn't need to change her clothes few times a day.

But, that's another way toddlers learn! They si

mply love to play in the mud, or sand.

For this reason, I think this review of the tools for creating mud pies might come handy before summer ends.

Check it out and don't get mad at kids for getting dirty!

We loved it as kids too! :)

Fun alert - For little garden helpers!

Toddlers learn imitating adults. During spring and summer months, most of us with gardens have to mowl our lawns. Naturally, toddlers are around us, doing their best to "help". :) Sometimes, that can be really annoying.

To keep them busy, you might consider buying something like this wooden push mower:

Of course, you can also pick some of battery loaded toys, but before you make a decision, read this full review of Woden Push Mower Toy.

Fun alert - THE Truck!

There are some toys that seam to never bored our kids. Those toys usually have so many uses and bring hours of fun to them.

Tonka Toughest Mighty Truck by Hasbro is one of such toys. Either used inside or outside, your little toddler will enjoy pushing it around, putting stuff inside and so much more.

For all the play ideas and full review, visit Tonka Toughest Mighty Dump Truck Review

Fun alert - Turn your toddlers in little explorers!

toysIn many cases, your toddlers really don't need much to have fun. And toys really don't have to cost hundreds of dollars to bring joy of playing and learning to the little ones.

Simple binoculars in hands of your toddlers can be used as great tools to learn about nature through observation and experimentation. They can be used to develop toddler's imagination if used as a part of stories about pirates, treasure hunts, going on safari or any other great adventure!

You can check out complete review by a parent who already purchased this toy for her little boy, along with ideas for playtime and some general safety warnings here: Backyard Safari Binoculars for Kids This Summer

If you're a parent and would like to share some of your own experiences with toys your toddlers love to play with, you can use our Club and make a toy review!