Dora the Explorer backpack turned toddler's workbag {busy bag}

Ah, which little 2 or 3 year old doesn't want to be just like Dora the Explorer? Well, I haven't met many! And my 3 year old girl certainly doesn't fit in that category!

She was thrilled to receive Dora the Explorer backpack for a gift! She carries it around where ever she goes and always put some of her stuff in and take it out!

This is wonderful gift but also very convenient bag for little ones. And mommy loves it too!

What i like about this backpack is that it’s not too big for toddlers, it’s soft (made of plush) and it holds well. And, it can be washed like any other plush toy – on low temperature.

What my little girl loves about this backpack is: It’s Dora’s backpack! Well, that first! Than, after that, she loves that it has attached map and a little maze is painted on it (you can see it on the picture). She turned it into her own little magical backpack and puts her treasures inside. It’s like a little magic box, only not a box but a bag! :)

My 3 year old girl really loves her backpack. She brings it where ever she goes. Always changing what she’ll bring along but there are couple items that she always carry around like her mini baby doll and few mini cats. :)

Creating a Learning Opportunity with Dora the Explorer's Backpack! 

Turning Dora's backpack to toddler's workbox! Well, ok! Workbag!

And here is what we’ve got in our workbag:

- books: Dora’s Sweet Adventure: A Scratch & Sniff Board Book, Baby Animals!  and Dora’s Lunch Box
- memory cards
- counting cards 1-10 with Dora the Explorer counters
- Dora the Explorer write and wipe activity book
- Dora’s dominos (printed and laminated)
- 2 puzzles (printed and laminated)

Have one of these at home? Does your little one likes it? What goes inside? What kinds of treasures?

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Best Summer Toys for Toddlers - 5 Backyard Summer Essentials

Toddlers love to play in water and summer is just the right time of the year to let them enjoy sensation of water play fully. From sprinkling to pouring and spilling, water is wonderful medium for little ones to learn about nature and things like what floats and which items will sink, pouring water from one container to another is great for motor skill practicing but also plain fun!

If you have a backyard, there are couple basic items to have around to make summer a blast for toddlers:

1. Sun & Shade Pool - although it's fun playing with water, it's a good thing to consider getting a pool that has sun shade attached to prevent kids from getting sun burns. This still doesn't mean that kids shouldn't stay away from the sun at the noon time when temperatures are at highest point, or that they don't need sun cream! :)

2.Water Play Table filled with plain water or adding bubbles inside, either way toddlers will spend hours playing with it. You can turn it into practical life lesson by adding some sponges and letting them wash dishes, or washing their dolls, or even washing doll cloths. Keep it in the shades to keep kids safe.

3.Sandbox is wonderful to have around. Sand is great natural sensory tool with it's texture and it's ability to change it's shape and structure when you add some water to it. There are many available versions of sandbox around but which ever you choose, it would be good to pick a one with a lid so you don't have to replace sand too often.

4. Sprinklers are another fun thing to have around the backyard! They are great as a fast way to cool toddlers down in a fun way. They will make kids burn some access energy by running around screaming... yeah, screaming comes with a toy ;) They come in different shapes and sizes and you can pick the one that fits you the most from:



5. Bubbles! Ah, there is no need to go into any additional explanation about this one! My girl is crazy about bubbles and surely your kids are too! Either it's her who makes them or we do, she loves to chase them around! :) Now, there are bubbles... and there are monster bubbles! :

These are only few basic summer toys to have around your toddlers in approaching summer days!

Hope you'll have loads of sun, water and sand fun! 

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Best Toys for Toddlers - Few Dora the Explorer Books

Not sure about your toddlers, but my girl is really hooked on Dora the Explorer cartoon. She loves to watch it, and interacts with Dora and Boots like they are real and not cartoon characters. Guess that's normal at this age. :) Still, I prefer her TV watching time to be Dora then some of the more violent cartoons (and there is too many of those these days!). With Dora she learns her colors, shapes, counts and what's even more important, she learns about value of friendship. So, I let her watch Dora.

Her love for this cartoon caused to collect some of the items attached to these characters so we ended up with couple of Dora books, backpack, few plush dolls, etc.

For every little Dora fan, there is a big collection of items on Amazon.com and we ended up with 3 pretty different books (all received as gifts!):

Dora's Lunch Box

This book is really in the form of the lunch box! :) It has a little handle on the top and it closes using velcro. Inside, along with a story, there are simple shapes of the food to for tots to remove and put back. Nice little practice for motor skills.

Dora's Sweet Adventure: A Scratch & Sniff Board Book

My girl didn't see this kind of books before we got this one so she was pretty intrigued with the fact that there are places on each of the pages where she could scratch with her finger and smell the object story mentioned on that page. This is, after year and a half, still one of her favorite books. Story is simple and in fashion of all Dora adventures, her and Boots need to go through few stops / challenges to reach Issa's garden party. Short and sweet.

3rd book we have in our home library is Baby Animals!

Another simple book that helps toddler count from one - five. It has a wheel on the bottom right side so my girl usually looks for the right animals after counting how many are on the page.

After a while, I've decided to "use" her love for Dora the Explorer and turn it into a learning experience. With couple Dora stickers, I've created for her memory cards, reusable counting cards and write and wipe off book from old photo album. All of this fits nicely in her Dora backpack. Complete set looks like this:

You can read more about what's inside that backpack in Dora the Explorer Backpack: a parent's review article.

This Sunday, we'll host 

a new giveaway.... 

this time prize will be 

for all little Dora fans:

You can check details on Amazon.com

And make sure to stop by Sunday and enter our giveaway! :)

Before you click away from here ;) I would love to know which is your toddler's favorite cartoon character and do you manage to turn their love for that specific cartoon into learning and playing time?

Best Toys for Toddlers - Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Board set

We're all fond of wooden toys - they last longer than plastic toys, they are more nature friendly and they often become little family treasures passed from generation to generation. And if they can be used as learning aids for kids of different age, what more parent can ask for? :)

Today we would like to introduce you to Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards - toy a child can use in different ways from 2 year olds to school aged kids (more about play ideas for different age later in this article... keep reading!). This toy is great as an educational toy - helps develop motor skills, math and can even be used for sensory play. 

Basics about Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

- as mentioned before, this set is created from wood. It has bright, clean colors and it's painted well (doesn't smell when you open it!)

- set has 5 wooden boards with images printed on both sides, like pictured - it includes animals, flower and transportation vehicles so it's fit for all the tastes and preferences (both boys and girls)

- set also comes with 120 pattern blocks - 20 pieces of each: yellow hexagons, green triangles, red trapezoids, orange squares and white small trapezoids (shown on the picture).

- storage box in which pattern blocks and boards come in is also created from wood with plastic lid. Plastic lid is the only thing I personally don't like about this toy. It can't be secured or attached in any way so box with boards and blocks must be stored flat on the surface.
- Caution! This set contains small parts so parental supervision is needed! 

Play ideas for Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

1. Sorting pattern blocks by shape / color (age 2+) If you have you can use compartment trays like one on the picture or any kind of box, cup, etc. Just add one for each of the colors / shapes and show your toddler how to sort them by colors.

2. Matching colors (age 2+) Simply take 6 printer paper sheets in matching colors and let your toddler place the right colored pattern block to the matching colored paper.

3. Learning about colors and shapes - sensory play (age 2+) I don't really expect from 2 year olds to know words like hexagon (not from 1st try at least!) but you can still play with tiny tots this game. Take a bag or tissue box or some other kind of the box that has hole on top. Put inside few of each shapes and put in from of the child one of each. Let them try to feel the shape and match it to the one they can see. For 2 year olds, ask them to match shapes by color (they can say yellow instead of hexagon, or green instead of triangle). For older kids, let them match by names of patterns.

4. Simple patterning (age 2+) Use pieces to form simple patterns on flat surface (AB, or ABC, or AAB) and let them continue what comes next.

5. Simple patterning using homemade tiny boards with 2-4 pieces (age 2+). We can't really ask from 2 year old toddler to put together image that comes with this set. It's way to much pieces for them and takes skills they still haven't develop. So, what you can do is draw yourself tiny boards using 2-4 pieces of blocks. I have done some for my daughter when she was younger and this is how they looked:

These 5 simple learning games can be used as an introduction to patterning. When your child is over 3 year, you can give to her / him patterning boards that come with this set and they surely will be able to complete the picture with no, or very little help from you! :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and if you have some additional ideas how to use this set with toddlers, please share it with us in comments section!!! We love to discover new ways to play with old toys! :)))

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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!

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! :)

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 with Toddlers Linky Party - Construction!

Last week we had really cool theme: book or rhyme or movie related playtime. And we had many really insteresting activities contributed! As Halloween is fast approaching, we'll share some of the activities you can do with your toddlers in next week and a half and have some fun before Halloween arrives!

Kara from Little Learners Lounge and her daugher created and played with stick puppets and made some pumpkin crafts from TP roll and tissue paper while reading Five Little Pumpkins. Those turned out just great! :)

Maureen and her daughter read The Very Busy Spider and created cutest little spider web using some popsicle sticks and yarn. They also worked on letter S.

Kristi from Miller Moments shares a story about Franklin's Halloween and putting together hounted collage! :)

Jenae and her son played story sequencing with The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. The puzzle turned out really cool! Love the idea!


As mentioned at the beginning of this post, this week's theme is Construction and building for toddlers! If you have been playing and building things, share your ideas and stories here!


And, be a good sport and check what other contributed too! :)


Just a quick reminder before we throw in linky... We have a giveaway on this blog - first ever! :) We're giving away $25 Zazzle Gift Certificate to one of our readers. If you haven't already, stop by and participate! You could end up with great shirt, cool stickers or so many other things! :


Now, back to construction!

Theme of the week - Construction and building!

Kids love building things! And toddlers... well, younger ones specially LOVE knocking things down! :) Construction and demolition are so very connected with little ones.

Construction and building things is one of the most creative ways for toddlers to learn about balance, cause and effect, fine and gross motor skills.

Here are some of the building toys appropriate for toddlers, so far reviewed by parents in our Club:

Review about Kapla, Keva, Citiblocs Planks is created by a parent / teacher who uses them both at home and in his day care center. He states that simplicity of this toy may fool you. ;)

Natural tree blocks as a nature friendly choice for toddlers and preschoolers.

Snap Building Toys - fun for both parents and toddlers!

What's your toddler's favotire building and constructon toy?

Fun with Toddlers Linky Party - Book or Rhyme for Toddlers!

This week, here, on FB and Twitter, our theme has been playing with puppets but with a little twist! We didn't start with toys - base of the playtime was a book or a nursery rhyme! And playing was just a way to expand on what we learned reading a book or listening to the rhymes!

So, this week for our linky here, we want to see your ideas! How you expanded the play and turned it into a learning moment!

Share the books you've read, rhymes you listened! And show us how you used it for learning!

Be a good sport and check what other contributed too! :)

Theme of the week - Puppet play for toddlers!

Oh yes! Kids of all age, including toddlers love puppets! Either hand pupets, finger puppets, stick pupets, or any other kind. Does it really matter what a puppet is made from? Not to toddlers! And all of these puppets have great role in their development - they nurture creativity, interaction and develop language and social skills!

We'll start this week with 2 puppet themes, one of them is connected to a nursery rhyme and another with a book. All of these puppet plays and themes are shared by parents.

First we have nursery rhyme Itsy Bitsy Spider just in time for Halloween - this "review" and screen play along with printable puppets has been created by a teacher, now a homeschooling mom - Maureen from SpellOutLoud.

Second puppet play has been connected to a book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and it shows how a toddler can have so much fun learning colors and playing with puppets.

As usual, we'll have a linky this Friday where you can share your own puppets plays related to books, nursery rhymes or pure creativity and your own scripts. So, don't forget to stop by and share.

In mean time, share with us: do you like puppets? Do you play with them? What's your toddler's favorite?