Theme of the week - Favorite Cartoons!

This week we'll share here, on Facebook and Twitter about our toddler's favorite cartoons - and related toys, games, activities, crafts, books, etc!

So, stop by this Friday for another themed linky and shared with us story about your child's favorite cartoons!

My girl's favorite is Dora the Explorer. We have Dora's backpack she's always carrying around with her:

As a result of my girl's never ending adoration ;) I have created a number of activities to place into that little backpack! Now we have workbox aka workbag - all about Dora! See for yourself:

You can see what exactly is inside if you visit: Dora the Explorer Backpack, a parent's review.

Now, what's your toddler's favoorite cartoon? Share with us how you play!

Theme of the week - Thanksgiving

This week we'll be all about Thanksgiving! Talking about crafts, toys, traditions and family activities with our toddlers before and during Thanksgiving!

Great place to learn about Thanksgiving traditions and origin is History.com (also has video clips available).

You can find great collextion of songs and nursery rhymes for Thanksgiving over at Apples4Teachers.com.

And here are some of great crafts and activities you can do with your toddlers over Thanksgiving - all from recycled materials:

Toilet roll turkey

Pilgrim and Indian Windowsill Egghead Planters

Paper cup pilgrim boy

More ideas for green crafts for Thanksgiving - Creative Thanksgiving Resources

This Friday we want to see all your Thanksgiving ideas so, keep busy and creative - see you on Friday!

Theme of the week - Messy Play

With Autumn outside, more and more time toddlers spend inside playing and feeling bored too! ;) And, although we as parents would love to keep our homes clean and perfect, sometimes we must allow them to get a bit dirty!

Messy gams are great for kids - for their imagination, for experiencing new medias, for sensory development!

Here are couple ideas for messy play:

Shaving Cream is really vertisile and fun media for kids - you can use it for arts, letter recognition games and so much more!

Mud pies - yes, you can make them inside too! Just clean up your bathroom afterwards! ;)

If your toddlers enjoy in any kind of messy play - with toys, art supplies, craft supplies or any other kind, make sure to come back this Friday and show us what you did and how! Just make sure to enter our weekly Fun with toddlers linky party!

Now, go and make some mess!

Theme of the week - Letter recognition!

This week's theme is quite different than the last we had here. After building and construction which is meant more for phisical development, although it does help with reasoning and understanding how things work, this week we'll talk more about mental development of toddlers - learning and recognizing letters in fun and entertaining ways.

Our parents and grandparents have already shared their experinces with some of the educational toys appropriate for toddlers age 2-4 and you can read them here:

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Chalk Dry Erase Board - one of the classic toys but always on the top of the list when looking for good and quality toy.

Miracle of Mozart ABCs DVD - watching DVD, having fun and not even understanding that you're learning letters! :)

Super Why Touch and Learn Super Duper Computer - toddlers love computers! And this one is just right for them!

LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Game - another batery operated toy toddlers can use both for learning and games.

Vtech Write & Learn Letter Pad - interactive toy you can use to teach your toddlers drawing lines and curves, write letters and creating simple drawings.

This Friday we'll have letter recognition linky here and you're invited to stop by and add what ever you've been up to on this field of toddler's development.

Don't forget to participate in our last week's linky if you've been playing construction, building and demolition of any kind! ;)

And, we have couple days left - til October 31st in our first giveaway! Enter if you would like to get $25 gift certificate you can spend on what ever you like on Zazzle.com!

Linking to We play at Childhood 101.

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?

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?

Theme of the week - Puzzles for Toddlers!

New week, new theme! This week theme we'll talk about on this blog, our Facebook page and share about on Twitter is: Puzzles for toddlers!

We all know puzzles are good for little ones! What even better, toddlers love putting pieces of puzzles back into their spots! Puzzles help toddlers develop hand - eye coordination as they try to find the right spot and place those pieces just where they should go, they can help toddlers learn names of the things painted on puzzle pieces, they are excellent for quiet playtime because they don't run on batteries and so much more!

I have created recently a review of my girl's favorite wooden puzzle: Bear Dress Up Puzzle and it would be just great if you could make a review of your toddler's favorite!

If you need any help creating a review, let me know! I'll be more than happy to give you a hand!

Now, sharing time! Does your toddler play with puzzles? What kind? Why they like it?

Theme of the week - Cooking for Toddlers!

As you have probably noticed, in most parts of the world it's raining (or is about to rain)! Well, summer is at the end and we're more likely going to spend much more time inside than last couple months.

For this reason, next several months on the Best Toys for Toddlers will be all about toys for inside play. And we are starting with this week's theme: Cooking for Toddlers!

Meaning, all the blog posts, activities on Facebook, Twitter or on our Club's main page will be about cooking! We are talking about pretend play: restaurants, cooking food for mom and dad, crafts that create food or are food or kitchen related, activities and games of all sorts!

If you have a toy you would like to review, one that your toddlers loves to play with, head over to our Club's headquaters and create a page, a review of that toy. I've created a review of my toddler's favorite food toy to show you how it can look: Melissa & Doug's Cutting Food Box and you're all welcome to use Squidoo to show off your own favorite toys and share your experiences with other parents.

Just a quick note at the end: It's just the right time of the year to make a review, you know? Christmas is at the doors and many people are looking for just the right toys to place under the Christmas tree! :)