Whether you are a first-time parent or “old hat”, like me, choosing great baby toys can be pretty hard. After all, your baby can’t yet express his preference for certain types of toys, colors, or characters. Plus, what makes him happy at two in the afternoon may invoke a screaming fit at four o’clock! So what is the key to a great selection of toys for your baby?

The answer is VARIETY!

Babies interact with the world using all five senses, not just their eyes. This is even more true for young infants than it is for older children and adults. Young babies cannot fully focus their eyes yet, and infants have trouble distinguishing some colors from others. (This is why first toys are often red, black, and white - the first colors a baby can see.) However, they are learning to explore their surroundings by much more than sight. A great baby toy can stimulate his sense of touch by using different textures, or it can help him learn sounds by offering music or sounds like crinkling paper or a bell. These are the easiest senses to work with in a baby - smell and taste come later, because you can’t ask a baby to smell a scratch-and-sniff book, and toys shouldn’t go in his mouth anyway!

The most important aspect of any baby toy is the chance it gives you and your baby to communicate with each other. After all, your baby wants your attention and love more than any toy on the planet, so choose toys that give you and your baby a lot of together time. Some examples are books and puppets for younger babies, and balls and shape sorters for older babies.

To see all of our great baby toys, go to our early learning category. We wish you and your baby continued happiness and fun-filled play time!

With the weather warming up and school about to come to a close, we’ve been looking at ideas on how to keep our family active and fit this summer. After reading 5 Practical Tips to Encourage Your Children to Get Into Fitness, I decided to get my ideas down in black-and-white, so I can refer back to these ideas when my memory and creativity take a vacation day. Hopefully you can use these ideas with your own children this summer as well.

1. The Swimming Pool - If you have frequent access to a swimming pool this summer, you have an easy way to entertain the kids and stay in shape at the same time. Practicing strokes and doing laps are great exercise, but even just a fun afternoon splashing around in the water gives you and your children opportunities to use muscles in different ways that you use them on land. Water games like Marco Polo and water volleyball also offer different ways to play at the pool. No pool? Try a sprinkler in the yard or a Slip N Slide, which gets kids outside but keeps them cool and refreshed. No matter what, don’t forget the sunscreen. And we have a great selection of Water and Sand Toys for play in the yard, at the pool, or at the beach.
2. Jumping Rope - A jump rope represents a great chance to improve both your cardiovascular health in your coordination skills. There are lots of different ways to jump rope, from one person with a single rope, to two people using the same (longer) rope, or three people where two turn the rope and a third jumps in the middle. Use two ropes for double-dutch jumping! Also, combining the basic jump with fancier skills such as hopping on one leg, handstands, and more will build additional skills and confidence. JumpRope.com offers great videos, teaching materials, and ropes. Plus we have our own adorable Carrot Jump Rope and, for a different twist, a Solo Chinese Jump Rope with stakes so it can be used by a single person.
3. Family Walks - Taking a walk with our family is one of my favorite ways to unwind after a long day. It’s a great alternative that gets the kids outside instead of watching a cartoon for 30 minutes. Our walk may be as simple as one-time-around-the-block, or on days when we have more time, we walk to one of the neighborhood parks and let the kids play on the playground before we walk home. Walking is easy on your joints, usually allows for easy conversation, and it a great way to get some fresh air, observe wildlife, and greet your neighbors.
4. Gardening - While caring for plants may not be as aerobically effective as the previous ideas, I love the way it combines nurturing, science, and activity. Plus, indoor container gardening is impervious to rainy days. Children learn the responsibility of caring for a living thing, and gardening offers opportunities to talk about plant parts, pollination, insects, and more. Consider planting a vegetable garden, which has the added benefit of providing healthy food that kids may be more interested in eating, since it represents the “fruits” of their own labor!
5. Family Yoga - Ever since we invested in a Wii Fit gaming system, the yoga exercises have been one of our kids’ favorite activities. We take turns using the balance board, but everyone can participate at the same time. It’s perfect for stretching tired muscles and calming down frazzled nerves (mine and the kids’!) So many of our activities involve shortening our muscles, so good stretching activities like yoga and Pilates help balance that by working to lengthen muscles. The focus on breathing is also great, particular in its calming effect.

I hope that these ideas will give you some inspiration to stay active over the summer break. If you have other good ideas, please share them in the comments!

1. Various Toys Recalled by CBB Group Due to Choking Hazard and Violation of Lead Paint Standard
2. Salsa Bicycles Recalls Bicycles; Handlebar Stems Can Break Causing Rider to Fall

Disney Store Recalls Toy Tool Sets Due to Choking Hazard

I always found it interesting that Dental Health Month coincided with one of the sugary-est events of the year - Valentine’s Day.  As we approach the Day O’ Love at the end of this week, we should also use this time to teach and reinforce good dental health habits with our children.

• Start with the source - give your pantry and your refrigerator a makeover!  Have your child(ren) help you move healthier food choices to the front (and lower for smaller, searching eyes) of the pantry and fridge.  Make healthy choices, such as cheese, fruits, vegetables and whole grain snacks, readily available for little hands.
• Switch away from sodas - work on making mouth-healthy drink choices, such as milk and water instead of fruit juices and sodas.  Making the same choices yourself sets a strong example for your children, too.
• Make a dental appointment.  If your child hasn’t been to a dentist, definitely make an appointment to do so.  Don’t know who to see?  Ask around!  Ask friends, neighbors with children and even that mom you see across the grocery store with her own kids for recommendations of pediatric dentists.  Our dentist is great with kids and supplies us with floss, brushes, toothpaste and even a toy when we’re done.
• Brushing twice a day - make a chart for brushing teeth twice a day if this is difficult to remember.  Always brush teeth in the morning and before bed.  With smaller children, have them “help” with teeth-brushing, but closely supervise and step in to make sure all of their teeth are getting well-brushed.  While small children still have “baby teeth”, problems like cavities can be devastating to the adult teeth below the surface as well.
• Floss - teaching my own boys about flossing was much easier than I realized.  I invested in a hand mirror and had them lie down on the couch while I sat next to their head.  My boys would hold the mirror so they could see what I was doing while I quickly ran floss around their teeth (baby teeth tend to be spaced out quite a bit, but flossing at an early age builds good dental hygiene further down the road).
• For older kids, consider a model for them to explore and study, such as the Bio Signs Human Anatomy Models: Teeth and Gums.  Reasonably priced, they provide a detailed model of teeth and gums as well as a discussion guide.

Here are the latest recalls in children’s products:

1. The Land of Nod Recalls Children’s Canopies Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazards  

2. Lip Gloss Keychains Recalled By Markwins Beauty Products Due to Risk of Lead Exposure

3. High School Musical Manicure Kits Recalled by Fantas-Eyes Due to Risk of Lead Exposure

1. The Land of Nod Recalls Children’s Canopies Due to Entrapment and Strangulation Hazards (

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09108.html)

(aka: beating my son at the picky-eating-game)

I have a nine year old who lives on meat, yogurt, and rolls.  Oh, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  That’s pretty much it.  You can add macaroni and cheese from time to time, count on green beans about once a week, and you might be able to bribe him to try some carrot sticks as well.  Of course, he LOVES anything with sugar or loaded with carbs.

He’s nine, though, and he knows that I am not exactly thrilled with his eating habits.  He needs more vegetables.  He needs fruits.  He does NOT need any more bread!  Here are a few ideas that we’re trying to get him to be a better eater:

• We try to put something “new” or “like new” on his plate at every meal.  He doesn’t have to like it, but he does have to try it.  And, not some microscopic bite either.  After his bite, we let him rate the food with a thumbs-up, thumbs-down sign.  He gets to vote, and we get him to try something different.
• At nine, we can explain the importance of healthy foods to our son and the need to go easy on sugary snacks while choosing healthier foods more often.  It is harder with younger children.  One thing that worked with my class of pre-k kids was to give them grocery ads and magazines.  They cut out foods that they found and we placed them on a chart of healthy and not healthy choices.  Posting something like this in the dining room or kitchen is a great reminder of what our bodies need.  Then, discuss where the foods that you are eating belong on the chart.
• Sometimes, my son is more apt to eat something if he helps prepare it.  He’s a whiz at fruit smoothies in the blender and “ants on a log” (celery with peanut butter and raisins arranged on top).
• My son knows that trying a food just once isn’t good enough.  When he was little, we told him that he had to “grow” those taste buds in order to enjoy a food.  So, our rule at our house is “ten”.  New foods must be tried ten times before a decision is made.  Surprisingly, trying broccoli (with lots and lots of cheese) went from “yuck!” to “not so bad” over those ten tries!

What are some of your ideas for getting kids to try new foods?  Share them in the comments!