ChildTrek’s Buying Tips to Parents: Pick Toys That Are Wholesome, Natural, and Educational

After the Christmas rush to buy gifts, comes the after-Christmas rush to exchange them. This is a great time to get the kids some high quality educational toys.

Baufix Crane Construction Kit. Photo courtesy of ChildTrek.

I’ve found that ChildTrek is one of the best places to look for a wide selection of eco-friendly, educational toys and parenting advice on child development.

The ChildTrek has just won second place in the King 5 Best of Western Washington 2011 contest for Best Children’s Gift. The event is sponsored by King5 News in Seattle.

The retail company makes sure that all of the toys and items it sells meet several safety standards, including:

• Documentation of high safety and quality controls from product designs, material acquisitions, product development, and delivery.
• Compliance with the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act laws (CPSI) and the European Standards (EN 17).
• Excellent product safety history.

When deciding which toys to carry, ChildTrek also evaluates them against its “wholesome, natural, and educational vision.”

miYim Organics – Tigger. Photo from ChildTrek.

ChildTrek considers wholesome toys to be toys that facilitate the development of social skills, such as sharing, taking turns, and negotiating problems.

As for the naturalness of its toys, the company says, “The vast majority of the toys you’ll find at ChildTrek are made of natural, biodegradable, recyclable, and/or recycled materials. They are made of sustainable wood and/or natural fabrics such as wool and cotton. A few are made of cotton and polyester blends and very little new plastic is used.

“Most of the toys are finished with vegetable or other natural dyes, polished with beeswax, and painted with non-toxic paints, or retain their natural, unfinished beauty.”

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Learning Through Play - Skill Building Toys Preparing Kids For Pre-K

Giving children a head start in learning is one of the most important things that parents can do for them. This gives them the ability to enter school with more self-confidence and accelerate faster with a lot of the basics already in place.

Alphabet A-Z. Photo courtesy of PlanToys.

During preschool children will be expected to master a number of areas, according to prekinders.com, including literacy, which will involve learning the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; building listening skills; learning new vocabulary; sequencing items and events; and developing motor skills.

In math, some of the core skills that children will need to master, include: learning the numbers from one to 10; counting objects up to 10; sorting by shapes, colors, and sizes; being able to compare sizes; and noticing patterns.

Learning can be easy and fun for children if it’s done as part of play. The hardest part for parents and educators may be finding toys that meet children’s educational needs, which are also fun and safe for both them and the environment.

There are lots of benefits to buying toys that meet national and international eco-friendly requirements. To meet children’s health and safety needs, standards include using chemical-free woods, non-toxic paints, and safety-conscious ergonomic shapes.

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Uncle Goose Takes A Curious Approach Teaching Presidential History

We tend to remember things in life that are out of the ordinary, and this is definitely the approach that Lindenwood Inc. takes in creating its Uncle Goose Toys. The company’s latest move toward original play and teaching is the creation of a full set of United States presidential blocks.

Image courtesy of Lindenwood Inc.

“It’s an interesting thing to have presidents on a set of blocks and we are always trying to come up with unique ideas. Some people really key into our political history, even myself going through the process and getting into things that I had never really learned about the presidents,” said Pete Bultman, the company’s owner.

“Usually these guys are up on pictures in a classroom, and I remember when I was a kid looking up and thinking who are these guys. When young minds are active and engaged, it’s amazing what they pick up on and the potential in using presidential blocks. They might spark an interest that a kid might pursue down the line,” added Mr. Bultman.

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Hugg-A-Planet: The Newest Addition to the International Space Station

In many cultures around the world, a hug is a sign of affection. This was the sentiment behind the name Hugg-A-Planet for the soft globes produced by the company with the same name, whose spheres are now orbiting the Earth.

On this year’s anniversary of the brutal destruction of the Twin Towers, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a resupply rocket to the International Space Station, which included among its contents a Hugg-A-Planet Earth, Moon, and Mars.

“I was actually in New York City for a vigil for peace that was run by the United Nations in Central Park during the same weekend that the Hugg-A-Planets docked at the space station,” said Robert Forenza, the company’s president.

“We were selected by NASA because our Hugg-A-Planets would survive the flight and because they have so much detail. Mars has 400 places labeled on it, which makes it the most detailed Mars commercially available,” continued Mr. Forenza, also adding that, “All of the planets will be there for the duration of the space station’s life until 2016, but I imagine they will extend it to 2020.”

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Mom’s Inspiration Launches Imagination Building Blocks

Photo courtesy of CitiBlocs.

Sometimes the greatest inspirations comes just by watching kids play. This was Marjorie Chayette’s flash of insight a little while back, when watching one of her young sons playing with blocks at a birthday one day.

“They were playing with the blocks at a birthday party and I was fascinated to see what they did with them. They did a lot of group things with the blocks, and I liked how they used their imaginations,” said Ms. Chayette, who used this inspiration to go on to create CitiBlocs, a company producing sets of uniform length natural wooden construction plank blocks, with measurements of 4.5 x .75 x .25 inches.

Ms. Chayette, the owner and principal of CitiBlocs, said, “What I really like about the size is that it just really grows with the kids and they can make more versatile, complicated, and taller structures as they get older. It’s not like a square unit block that they can outgrow.”

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