Bookmarks (17) clear filters

Kirby Fighters 2 came out recently (see: 3+ months ago), and while it’s not my thing at all, it did remind me that there hasn’t been a memorable, mainline Kirby game since 2016's Planet Robobot for the Nintendo 3DS. And that got me thinking about how much Kirby shit I bought in 2020 despite not enjoying a single entry…Read more...

There’s a lot of ugliness in the world right now, particularly for those of us in the United States who are approaching the most dreaded election in recent memory. (I already voted, though, so someone please wake me when it’s all over.) You don’t need me to remind you of the hatred and ignorance that abounds right…Read more...

When you see a vacuum cleaner, you see a chore: one more thing you have to do that it feels like you just did and yet will have to do again in mere days. When a young child sees a vacuum cleaner, however, they see nothing but possibility: the noise, the effort required to push and pull an awkwardly shaped machine, the…Read more...

It’s so important for our children to see themselves represented in the world around them, from those within their own community and characters portrayed on film, to the very toys they play with. But for kids who have hearing aids, cochlear implants, a cleft lip, a tracheostomy, feeding tubes, or surgery scars, it can…Read more...

Every parent of a child with a dearly beloved “lovey” lives in fear. Lovies—a favorite blanket, stuffed animal or other soft toy—tend to go everywhere their toddling owner goes. Which means they have a way of getting lost in the most inconvenient of places, such as the gas station you stopped at during your road trip,…Read more...

In case you’ve abandoned the news to recover some of your sanity, let me inform you of something important: COVID-19 is back on the rise. If you’re extending your quarantine (and please, just do it), you might want to start thinking about ways to keep your kids entertained, busy, and moving throughout the summer,…Read more...

Along with the companies that make hand sanitizer and toilet paper, puzzle manufacturers and sellers have been doing a brisk business lately. With everyone confined to their homes for the past few months, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had more time for slower-paced activities. If your family has hopped on the…Read more...

Most parents know that although kids like playing with toys, they love playing with non-toys. The actual TV remote rather than the bright plastic version you bought them. A wooden spoon and a soup pot, rather than the toy drum you thought they’d go nuts over. To this list, let us add: a colander, plus some pipe…Read more...

A few years ago my friend group discovered the dice game Quixx. If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. Essentially, you roll a collection of differently-colored dice and then try to mark off numbers on a score sheet based on the totals.Read more...

You decided not to go overboard on gifts with your toddler this year. You asked (begged? demanded!) that your family members follow suit. They are still so young, you reasoned. They don’t even really *get* the whole Santa thing, you figured. They’re perfectly happy playing with a soup pot and a wooden spoon, you…Read more...

A Rubik’s Cube or “magic cube” can be configured over 43 quintillion ways, and every configuration can technically be solved in 20 moves or less. In practice, the most expert human cube solvers usually need more than 40 moves. But these mobile apps can solve it faster—or they can teach you how to solve like an expert.…Read more...

Sensory activities are a great way for young kids to explore and learn, and I’m a big fan of looking for ways to create these activities with items you already have around the home. But sometimes, you need to switch things up or stock up on a few new items to stash away for a boring day. And that’s when your local…Read more...

It’s pretty inevitable that the toy you hate the most will also be your toddler’s favorite toy. All the reasons why you hate it—it’s plastic and plays some kind of music repetitively and only at volume level OW—are also the reasons why they love it. You can’t take it away because they love it too much, but you can use…Read more...

There are many reasons to go on a rampage, ridding your home of all the plastic toy nonsense. You’re tired of stepping on hard, pointy things. You know your kids only actually play with 20% of the toys they own. You have finally run out of every inch of space.Read more...

When my son was a toddler, he had a train toy that used to chug at all hours of the day and night. There was no off switch and the damn thing was possessed, so we had to bury it in the basement in order to sleep at night. When it woke me up in the middle of the night (in my bed on...

You can buy just about anything on Amazon. But just because you can get a product quickly via the ecommerce retailer doesn’t mean the product is guaranteed to be safe.Read more...

One of the hallmarks of the Montessori method is an emphasis on independence. I’m seeing this firsthand as—I kid you not—my seven-month-old infant came home from his first week of Montessori having learned how to hold his own bottle with two hands like a Stanley Cup champion. Simone Davies, a Montessori teacher and…Read more...