Toy Review Tuesday: Super Sorting Pie by Learning Resources

The kids love the Super Sorting Pie. It's been a versatile toy since Christmas (2011) and great for learning colors, sorting, counting, fine motor practice with tongs, and even pretend play.

Three 2-sided cardboard inserts come with the pie and provides a good visual for the kids to remember how I am asking them to sort the fruits. The inserts are easily interchangeable by simply lifting the sectioned-off part of the pie.

Elizabeth enjoys sorting by color and by type of fruit.



I've even used it for simple addition and subtraction practice with Matthew.



When not sorting or counting, the kids play with it many days in the week pretending to bake a fruit pie in their play kitchen. Today, they were so cute playing together. Matthew was telling Elizabeth what fruit he needed and how many and Elizabeth listened, understood him (she usually always does despite his struggle with articulating some words), and played along. I would've taken a longer video but stopped right after Elizabeth announced, "I'm pooping." Thankfully, she still wears diapers.



As of today, it's selling on amazon.com for less than $20. It's also available on the Learning Resources website but it costs more.

Waitress Mommy

Grover is one of my favorite characters on Sesame Street. (I actually like him more than Elmo.)

If you grew up watching Sesame Street, you may remember Grover, the cute and loveable furry waiter, which was one of his many roles. The app called "Grover's Number Special", now on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, brings him to life in this interactive game. Matthew is still learning to play this game. Tilt the device one way or the other to move the tray and catch and count the ingredients for the special of the day.

One evening, Elizabeth and Matthew were seated at their little table pretending to eat play food. I decided to bring "Grover's Number Special" to life and surprise my unsuspecting customers. I offered to bring food to their table and clumsily set the food down so it would land on the floor. Elizabeth was shocked at the mess I was making and Matthew thought it was funny.

Here's a short video of the app and my attempt at waitressing.

Toy Review Tuesday: Birthday Cake (Melissa & Doug)

Birthdays are a fun time for kids. Birthdays can also be a difficult concept especially for kids who may think it's their birthday at every party or kids who may be overwhelmed with all the activity and excitement and people.

The time-honored birthday cake ritual of singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles was a perplexing for Matthew when he was younger. He wasn't quite sure what to do about the candles until he was 3. And people singing the happy birthday song around him brought forth his lower lip with a downward curve. (Maybe he just thought everyone was off-key and that was upsetting to him??)

With many birthdays to celebrate in our family (with nearby relatives), playing with the Melissa & Doug Birthday Cake has completely helped him warm up to the birthday ritual. Both kids even like to turn the lights off after the candles are put on the cake. Then we sing the birthday song. The lights come back on for cake cutting and eating.



We like this birthday cake set because it is fun and durable. It also nice for counting, sorting, learning to follow directions, and imaginative play. I can see it used for simple sequencing also but we haven't tried it yet.

Integrating some more fine motor work into our birthday cake play, Matthew picks up candles and pieces with tongs.

Toy Review Tuesday: Corrugated Castle

This carboard coloring castle was a hit at Matthew's birthday party. Kids from 17 months through 13 years enjoyed playing in the castle.

What's not to love? It's a fun place for a game of Peek-a-boo. Kids don't get in trouble for writing or coloring on the walls with markers. It's a great set-up for pretend play.

It came in 8 pieces with instructions. One of Matthew's uncles put it together at the party.

After the party, it was taken apart for us to take home and I set it up at home for more coloring and hiding fun.

At this time, the corrugated castle costs $34.99 on amazon.com. It was totally worth it for the party.

Another option is to make one at home with large, sturdy shipping boxes. I had made one before deciding to get the castle. I cut out a door on opposite sides and a little peep hole on another side. The peep hole is Elizabeth's favorite. Matthew and Elizabeth (and our cat) have a blast crawling through it, hiding in it, with it at home but would be too boring and unlikely to hold up well at a party with 13 kids.

We also bought the corrugated house but didn't have enough time to set it up at the party. We'll save it for a future birthday.

Toy Review Tuesday: Beans, Beans, Beans

Dried beans are proving to be quite a versatile toy at our house, especially since Elizabeth doesn't mouth toys anymore. In addition to putting them in a plastic container for a Homemade Tactile Sensory box (from an earlier toy review) to practice scooping and pouring and to provide sensory input, we are re-discovering the many fun and educational ways to play with beans.

Beans can be used for counting. One-to-one correspondence counting and other early number concepts like "more" or "less" or "few" or "many".

Beans can be used to make sock bean bags, which is something I learned recently from Elizabeth's visit with our local Parents as Teachers group. Elizabeth enjoys fine motor activities. Usually, whatever Elizabeth is doing, Matthew wants to try too (and vice versa). This activity hits many areas: fine motor control and coordination, pincer grasp, sharing and cooperation between siblings, and attention span.

The only materials needed are dried beans and socks. We used Daddy's socks. (He won't realize they're missing anyway - not until he reads this).

After filling the socks, make a knot so the beans don't fall out.

Then fold over to form a bean back sock ball.

Bean bag socks are great for:
- tossing overhand or underhand into laundry baskets (for a wider target) or small containers (for a smaller, more challenging target).
- a quick game of catch.
- balancing on various parts of the body like the head, arm, knee, and so on.

Our bean bag making activity then turned into a pretend cooking game. Matthew was handing Elizabeth pots and pans and plates as she filled them with beans and stirred with the spoon.

We also made egg shakers filling plastic eggs from last Easter with beans and sealing with glue.

Other good fillers for the egg shaker are uncooked rice and small uncooked pasta.

Related post:
Toy Review Tuesday: Homemade Tactile Sensory Box

Toy Review Tuesday: Play-Doh Cookie Monster's Letter Lunch

Play-doh + letters + pretend cooking + feeding Cookie Monster = FUN!

Matthew favorite thing to do is to feed Cookie Monster play-doh letters and the letter mold itself. It's the ideal play-doh set for Matthew, especially since he loves letters. He recognizes all of them and enjoys singing the alphabet song.

The placemat has letter and food outlines for a matching activity. I laminated the paper placemat (not pictured here) to preserve it. Now I don't have to worry about it getting wet or Elizabeth accidentally ripping it.

It definitely requires more refined fine motor skills than Matthew's current level of fine motor development. He can hold very small objects between his fingers with a perfect pincer grasp but cutting play-doh out of plastic molds calls for a higher level of precision. It makes for good practice for Matthew and I enjoy making the pretend food and alphabet soup for him.

I enjoyed it so much that I was still playing with the set even when Matthew and Elizabeth had already moved on to other toys. I love play-doh!

Toy Review Tuesday: Animal Sounds Farm (Little People)

Moo! Neigh! Baa!

The Fisher-Price Little People Animal Sounds farm is recommended for kids 12 months to 5 years. It was a gift when he was a baby and it only piqued his interest when he was 2 years old. Elizabeth likes to play next to him, mouthing the animals. Recently, she's been trying to say "moo" and "neigh".

Modeling play has been the key to teach Matthew constructive pretend play. Some of the animals like to run around the farm and even hop on the roof. They are well-fed with plastic bread or whatever is available from our play food set.



It's been a good tool for practicing certain speech sounds. Matthew sometimes still says "boo" instead of "moo" or "deigh" instead of "neigh". So the horse and cow get moved around a lot.

This barn has become so popular at our house that animals from other playsets have found their way to it. The original animals include a sheep, pig, cow, horse, and goat. Now it houses a rubber duck, cat, more horses, and another cow. We need a (Little People) dog!

Toy Review Tuesday: Little People Sweet Sounds Home (Fisher Price)

It's a lot of fun for little people to play with Little People.

This was another great find at a consignment store! I paid $9 for the Fisher Price Little People Sweet Sounds Home, which originally sold for at least $35, and is now overpriced (my personal opinion) on amazon.com ($135) because it seems this particular model has been discontinued. Other Little People houses are available brand new for just under $40.



Each room in the house has an appliance or piece of furniture that makes a sound. Both of my kids like buttons that make sounds so this greatly appeals to them.

Despite its pink roof, I don't think this house is too girly for my little guy especially since I've been using it to help with language like reinforcing the meaning of a few basic prepositions.

Matthew and I enjoy making the Little People walk on the roof, answer the phone, or do laundry. We put them on the potty, in the bath, and in the bed. We say "hi" when someone enters the house and "bye" when they walk out the door. Sometimes Little People send emails while at the computer. I notice that he plays more with the house independently and appropriately after I have modeled certain scenarios for him. And being the little boy that he is, he also finds pleasure in simply throwing the Little People over the roof to see how far they go.

Elizabeth mouths the chairs and the Little People right now. Soon enough, she will be pretending right along with us.

Toy Review Tuesday: Mailbox (Little Tikes)

Matthew's interest in checking our mailbox for mail daily was my cue to find him a mailbox toy. I scored a used Little Tikes Mailbox at our local consignment store for $9.99. This simple mailbox only produced one sound - a bee buzzing around it unlike the Fisher Price mailbox which has a song mode, learning mode and play mode with various mailbox sound effects.

The used Little Tikes mailbox came with only 1 plastic piece of mail instead of 3 but the missing pieces did not take away from this toy's play value. I improvised. Using small envelopes, I labeled them "Daddy", "Mommy", "Elizabeth", "Matthew", and "cat". Since Matthew can sight read, he hand delivers each piece of mail to the intended recipients without any help. It's very cute and puts a smile on my face whenever he does this. He looks so proud of himself too whenever he delivers the mail. It's hilarious to watch him try to give Yuri, our cat, his mail. Matthew follows Yuri around until Yuri finally settles down somewhere. Then Matthew will lay the "cat" mail in front of Yuri.

For several minutes of entertainment and Matthew's enjoyment in pretending to be a mailman, we like having this mailbox. It's great for pretend play. And to me, any toy that encourages pretend play encourages language development as well.

Toy Review Tuesday: Shopping Cart (Little Tikes)

The shopping cart is one of those "grow with you" toys. We have the Little Tikes Shopping Cart.



In Matthew's experience, it was not a good pull-up-to-stand toy because:
1) the handle was too high for Matthew to reach and get a good firm grasp when he was sitting on the floor.
2) it rolls very easily and didn't stay put when Matthew tried using it to pull up. He tried when it was on the linoleum though. Maybe it would've been better if it were on thick carpet.
3) it tipped over (forward) when Matthew pulled up on the front part of the cart.



As a push toy, it worked very well when Matthew could steer and didn't rely on it to hold his weight too much. He started pushing it around successfully when he was almost walking independently. He was 21 months in the above photo and had started taking independent steps at that age.

We tried giving Yuri a ride in it but he didn't like that at all.



I've even toyed with the idea of taking this shopping cart with us on one- or two-item grocery runs and use it for a real-life (as opposed to pretend play only) learning experience that he can associate with his shopping cart. But I decided it was too much work for me. I know he gets the idea of grocery shopping though. While he sits in the cart, he enjoys putting (unbreakable) items into the shopping cart for me. There are several grocery stores that have kid-size shopping carts although none in our area.

As Matthew's language improves and his interest in more elaborate pretend play increases (and when Elizabeth is older, she may force him to play pretend grocery store with her), he'll be "shopping" around the house for items. So if the TV remote or car key goes missing, it'll probably be in the cart, right?

Toy Review Tuesday: Doctor Kit

"Bup bup bup bup bup bup," says Matthew as he puts the stethoscope on Elizabeth. He also likes to listen to my heart and his teddy bear's heart. This photo was taken when Matthew was 34 months old.



The doctor play kit serves two main purposes:
1. To encourage language through fun pretend play.
2. To encourage better cooperation from him at doctor visits.

He's usually trying to grab the stethoscope or fighting us when the doctor wants to look in his mouth or ears.

I have to admit, getting him to cooperate still largely depends on how he's feeling that day. He refused to sit still for anything and cried about everything when I took him to his pediatrician to check on his sore, swollen throat and tonsils. This was before his tonsils were removed.

On better days though, he has become more cooperative. So far, he doesn't try to grab the stethoscope. He sits still and says "bup bup bup bup bup" while the doctor listens to his heart and lungs. Looking into his ears and mouth has been less of a struggle so far too.

But maybe the doctor kit has nothing to do with him cooperating more. Maybe it's just because he understands more and it's easier to talk him through things like asking him to count to 10 while the doctor looks in his ears. Either way, the doctor kit is a fun addition to his toy bin.

Make Your Own Doctor Kit
Another idea is to create your own doctor kit as described in detail in this article "Pretend and Learn Doctor's Office". I like the idea of getting a real but cheap stethoscope so I am currently searching for one. I wonder what Matthew will think about being able to actually listen to his sister's heart. But he might be disappointed when trying to listen to his teddy bear's heart.

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